Maburaho Volume 01 (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Translator Notes - The Art of Maburaho - Original Japanese Promos - The Magic Times “Newspaper” Insert - Clean Open/Close
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Maburaho Volume 01 (DVD)

Kazuki Shikimori comes from a line of world famous magicians. Because of his stunning pedigree, he is enrolled at the elite Aoi Academy, a school where students learn the intricacies of their vastly powerful magic. Unfortunately, his powers are not up to snuff, and frankly, he’s a bit of a loser. He can only use his magic eight times before he turns into dust.

When three magical hotties enter the game, things start to get out of hand. There’s the sweet and caring Yuna, the sexy blonde bombshell Kuriko, and the violent, bad tempered Rin. Each of these girls has her own agenda where he is concerned, and poor Kazuki doesn’t know what to think! Are the girls after his love or merely his genes?

Episode 01

Our poor protagonist, in the world of magic those who can barely use it are the lowest on the totem pole. And so, Kazuki, who can only use magic 8 times before he is reduced to ash, is doomed to life as a loser. Days like health check-ups where the magic level of the students are checked only intensify this feeling and so when he goes home to avoid the conflict, he surprised by a girl from his past: Yuna. Insisting that she is Kazuki’s new wife she’s planning to move in and start a new life with him, but preventing that is Kuriko. The ultra-sexy blonde is intent to “take” Kazuki by any means necessary, but not before Rin tries to kill him. Both Rin and Kuriko have been informed by their families that Kazuki is a vergence of magical power and although he has a small limit of magic, the intensity of those spells will be amazing. Kuriko believes the best way to get a hold of this potential is through having a child with Kazuki, and Rin believes that to prevent herself from marrying Kazuki, she’d be best off to kill him and avoid the whole process.

Episode 02: It Fell

Kazuki’s sudden popularity is directly related to the simultaneous revelation of his genealogy and that Yuna’s declaration of marriage. The girls of the school have declared him an open target and he now being courted by every female who doesn’t want to be left out of the sweepstakes and every man is jealous of the extra attention that he’s receiving from the women of the school. But all of this attention is too much for the naturally reserved Kazuki, especially from all of the women who have injected themselves into his life and started to make demands or issue orders.

All of the noise has upset him, and in order to try and regain some order in his life he started putting his foot down against every one who just seems to want his genes, instead of a meaningful relationship. But when his harsh tone is directed at the clingy Yuna, he is suddenly reminded of where he knows he from… hopefully he can repair the damage that his outburst has caused.

Episode 03: It Appeared

Kazuki finally gets a day off from the madness at school and what happens immediately… another new girl in his life. This time, the girl is a young ghost named Elizabeth that has lost her home nearby and has decided to inhabit Kazuki’s room. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Yuna and she sets out with Kazuki to see what

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they can do about the living situation. Her former home has been boarded up and is being prepared for demolition by one of Kuriko’s companies, and so the pair go to see her. Kuriko would agree to return the home on one condition… which is obviously not agreeable to Kazuki.

As an alternative, Elizabeth would like the return of one of the items in the house, a full set of armor that holds great significance for her and her family. Kazuki believes that this shouldn’t be too difficult

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to get, but by the time that they get over to the house the demolition has started and the house has collapsed before they can retrieve the suit of armor. With the armor destroyed, Elizabeth takes revenge on Kazuki for not living up to his promise and takes Yuna away to another dimension, and begins torturing her. Not to let someone be hurt, Kazuki will take action… but what will he do?

Episode 04: I Saw It

Poor Kazuki has been having reoccurring nightmares of being attacked by a behemoth, and making things worse there has been some scuttlebutt about strange moaning and roaring in the school. Being a member of the school council, Kuriko decides to investigate the phenomena and for her team: Kazuki, Yuna, and Rin (obviously). When a day spent searching turns up nothing, Kuriko and Kazuki decide to investigate the school doctor who has a room that students are forbidden to enter.

This room is apparently one of the sources of the moans that are being heard through the school, and Kuriko’s intuition is right, the Doctor is hiding a behemoth in that room… but what’s going to happen when Yuna and Rin come across a 2^nd one? It’s near impossible to stop one of these summoned monsters, how are they going to stop 2 of them?

So far, Maburaho has been like candy, sweet and simple. Not that it’s a bad thing in small doses, especially when the character dynamics have been as funny as they’ve been up to now. The simplicity of the show up to this point belies the depth that will develop in later episodes, and myself, I’m looking forward to that.

- Tazman

(August 5, 2005)

"I've actually been in Streetcar before. I played the role of Blanche DuBois, it's all just part of the fun of attending an all-boys school."

- Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)