What defines a magical girl show? In my mind, there’s not exactly one silver bullet element that is true of all Magical Girls and not of anything else, but there is a cluster of traits where a show should have at least a sizable chunk to be considered.
Modern Magic Made Simple is a work that will often appear on lists of Magical Girl anime. That’s how I found it, to begin with. And in the defense of that categorization, the main characters are all girls and they do wield magic. However, in my mind, Modern Magic Made Simple belongs not really to the Magical Girl theme or genre, but rather to the broader canon of Young Adult Urban Fantasy, specifically Masquerade Urban Fantasy.
For those not familiar, “Masquerade” (the etymology of which is the RPG Vampire: the Masquerade) refers to a setting detail where the fantastical elements exist unknown to normal people, hidden from view or notice whether deliberately or by The Rules. It’s a common methodology that includes different expectations than settings where magic is in the open, particularly the plot thread where a wide-eyed youngster is brought into the know…
Here, we open in media res as two girls fight a weird ghostly man to the tune of a lot of property damage, as he no-sells all their arcane attacks (including absorbing a magic sword he’s run through with and popping up fine after seemingly being polymorphed into a wash basin). After confirming that yes, I am watching the show billed as a comedy and yes, this is episode 1, we cut to six hours earlier with one of those two girls (Yumiko) running from the same weird ghost man, who is doing property damage galore while floating after her and trying to kill her with energy blasts. Also, the show thinks it’s important we know she’s going commando for some reason.
We then cut to even earlier to find out why this girl is without panties (because that was, evidently, the big deal here) and find her in school where, after some of the boys tease her about her underwear, she takes the item off to throw it at one’s face. Evidently an effective comeback since it brings him to tears, though I’m not sure why. She gets a stern talking to from a counselor and ends up back home, failing to change before booking it in possession of some items her ancestor left her: a notebook describing the path of magic (but not the necessary lesson 0 – it gives directions to mage school instead) and a magical staff to wield it.
We cut to the other girl, Koyomi, who is arguing with her mentor’s little brother about whether magic exists, causing her to turn a spell driving a crowd into a cell-phone-buying frenzy into one that summons a washtub from nowhere, which doesn’t turn out to be a very effective demonstration. Steadily, we get through the day following Yumiko as the man accosts her for her magic staff and something about her great grandfather, the mage-for-hire who did the cell phone buying frenzy (showing us that magic can be structured as computer code), as well as Koyomi.
Eventually, Yumiko reaches the school, which is evidently Koyomi’s home, and the two meet when the zappy mage in the white suit appears still in pursuit of the staff. Koyomi seems to know Yumiko while also knowing this as the first time they’ve met properly, and the enemy mage talks about killing people more than he actually does explosions, letting the two run. Yumiko manages to replicate magic after seeing it for real once, and the mentor Koyomi was looking for, none other than them mage-for-hire selling cell phones, turns up to save their bacon, Misa.
Before we properly catch up with the opening, we move to episode 2, which is the backstory of how Koyomi met Misa (namely spotting a magic flyer sort of thing, trying out, and then helping resolve an incident around an idol who’s manager paid for a spell to make her popular). The show slips in another moment of a girl in question being forced out of her panties and a lot of skirt hem focus, which would be less awkward if not for the fact that Yumiko is a grade schooler and Koyomi, while older, still looks like one more or less.
Yeah… it’s kind of awkward. Suffice to say, I ultimately loved Vividred Operation despite an issue like this, but I feel like that show had more counterbalance where the cinematography was technically excellent even if it was used for some difficult-to-swallow shots. I’ll try to restrain further comments on the slightly creepy fanservice in this one.
Instead, a word on the magic. It’s more spelled out in the second episode even if it was clear enough in the first that magic in this setting takes the form of code, traditionally and sometimes cast by concentration while knowing the method, but in the modern day now usually scripted for computer execution. It’s not the most original take, but it is a slightly novel one and it’s reasonably well done here.
Episode 3 continues with backstory, introducing Yumiko. An older Yumiko (the same fifteen as Koyomi was at the point, but looking like a full adult and being a skilled mage at that). She tracks down a magical monster that takes the form of an extra large facehugger with bonus tentacles. It steals her panties, and she ends up teaming up with the amateur Yumiko to track it back to its server and take it down, with Yumiko discovering her apparent ability to replace any other magic with “summon wash basin” at the end.
Episode 4 continues this timeline with the obligatory water park visit, so I guess we’re supposed to ignore the whole Yumiko the Younger protagonist, murderous french mage, and so on that wasn’t resolved in favor of a quite extended “how we got there”. Watching along, one can only hope that it doesn’t take as long for as little payoff as Venus Versus Virus. Except it turns out that we actually go directly from the water park back to that other scenario. In doing so, we learn that the Koyomi there is time traveling from the Episode 2-4 future at the behest of Misa (Who wants to retrieve the password to a mess she made), resulting in the scenario where she’s there to help out the younger Yumiko.
We do eventually resolve this with Koyomi seeming to change the timeline for the better, even saving the day against the ghost wizard (who is reduced to the sword that killed his original body) before returning to the present to… tone things down for a bit, trying to get through her issue where all she can do is conjure washtubs (and change other magic into “conjure washtub”). Eventually she is able to get a spell to work, even if it still also produces washtubs, which is… a small mercy, at least? Honestly I was afraid she was going to just stay weirdly incompetent despite a big part of the show’s pitch being the learning of the magic in the setting.
