#Mahonare

[hothotmiso]

[mahou-furbies]

First time I see pesäpallo mentioned in an anime!

[tetrix-anime]

Megami Magazine January 2025 Issue (#296) - Mahoutsukai ni Narenakatta Onnanoko no Hanashi (The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians)

[jjs-brainrot]

2 minutes in and The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians already has some of the prettiest backgrounds this season

[bunnymajo]

Watched the 3rd mg title of the season, "The Stories of Girls who Couldn't Be Magicians"

And I just want to say I'm so proud of this little show?

Like back in 2018 it was announced as the winner of Project ANIMA, an initiative to animate upcoming novels in certain categories. "Mahoutsukai ni Narenakatta Onnanoko Hanashi" was the winner for fantasy and even though the book was released, the only illustration revealed for the anime for years was this

I've had it on my timeline since 2018 waiting for any news to drop about it, I was starting to think it was canceled

But then this past year it was in fact not dead but thriving and looked like nothing I was expecting. It also has one of the most gorgeous art directions this season? I'm interested in how they'll shake up the whole "magic school" setup that's going on.

Of the 3 mg shows this season it definitely has the best opening sequence too (No offense to Acro Trip and Magilumiere, but this kinda stuff is my jam)

Don't sleep on this one magigirl fans, I think it'll be a surprise hit

[magicalgirlypop]

another magical girl show premiered! mahonare is also peak so far. it gives little witch academia and witch hat atelier vibes. also its the prettiest show i've ever seen. i'm not kidding, look at this

the artstyle and colours really do give off storybook vibes and its such a delight to look at. i'm definitely gonna be tuning in to this every week too.

[oratokyosaigunda]

Maho Tsukai ni Narenakatta Onna no Ko no Hanashi character profiles

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

really fun that there's two different "magical girl" animes about using modern elements to support their magic but in mahonare it's very clearly about how the new technology has kneecapped the population & turned magic into a skill only the elite are able to access instead of being a vital part of understanding your connection with the world around you while in magilumiere the whole POINT of magic is that it's programmable, meaning not only is there open source code & a community of people contributing, it allows you the flexibility to modify your spells to your current situation. even though the magilumiere girls are just using apps as well, the way they channel their spells just makes it seem like they have more of a sense of awareness of what goes into the mahonare kids, who can't even explain how their magic notebooks work

[claidi]

Sometimes anime just gives you some great quotes

[nijigasakilove]

Oh my god this art style is gorgeous dude mahou shoujo stans eating so good this season.(I know I know technically not mahou shoujo, but it’s still cute girls using magic so whatever) Also the Kingdom Hearts composer is working on this. Might be the most magical show I’ve ever seen! AOTS contender for sure.

The art and aesthetic Truly feels like an otherworldly adventure really draw you in and make you feel like you’re in another world. JC staff have proven they can handle fantastical shows like this with Sugar Apple Fairy Tale so I’m very excited to see where this goes. Kurumi is already very endearing and I find myself wanting to see her succeed and achieve her magical goals. This concept isn’t that novel, but we don’t see it with girls a lot and I naturally prefer female MCs and casts so I’m excited!

Yuzu is the other big thing for me. Her face card is valid, reminds me so much of Nyammy/Yuki from wanpre. I can see a little rivalry arc developing with she and Kurumi before becoming friends and I’m here for it.

The action looked really cool, that battle was great! this is such a creative anime man I love stuff like this and there’s so many cool directions it can go in. The teacher, Minami is def gonna be one of my fave characters I can tell. Roxy, if she was a good character 😂

[anisongoftheday]

The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians Opening

Collage by PUFFY & TOOBOE

[hothotmiso]

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on MahoNare

This ended up being a pretty uneven show, but I still have a lot of good will towards it. Also I never fully got over the fact that this was a lot lighter and comedic than I had hoped, though it's not really the anime's fault.

The story is about a girl who has always dreamed of becoming a magician, but she flunks the magic school entrance exams and lands in the non-magical track instead. However her eccentric teacher starts teaching the class magic anyway, though it's a different brand than what's otherwise used in the school.

I would say that pacing is the biggest issue. We spend quite a lot of time noodling around episodic adventures where the main cast encountered odd magical phenomena, and these events weren't that interesting in and of themselves, but I also felt that we could have gotten more interesting character stuff if we didn't need to spend time on the "let's deal with the mystery of the week" plots. And the story clearly has a lot more going on with its worldbuilding, but it feels we only got to see a sliver of it. And the transforming animals who have some kind of connection to the main character weren't even explained. The post-credits scene teases a sequel, but if we never get one, the dog boy with his mysterious lines is just annoying. And the grand finale had really weird pacing; first we ramp up to an "everyone is in big danger!" hype, but then the final episode just solves everything in the first few minutes and the rest is slice of life.

But anyway regardless of all that I did actually have a pretty good time with this thanks to the characters, the main cast has a nice feel good energy since everyone gets along pretty well. The rival girl should have stayed antagonistic for a while longer though if you ask me, but her turning into a friend was also rewarding. It's also commendable that even though the first episode introduced so many (too many) characters, they were distinct enough that keeping track of who is who wasn't that hard. I do wish this was a 2 cour show so that we could have spent more time with them!

I also really liked the setting, a straight up magic school with no genre aware winks to audience honestly feels refreshing in this day and age, plus I found the conflict between modern and ancient magic interesting (even if the resolution wasn't too satisfying). Finns were also served well with the pesäpallo mention.

The art style is absolutely amazing with the lovely character designs, glowing palettes and painterly textures. Though after a certain point the art style has to hard carry the visuals because the animation is very clearly struggling.

In the end I have to say that the story was kind of weak, but I would still be very happy to see a season 2.

[funny-anime-face-world]

[jjs-brainrot]

[bunnymajo]