Mashle- The Surprise Hit of Spring 2023 Anime (for me)

Written by Rei Caldombra 8/15/2023

I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this show. I had not heard of it at all before it aired and just checked it out because the premise sounded fun and very appealing to me. For anyone who doesn't know, short summary is that it's basically Harry Potter but Saitama from One Punch Man is the main character.

I went into this expecting it to be a parody where it just craps on stereotypical H.P style magic school stuff, which I did want to see. Not because I hate magic (I don't), but because I think the premise of a physically overpowered character entering a magic school is a great way to parody it. I also am into fitness so I enjoyed when it indulged a bit in that area. These points have their appeal but likely would not keep me interested for 12 episodes if all it did was make "lol magic sucks" gags. What really made me get into the show is how it still takes magic seriously for the other characters and world as a whole. Characters with powerful magic are not treated as jokes or made to appear weak. To me the comedy feels less at the expense of magic and the characters and more so just laughing at what Mash can do to circumvent it. I feel it does a good job of poking fun at magic while also appreciating what it can offer.

I must mention the most insane and truly noteworthy thing about this show. It’s absolutely bonkers. This is a fantasy anime that not an Isekai. Someone remembered you can do fantasy without an Isekai and still do “fish out of water” elements! Joking exaggeration aside, this is genuinely a breath of fresh air. In case you did not see my last post on Vending Machine, I do not inherently dislike Isekai. But as you likely know the anime space is oversaturated with Isekai and has been for years now. It's nice to not have the thought of "real world" stuff taking away from the fantasy.

The show is actually pretty funny. I don't think the gags about Mash overpowering magic ever got old or overplayed. What helps with this is my point before about how the other characters were allowed to have magic on magic fights that were taken seriously. This broke up the routine of waiting to see what funny way Mash brute forces his way through things. And in these fights the other characters were genuinely capable of defending themselves for the most part. If Mash always had to come in and save them, or if Mash always felt completely invincible, I would have liked it less. But towards the end we do see that there is genuine danger.

I do have some criticisms, the biggest being some of the characters. Mash, Dot and Lance are solid characters with fine characterization and likeability. Mash and Dot in particularly are a bit more memorable. None of them are outstanding but I genuinely like them and think they bounce off each other pretty well. On the other hand... I'm sorry but Finn is such a nothing character. After his introduction he does not do anything of note other than talk with the characters. He does not directly participate in any fights and his presence offers very little other than reacting to the main 3's strange personalities. Lemon is also not very interesting or memorable and sadly is a very stereotypical female character in a group of male characters. Like Finn she does not really get to do anything and ends up being a damsel in distress at the finale (just remembered that he did end up needing to be saved too). These two largely have the same problems but it's a little more notable for Lemon since she is the only relevant female character and gets relegated to not having any genuine role in the story until she needs saving. I personally do not think her crushing on Mash is as offensive as her treatment in the story, but it is again very stereotypical and does not give her any unique identity. The main 3 all have clear personality traits but I really can't think of anything for Finn and Lemon. Both these characters to me have nothing really to them and lack agency in the story.

To end on a positive note, the OP and ED are both bangers. The action scenes are also solid, with some very interesting magic powers and ways that Mash combats them. I really enjoyed the fights as a whole. The presentation of the show is pretty solid.

I think it's a pretty good show. Putting aside my issues with Lemon and Finn, it has a lot of good jokes, great action scenes and interesting concepts on how magical and physical capabilities can collide. I'm looking forward to getting the next set of episodes next year, and I'm really hoping we get some redemption for Lemon and Finn.

But keep in mind that what comes later does not always affect what already happened and imply there was foreshadowing or hidden depth. Their characters can be improved, but it won't change how mediocre I feel they were here. I don't like when people try to use hindsight from future content to say, "they were actually great characters all along" when it's clear from the writting that it was not intended from the start. Sorry, I won't buy that with this lol. Thanks for reading!

My Patreon: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra