Mashle Season 2 Anime Review

Mashle Season 2, what the hell happened?! I don’t know what’s more puzzling about this show, the comprehensive misunderstandings of its strengths and capabilities in its base plotting which directly hamstrung the production or the fact that audiences prefer this to the premiere season. I can only guess that the action focus was what made general audiences happy but as for the actual substance this is a great example of an authors growing ambition bringing the roof down when they can’t execute on their ambitions, it’s a disappointing result for a show I went in only expecting a fun time and nothing else. But stop, let’s reel things back to Season 1 and establish my baseline for this series to make it easier to convey why exactly I ended up thoroughly disappointed by it’s sophomore slump.

Full name Mashle: Magic and Muscles is a very simple show that does exactly what it says on the tin, being a magic centric fantasy story but following plucky protagonist Mash Burnedead who possesses exactly zero magical ability so he instead gets by on pure bicep badassery and his wits… okay maybe not that last one. He enrols in not-Hogwarts and goes through all the usual shonen trials and tribulations alongside a hearty set of friends who aren’t memorable on their own(I only remember Lemon’s name) but as a group are swell fun. It’s an action gag comedy that’s not great in either category but thanks to a rock solid A1 adaptation it’s a perfectly enjoyable time. Said adaptation knew exactly what it was doing, giving the action scenes here and there consistently eye popping sakuga whilst relying heavily on the voice cast to sell the comedic moments, something that to a man they succeed in spades. It’s not a story or a production that’ll blow your socks off but it’s charming and refined, there’s nothing I’d complain about really. Most importantly though is that it’s overall comedy focused which makes the stakes free action not a problematic element while also giving the team at A1 Pictures time to make those few action scenes pop off on what I assume is a lesser priority production for the studio.

At the top I hinted at what direction the sequel went and I firmly believe Mashle turning into a full on battle shonen broke both its story and the capacity of its adaptation because unlike S1 refined is not the word of the day here. Season 2’s first episode is not good whatsoever, not exactly the welcome back I was expecting and unfortunately a bad omen. It’s a stilted slog wading through the flat dialogue brought about by Mash’s lack of magical powers being discovered and put on trial by his peers, delivering neither compelling characters moments or meaty drama because in the end this isn’t a series that ever has real stakes. That’s never been an issue previously because of its gag centric nature, Mash is a cartoon character and acts to part so there’s tonal consistency and the action isn’t a big enough focus to get impacted negatively. Than comes S2 which throws all of it’s weight behind a long tournament arc and setting up the threat level of the series’s big bad Innocent Zero and everything falls about as flat as Frieren’s chest.

The tournament arc follows Mash trying to prove himself worthy in front of his peers by succeeding in the Divine Visionary Exam that would put him as an equal to the magical worlds best. He’s physically overpowered so his only real obstacle is his own intellect which offers some comedic hijinks but not enough that I think Chiaki Kobayashi‘s pitch perfect deadpan performance was being well utilised this season which is something I’d say about most of the cast. Mashle comedy is not funny on a base level, there’s nothing truly witty about the writing on hand nor are the parodies clever, so why do I find/found this show funny. Well it’s all in voice casts fault because they give the most unhinged performances to a man, alot of their lines being delivered in guttural screams that absolutely kill me and make even the most mundane of moments lively. This season they’re hamstrung by a story not willing to give them those opportunities to ham things up, expecting serious work to convey the “very serious” stakes on hand and boy howdy did it not work. One of the first sections of the tournament arc is predicated on us being invested in Finn(No I didn’t remember his name) and feel for him when he gets tortured by a very bad dude, with the big payoff that Finn actually held out long enough for Mash to make the save. It’s supposed to be a heartfelt moment to see this cowardly boy put on a brave face but like who cares, seriously what about this series beforehand would make me remotely feel for the annoying dude of the friend group. The action early on though is respectable, this fight in particular is pretty good looking so eh I wasn’t bored yet.

The grand finale of the tournament was a one on one between Mash and the sound magic user Margarette Macaron whose actually pretty fun, I think they’re nonbinary(or their gender is secret, either way they/them pronouns). Margarette has a very entertaining powerset involving sounds, allowing them to hit people with the most obnoxious sounds ever(thanks sound design) or basically teleport at the speed of sound by clicking their fingers making them a worthy foe to Mash. The animation was keeping up for this bout too so while I wasn’t exactly entertained by this point I wasn’t disappointed. Then Innocent Zero shows up and messes everything up, by which I mean the production fell below standard and the pacing died on impact, this last third was terrible. Having your big bad show up early on is a great way to establish their threat level and a relationship with the audience, for a character to have screen presence they need effective screentime too so the idea of Innocent showing up isn’t inherently bad, but the execution rendered him an unintentional joke. There is absolutely no dramatic weight being this character showing himself in the way he did here, even pulling a lazy “Mash is my son mwehehe” reveal that didn’t end up doing anything. The plot sure was brute forcing itself though, throwing him and not-Dumbledore into a battle between brothers for all intents and purposes in an attempt at creating a dynamic between the two. As pupils of the greatest magician ever one acts as the fallen son while the other follows diligently in his masters footsteps, why? Uh I dunno, the bland writing and very flat characterization of these characters made this whole thing arbitrary so really this was just an excuse to have them fight, man the two strongest magicians in the world fighting I can’t wait!

What if I told you the clash of the strongest people on earth was animated with less flair, less impact, and less fluidity than basically anything you’d find in Season 1, this was Gojo versus Sukuna levels of lame. I don’t know the circumstances behind this seasons creation but it feels so overtaxed and limited in comparison to the always reliable first season, you can feel the bar slipping with each fight and by the end this is a very flatly animated show.  Don’t get me wrong it’s not bad, nothing here feels undercooked or less than serviceable but remember the only thing holding up the completely vapid substance of each fight scene was the punchy animation and when you take it away you’re left with nothing, just nothing. By its end this was not working whatsoever in the action department and that’s when it really needed to pop off because now why should I feel afraid of the biggest bad in the realm, Mash can punch him real good and the dude isn’t shown to be scary so like who does he think he is. Another unfortunate casualty of this is the musical score which was an absolute highlight previously, Masaru Yokayama crafting a hip hop infused soundtrack just bursting with identity and style. He made another album for Season 2 but you’d have fooled me because I don’t recall a single, I mean it a single new track in this whole season and in fact it felt like they were using only 5 songs on infuriating repeat. While you simply can’t make me grow tired of Serious Steel which is the main fight theme every other track is mind numbing, none moreso than Brooms and Potions which probably has more uses than its MC has lines of dialogue and that song is not hot stuff, I actively hate it now.