Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou - First Impressions

This has not being the best of seasons for me. Aside from the 26 episoders such as Mazinger Z, Shangri-La and Saki, none of this season's showings have really attracted my attention. That show about girls playing baseball in the 1920s was alright, and I might blog about it later, but aside from that, I've kinda been in a dirge about what to watch.

Real men walk away from explosions.

Then, someone recommended me Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, saying it was rather similar to Nanoha. Tragically, I misunderstood him in thinking that YWGH would be featuring a cast of teenage girls who thought they were GaoGaiGar, when what he actually meant was that it had lolis, and uh...magic or something.

GarGarGarGar GaoGaiGar! GarGa-huh? What do you mean it's the wrong show??

Story

...oh god, where the hell do I start?

Ok, um...apparently Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou is about...uh...some girl called Koyomi, who is shitty at magic and whose only spell is the ability to make bins appear out of thin air (I'm not joking). Anyway, Koyomi meets some woman named Misa, who is apparently a super badass mage and will presumably train Koyomi to not be completely useless. Also included are a loli who doesn't wear panties and an evil pimp in a white suit.

Koyomi's token guy friend. He is as boring as he looks.

Or that's what it's meant to be anyway. To be completely honest, I had no idea what the hell was going on in this episode, it would have been more accurately described as a strangely disjointed sequence of events with naked butt shots thrown in every now and then.

Truly this is a masterpiece of storytelling!

Characters

Koyomi Morishita
Apparently she's the main character; which was a surprising revelation given the fact she's got like 5 minutes of total screen time in the whole of the pilot episode. Anyway, she's your typical anime clumsy, not too bright high school girl. Also, she can use magic, but as mentioned before, she sucks and can thus only make bins appear on top of people.

Um, I was told I was supposed to be the main character...

Yumiko Cristina Ichinose
Apparently she's not the main character despite taking up a large majority of this episodes focus. Anyway, she's the token loli and grade schooler who has recently realized she's the descendant of some famous magician. She's constantly harassed by her classmates because of her funky hair colour and her bitchy attitude. Also, a pimp in a white suit wants to kill her, presumably because she owes him money. Has the attention span of a goldfish.

Hmm, I probably should call the cops given how a guy wants to kill me, but I don't want them to think I'm crazy! (I'm not joking, she actually thinks this in the show)

Misa Anehara
Apparently she's the greatest magician in the world, or something. Which is why she has a job as a salesperson who magically enchants her goods to make people want to buy them; work that is truly worthy of her talent. Anyway, she saves Koyomi and Yumiko from the evil pimp in the white suit at the end of the episode and will presumably train Koyomi later on in the series.

This is my computer; where all the magic happens! Also, this is where I run my kiddy snuff porn site.

Pimp in a White Suit
Presumably the main antagonist of the series, he wants to kill Yumiko to steal her grandfather's magic walking stick. His magic powers include the ability to summon magical swords, control demonic beasts and walk around in public in a shiny white suit.

My characterization is as featureless as my suit!


Halt bitch! Gaze into my shiny white suit and DESPAIR!

Animation
Oh sweet jesus, what the hell happened here??? Animation wise, the characters move fluidly enough, but seriously, what the hell happened to the colouring department??? The colours look horrible and everything is goddamn blurry.

Fear me! For my shiny suit shall burn holes into thine retinas!

On the plus side, the techno-magic of the series looks cool.

Nanoha, eat your heart out.

Overall
Oh my god, I have no idea what to say. YKGM appears to have a pretty standard storyline, but the problem is it can't even tell that story straight! The first episode wasn't so much of a story, but an experience as otherworldly as any of the trippiest art movies out in the market.

Having narrowly escaped a crazed killer who can shoot fireballs and teleport, Yumiko stops to pet a cat.

Seriously, NOTHING. MAKES. SENSE! I felt like I was just watching a pastiche of unrelated events acted out by the same characters! After the first episode, I felt as if the very fabric of reality had torn itself apart, leaving me shivering, in dark, featureless despair.

A bin has appeared over my head! I AM BESTED!

Goddammit, even Evangelion made more sense then this! To illustrate my point, I'm going to show you a particular sequence of events in YWGM, and compare it to an iconic scene from Eva.

Ok, here we have a bunch of boys sneaking up on poor Yumiko...

When suddenly, the treacherous villains reach under her skirt!

Only to find the horrible truth that Yumiko is in fact Mio!!!

Their objective accomplished, the boys proceed to do a stupid dance, presumably to appease whatever dark god it is that haunts this place.

In rage, Yumiko then takes her panties off in front of the boys and throws it at their leader, thereby teaching the rogues a lesson they won't soon forget!

The boys then learn a far more horrible truth; Yumiko isn't potty trained. This discovery causes the boys' leader to break down in tears as he tries to scratch off his irreversibly tainted face.

Finally, the drama ends with the teacher reprimanding Yumiko, saying she, "went too far".

...uh, what?? Yumiko is the constant victim of sexual harassment by the boys, and ostracising by the girls, and SHE went too far!?!? Where the hell did you get your education degree from you stupid bitch!?

So yeah...did that make sense to you? No? Join the club. In contrast, here's an iconic picture from the End of Evangelion;

Unlike YWGM, the message of this image is painfully clear; Kowaru makes a shitty garden gnome. Seriously, why can't all shows be as straightforward as this?

Also, another problem prevalent in this episode is that everyone is stupid. Particularly Yumiko. Early in the episode, she meets the Pimp in a White Suit, who makes it painfully clear he wants to kill the shit out of her. And yet despite his threats, or the fact he threw a fireball at her, she seems to constantly forget she's on the run from a crazed killer and makes frequent stops to pet cats, read books and talk to random people!

You fool! Instead of calling the police, you decided to run to a deserted road instead! Now prepare yourself, for I shall kill you until you are dead!


What the!? Who the hell is this and why is she hugging you!? Hello???

Um, guys? I'm here to butcher all of you! Could you please stop ignoring me!?


Seriously, why are you giving me a, "I won't run away" speech? I just want to kill that girl behind you; I don't even know you! (This actually happens by the way)

Either Yumiko has balls of steel, or the evil Pimp in a White Suit is the most nonthretening villain in the history of everything.

This show makes my head hurt...

About the only thing I liked in this whole episode was the spunky magic. Called, "Code", magic in YWGM appears to be of a technological nature, with characters actually programming spells into their computers. Sadly however, aside from the spifftastic magic, YWGM is a horrible train wreck of an anime. I'll probably watch episode 2 since I downloaded it at the same time as ep 1, but don't expect me to continue further then that unless ep 2 throws out some truly magical shit.