by Ben Warnock
Nominee for both comedy anime of the year and fantasy anime of the year at the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, “Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 1” marks the beginning of A-1 Pictures' adaptation of Hajime Komoto's zany gag manga.
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The series drops the audience into the world of The Magic Realm where all its citizens can use magic freely and those who cannot are routinely eliminated to ensure that its society is stronger. Of course, there must be an exception to this rule, and this is where the main character Mash Burnedead enters. Mash has no magic abilities and has instead focused solely on improving his strength to a ridiculous degree. Perhaps the best way to describe the leading man is as if someone decided to put all of their stats into strength and neglect everything else in the character creation selection of an RPG.
Mash's two main loves in life are his father and cream puffs so when he is discovered by the magic police and his father is threatened with death, the protagonist agrees to enrol in Easton Magic Academy. There he will compete with the best mages in the land to become selected as the Divine Visionary and with that title will earn the wealth needed for him and his father to live in peace. The only problem is that our hero cannot use magic at all. Instead, his strength is so freakish in nature that he can pass magic trials simply through power alone. From riding a broom by moving his legs super-fast to withstanding gravity magic through will alone the comedy of the series is borne on this concept.
At the centre of the show stands Mash Burnedead whose lovable stupidity makes him endearing from the offset with his inability to understand the concept of doors a hilarious running gag. The comedy's true strength, however, stems from his interaction with his cast of magic friends. Though mainly stereotypes in nature, the series is able to build on archetypes such as Lemon Irvine and her obscenely obvious crush on Mash who is, of course, too stupid to realise anything. These interactions make the series feel extremely fast-paced as the character gags make episodes fly by.
As is often the case with comedy manga, the show's comedy hinges on both its images and its performances. For the most part, the voice performances are exactly in-keeping with the tone of the comedy as Chiaki Kobayashi's deadpan Mash attests to. The other characters spark to life from this calm performance with one highlight being Cho's portrayal as the hero's father Regro Burnedead and his outbursts of shock at his son's actions.
The show's animation from A-1 Pictures is nothing spectacular but Hisashi Higashijima's character design is a standout. Each character feels unique and wholly recognizable through their design alone. Also, the cast's various looks play a part in understanding their characters while Mash's rather plain look compared to his colorful friends is emblematic of his monotonous demeanor in contrast to his friend's distinctive personalities.
“Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 1” is a delightful hit of a comedy anime whose prime concept just seems to get funnier as the show continues. With the introduction of a more focused story coming at the climax of the first season, the anticipation of the upcoming one grows.