Eventually, though, the plot does reassert itself, with a contact of Misa’s stealing the sword and reviving the french ghost wizard with a plan to… do exactly what he was going to do in obtaining the “Sorceress’s Library”, except rather than ultimate power for himself, he just wants to resurrect the evil sorceress from days past so that she’ll break the setting’s Masquerade.
Through a couple nonsensical twists, Misa is believed killed by Yumiko over this, but the situation is ambiguous so they look for where she might have gone anyway. They find her in Akihabara… twice, both the living woman and her “ghostscript” copy. However, the bad guy duo finds them as well, and a fight of course results.
After several engagements, the ghostly frenchman manages to get a hit on Yumiko, impaling her with one of his sword spells. This ultimately causes Yumiko to become the vessel of the evil sorceress, starting a catastrophe
After withdrawing to regroup, Misa has a plan to solve the whole “ancient evil sorceress constantly resurrects” problem by throwing her into another dimension. Koyomi objects because she’s sure Yumiko can be saved and won’t write off a friend. Meanwhile, in the midst of her causing a disaster, we find out more about the ancient sorceress, that she was bitterly persecuted, and that it’s her grudge against those who wronged her when she was innocent that fuels her rampages. The fact that she actually shares a lot in common with Yumiko (who was discriminated against for her weird mage looks), the two of them actually seem to peacefully merge. She makes her date with Koyomi after offing the french ghost once and for all, but affirms that she kind of needs to destroy because that’s what the grudge side of her does.
This leads into the final conflict, with Misa’s Ghostscript, the remaining baddie, Misa’s magic-immune brother, Koyomi, and Yumiko all sort of fighting in place. Misa triggers her “otherworld portal” and her ghost drags the baddie through, but Koyomi fights to the end to protect Yumiko, accepting both sides of the new gestalt her. She promises to protect Yumiko/Ancient Sorceress so that she can live out a peaceful life in the modern age, as was denied her in the past and Yumiko, saved from the sucking portal, accepts. The sorceress’s persona retreats leaving basically unaltered Yumiko, and we round out everything some time later as the cast eats curry together.
So, my thoughts on Modern Magic Made Simple? It’s first half is too backwards and the production too pervy for its own good, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here.
So, the way the first arc of the show works, we should have told it in Koyomi’s chronological order. See her begin down the magecraft road, meet Yumiko for the first time, and then have to visit the past where we get all the episode 1 material and the followup together as a midpoint climax. Then we move into the second half and the arc that follows up on it. There’s no reason for telling this whole thing out of order and disjointed. In fact, it makes us feel like we’re robbed of Young Yumiko as a protagonist who actually goes somewhere.
Similarly, when the show gives up on getting girls out of their panties and lets them throw magic swords around or do magic hacking? It’s actually kind of competent. There’s a real story here with real meat: a girl learns about the world of magic, finds she has a rare gift that’s incredible according to the magic types but that also hampers her efforts to do the same things her mentors do, and gets drawn into a two-part conspiracy with some at least stylish bad guys in which both her talent and her humanity will come in handy. It has the makings of just about anything in the Young Adult Urban Fantasy setting. With a strong presentation, it could have been a fairly strong piece.
That said, the presentation isn’t strong. Again, we have a case where the creators had too little confidence in their story, and so burned time and effort away from the parts that mattered. The final real villain (the one who hatches the act 2 plot) talks about how mages are dying out and how his plan will enlighten humanity, but we never really see much of anything when it comes to the state of the magical world that would support or deny his claims, and he only gets a couple lines to present his case.
It would be more compelling if we spent more time with Koyomi actually learning, both how to use magic properly despite her leaky summoning magic overwriting things, and what it means to be a mage besides just doing magic things, since evidently there is more to this setting in terms of a magical community or world.
The “Wowed newbie discovers a secret side of the world” formula, while done to death and beyond, is still going strong because it provides us with am opportunity to see something really spectacular and wonderful from the perspective of someone looking at it, like the audience, with fresh eyes. But there are requirements to doing it well – like having the main character be an interesting person aside from the powers they inevitably develop. Koyomi is not. There’s a great little cut in the opening where she’s flying with magic (which she never does. She manages to attract cats once and otherwise? Wash basins.) and takes a variety of playful poses as she speeds along, suggesting a sort of impish character having a lot of fun with this scenario. But that’s not who Koyomi is: she’s the milquetoast nice girl who always stands up and vouches for the moral option over the practical or safe one. That’s the start of a character, and for Koyomi it’s kind of the end of her character as well with a faint salting of klutz (which isn’t really a personality).
That’s not to say she’s unlikable or annoying, but she pretty much just plays the wide-eyed newbie as she must, doing the minimum to support her role. Yumiko isn’t much better. She’s shrill, in that tsundere sort of way where she’s also ultimately helpful, and that’s basically what we explore about her beyond a few drops in episode 1 that come back right at the end about how she was bullied in the past. Misa is a little better. She’s a familiar character still, the trolling mentor, but at least an amusing and rather dimensional one, particularly when comparing her clear lack of ethics regarding what she uses her magic for to her actual willingness to put herself on the line for things that are a big deal.
Modern Magic Made simple is close, so close, to being a good show… But in the end it’s not one I can recommend. I’m going to go ahead and give this one a D+. I think there are better takes on techno-magic out there, but I do at least give them that they go all the way with Misa’s magic style being as reproducible computer code that others can execute. There are enough decent moments and interesting turns that I don’t intensely regret watching it, but at the same time I don’t really recommend hunting it out over most of its possible competitors.