#just because you personally dont like an animal doesn't mean it's entire population should be killed off

[funkbun]

i need ppl who apply human morals to Literal Animals in order to talk about how "Evil" they are and how they "Shouldn't be allowed to exist" should shut the fuck up forever actually

[darishima]

With the Mashle post, I agree with some parts that the show (at least the writing) is just.... not good at all. If you've read the manga... it doesn't really get better(? Kinda? As in, there is no development between any characters lmao, but more concepts for the world itself kinda gets added).

For me, what drew me in was the comedy of the first chapter before it got very repetitive with its jokes and humor because the world itself seemed fascinating to me. The idea of magic marks, markless people (what is basically eugenics), and then this one person who by all counts should be the least powerful among an entire population is fascinating.

The writing is just not it in the slightest.

Characters are very one dimensional (shown with Lemon being the worst of the main 5, Mash is right next to her). The only ones I saw with the slightest hint of development would be Finn towards the end of the series.

Like I said, many things that are just thrown out there and then left in the wind that could've been more deeply explored, the actual role of a Divine Visionary because (lowkey what does head of Talent even mean??? Is their most influential really just some kids who were the best of the year??? Why aren't there more of them??? How are they given their roles???)

I'm rambling so hard, but I think I'm honestly interested in how you saw the series (or at least the anime) since I'm trying to do more on its world in a personal rewrite project 😅

thank you so much, i'm so glad someone agrees!!

i'm gonna try to break why i don't like it into sections so this doesn't get too rambley

the stuff it steals i'm using "steal" pretty lightly here, taking inspiration from another work is fine and i dont even know for sure if the creator was familiar with these other properties, but still. i don't know if you're super familiar with one punch man, mob psycho 100, and harry potter, but mashle is basically if you took all of those, squished them together, and then made it bad. he's basically just saitama (mc of opm) mixed with mob's personality (mc of mp100) and dropped into harry potter. (and i know "a magical school setting" isn't unique to harry potter but the house system and that one broom scene are WAY too specific to not be explicitly taken from hp. if it was supposed to be a parody/satire of harry potter or western fantasy in general it could have worked, but rather than making any kind of commentary on that it just... stole it. but i digress.) "insanely overpowered anime protagonist" is a typical cliche and i often find annoying (if your mc is too powerful, there's not much evolution/development to be done) but the thing that made saitama's strength work in opm is that he doesn't LIKE his strength. if you're at the top, there's nowhere else to go. he feels unfulfilled and is constantly searching for an opponent as strong as/stronger than him, so he can finally have a real fight that doesn't end after a single punch. mash.... doesn't have that. he's strong, but nothing interesting is DONE with his strength. he just Is Strong, period. no commentary on how it makes him feel, no impact on his personality, nothing. there is a commentary that could be made (and is kind of made) about the world as a whole but i'll get to that later. basically, he's just saitama but without understanding why saitama works.

the characters the characters feel like they're created to fill archetypes rather than actually be people. they're all completely one-dimensional, as you said. i can't speak for finn's development because i haven't read the manga, but at least in the anime he's the same. lemon is definitely the worst, i agree, and mash is right next to her. abyss razor COULD have been interesting i guess but he was just a throwaway villain. dot is the stereotypical guy-obsessed-with-women because of course he is. lance is the attractive bad boy with a really creepy thing for his sister (because it's not a shonen without something deeply uncomfortable and unnecessary). the only character i liked was cell war but only because he looked cool. i don't think i've ever seen a more boring cast of characters tbh, they're just... Nothing.

cynical cash grab honestly a lot of what made me angry rather than disappointed about the show was that a lot of it seemed to be, like... designed specifically to be popular, if that makes sense. the world copying harry potter, the main character copying mob and saitama, two beloved shonen protagonists, the characters filling all the shonen archetypes, all of it just felt like it was made in a lab to be the most stereotypical easy to watch shonen anime. i don't know if that's actually true- maybe the creator is really passionate about it and loves it. but it felt like a soulless cash grab.

the potential this is what REALLY pissed me off. i've seen plenty of bad animes, and they're always fundamentally flawed. they have bad plots or bad settings and everything based off of that will be bad as well. it's not a problem with the execution, it's a problem with the basic concept. but mashle is not that. the idea of it is brilliant, and that's why i wanted to watch it in the first place. there's so many interesting angles to be taken- for example, mash mentions at the beginning that magic users have grown physically lazy and complacent, because they can achieve anything they want with magic. and that is SO INTERESTING !!! i've never considered the realistic consequences of magic like that before, and i was so excited to see that concept explored... and then it was never brought up again. mash's strength, like saitama's, could've had really interesting effects on his character.... never addressed! the eugenics aspect, like you mentioned, could've been really interesting, especially with the way it affects some magic users too (namely abyss razor and his evil eye or lance's sister), but nope, it's never fully touched on. rather than dismantle the system entirely and save all non-magic users, mash is content to work within the system to achieve freedom for only himself. rather than commit to any interesting commentary or fascinating angle, the story is content to ignore all those things completely. there is endless potential, and it's all wasted.

the comedy there isn't any. it's not funny. the slapstick comedy of mash breaking everything at the beginning could have been funny but it's never used for anything besides doors (and also, is he never scared he'll accidentally hurt someone? has he ever hurt someone he loved? more cool strength-related character commentary that was never even touched on). the only part of the show i found funny is that one time he tried to cook but everything just ended up as a cream puff. i really liked that actually. all of the running cream puff gags i found funny but they aren't enough to carry the rest of the show's non existent jokes or the jokes that completely fall flat

the fight scenes not much to say here, which is the problem. the animation's decent but not outstanding and the fights are lame as hell. "strong magic user thinks he's badass and can kick mash's ass but mash just like, punches him a couple times. the end." they were cool to look at sometimes, but again, so many cool things could've been done with the magic and they refused to commit.

that's pretty much all of my points. usually i hate the term "shonenshit" because it's just used to discount actually good shonen like one piece or demon slayer but honestly i think mashle is the epitome of shonenshit. full of potential yet mid in every way, the most average and boring characters imaginable, zero impactful emotional beats, it just tastes like air. i cannot fathom how this anime has a 7.58 rating on MAL, it blows my mind. i'm not shitting on anyone who enjoys the show, i think if you turn your brain off (and haven't seen one punch man or mob psycho) it is, at the very least, popcorn entertainment, and i can understand why someone would like it, i just think it's poorly written and disappointing.

thank you so much for sending that ask and giving me a reason to rant all my thoughts, i've been waiting for an excuse to do it lmao. sorry it was so long </3

manga spoilers under the cut bc i have one more thing to mention.

AND APPARENTLY INNOCENT ZERO THE BIG BAD LEADER GUY IS MASH'S DAD ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. i was spoiled on this completely accidentally, i just googled innocent zero to see what he looked like and saw that spoiler. and my god that is the most generic stupid boring ass twist they could POSSIBLY have done. and not only that, it ruins whatever good was left in mash's character.

mash is the "everyman" type of character. he's just a regular normal guy, he is nothing special, in fact he's literally the opposite of special. he's the complete opposite of a "chosen one," and that's why his character works (i'm saying "works" loosely because he's boring but ykwim). so to make him the son of the Big Bad turns him into the chosen one that he's not supposed to be. chosen one narratives do work, but only if done right, and his story from the beginning is not supposed to BE a chosen one narrative. but they throw all of that out the window for the sake of a cheap twist. keep in mind i havent read the manga so i dont know anything about the way it was revealed but i would bet money they didn't set it up or execute it in any kind of interesting or well-done way. i hope i'm wrong about that, but i doubt it.