Magi The Kingdom of Magic ep 3-4 impressions

After 2 ep of partying, a funeral, training and messing up the shipping, the trio is ready to depart from Sindria. And what’s the first threat they face? PIRATES of course!

Before we get into that though, I need to elaborate on Aladdin’s decision on setting sail. Hakuryuu, Morgiana and Aladdin all made their reasons clear during the first two ep(Home, Deserted Home, Magnostadt), but Allibaba came late into his decision. Apparently his magoi has changed so that he can’t do a full-armor Djinn Equip.

Sinbad suggests meeting the Yambala tribe, a group of nomadic warriors he trained under for magoi manipulation. The only likely place he’ll meet them is at the Leam colliseum for their upcoming tournament, so Alibaba decides to enter the fight and train himself. We all know these 4 are going seperate ways, so thank god the pirates give them an excuse to stay close for a bit longer.

As for the pirates, don’t expect Jack Sparrow or Errol Flynn to show up. The best comparison I can bring is the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. All of them are children from the slums that seem to have a bad case of stockholm syndrome. The kids themselves aren’t really evil, as they pirate ships to bring provisions for all the other starving children in their home.

 

However, their self-proclaimed mother Aum Madaura is kidnapping these children and making them put their life on the line, whether it be through fighting or sacrificing their magoi as fuel for the underwater ships they use. The scariest thing is that none of them seem to complain about it, and Aladdin isn’t about to let this slide.

I do have to say though that while the Aum Madaura aspect is interesting, how it connects to the Actian Kingdom seems repetitive. For the most part it’s just a retread of the Balbadd arc’s political state with different kingdoms and a more military-based struggle rather than inner corruption. Magnostadt take the role of the aggressors, the Actians take the role of an irresponsible government, and the slum people remain slum people. It’s not an exact copy, but it’s enough to remind Alibaba of his situation with Cassim.

Luckily the comedy this time wasn’t the usual booby parade. We get a pretty hilarious skit early on involving Aladdin sneaking aboard the Sindrian Ship waiting for the best time to surprise everyone. And the punchline? All of them knew he was there, and pretty much take their time bashing him as a pathetic perv behind his back, only to surprise him when they see Alibaba crying.

From the looks of it, the plot is thickening quick and doing a good job at possibly hinting to more details on Magnostadt’s plans. Thanks to Hakuryuu’s plant manipulation and Morgiana’s Human Slingshot, Alibaba and the rest manage to track down the hideout of Aum Madaura and get into battle. It looks like we’ll be getting straight to the action next time, so I hope A-1 pictures can get consistent with their animation next time.