Review of Majikoi: Oh! Samurai Girls
Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai, more known by its acronim, "Majikoi", is an anime that, very similar to many other series of this media was made to promote a visual novel game going by the same name. As you might know, visual novel animes don't have exactly the best reputation on this community. Because at the end of the day what are they if not glorified commercials for the product they are trying to advertise? Many viewers would say, and they aren't exactly wrong: many visual novel animes are designed to do else apart from luring easily captivated players into the game thay descend fromvia exposure to the romance candidates of said aforementioned while neglecting the plot, side characters and overall quality of the series in the process. Hence, the bad reputation they have adquired over the years.
Luckily for you, I (and everyone interested in it, for that matter), Majikoi is not that type of anime.
Sure, it might have come originally from a visual novel, and taken some pretty questionable desicions when it come to adapt its source material into the animated format. None the less, for example, taking-up the story from a pretty advanced point in franchise instead of its beginnings, like one would assume they would do, not explaini properly many lore elements through the trama (mainly due to time constraints, I assume) and many other weird choices that no doubt will left many new watchers without any previous knowledge on the VN it came from confused and feeling lost, like they are missing some very importaint (altough non-existent) plot element they skipped somewhere along the way. However, I am convinced Majikoi manages to redeem itself through many the positive characteristics this show has that will left even the most lost new viewer satisfied by its conclusion. Dropping it by this state is, in my opinion, a huge mistake.
Majikoi has us following the adventures (or misadventures, at times) of Yamato Naoe, masterfull tactician of the Kazama Family and his personal harem: a diverse group of girls who have decided to follow him for one reason or another and who secretly share feelings for him all together. Each one of them embodies one of the seven virtues of Bushido, have their own style and weapon of choice when it comes to fighting, and perhabs more importantly for this review, their own personality who more often than not is a completely opposite to that of their similars. This, as one would expect leads to pretty funny and hilarious situations as they crash over Yamato or any other, more mundane thing for that manner, on practically every episode. There's always something going on in Majikoi, be it more "normal" and down-to-earth activities such as making dinner or searching for a lost dog to more strange and esoteric activities such as settling disputes with a rival class in school via a medieval-style battle with a battlefield, commanders, divisions and everything to fighting a territorist organization complicit of smugling porn magazines into the country (yes, this is real, I ain't making anything up).
Speaking of wich, let's talk for a bit about the overall trama and plot of this anime, since it's actually a quite contentious topic inside the community. You see, to say that the history of Majikoi is all over the place would be a bit of an understatement: it tries to blend
the classic aspects of an Slice-of-Life show with an Action Adventure show that also has comedic elements here and there but also gets serious in some moments. As you could rightfully asume, this, convined with the fact that the history doesn't actually start from its true beginnings and that some lore elements aren't explained in any part of the series makes Majikoi quite a dificult show to follow at times. I can personally atest to this since I found myself more than once having to rewind a moment or two throught the episodes to actually fully comprehend what was going on at the moment.
To me, this doesn't represent anything other than some minor inconvenience that can be ignored provided it doesn't happen repeditly too many times, but I know that for some users who don't have as much patience as I do for these kind of things this might represent a problem. So it's worth keeping that in mind when deciding if to actually watch Majikoi or not.
One last positive aspect I would like to point out when talking about Majikoi is the tackling of the issues of politics and the superficiality and nihilism of modern society, in other words: "the perils of modernity", as I like to call them. Many points throught the series, complex aspects such as the exploitative relation going on through Japan and the United States, the way modern societal structures has slowly eroded Japanese societal cohesion in favour in shiny but fast-paced and fundamentally empty post-modern consumerist society, the inherent nihilism and cynicism permeating everybody and everything in our day and age and the systemic corruption going on in the Japanese Government are discussed. Majikoi utilizes these elements to teach us a valuable lesson on patriotism (something that many modern animes lack, regretfully) and on why succumbing to doomerist notions of tough such as the aforementioned cynicism and nihilism are will do nothing to aliviate our pain but sink us further in our own mysery. Very well we could say Majikoi is an anime about why we should actually give a shit, not only for the people inmediatly around us, but our comunities and countries aswell at large.
One wouldn't expect a relatively small anime like this one, made to primordially sell a visual novel to touch on these serious topics that could get them in so much controversy on the strict and rigid Japanese society of today, something which would surely sink this series and the studio who made it should that actually come to happen. So props to them for that.
In conclusion: Majikoi is a pretty decent anime with some pretty hilarous and memorable characters (especially Matsukaze, who never failed to get a chucke or two out of me whenever he appeared on-screen) and a somewhat solid story who can be chaotic at times but is enjoyable not the less with some seriously impresive messaging about modern geopolitics and society one would legitimate never expect from a show such as this one.
Go watch Majikoi, the experience is worth your time, I can assure you that.