(CR) Märchen Mädchen

[chaos_animagic]

Hmm, after watching episode 2

I get this "Little Witch Academia" vibe... lol

Where the main girl possess one of the greatest potential to become a great magic (book) user, but she sucks at it in the beginning (mainly cause this is her first time using magic)

And a friend who apparently is also the child of one of the best magic user in the magic world.

Overall this is looking like a fun series to watch. A lot of funny antics from the MC trying to learn magic.

[alex_drian]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

2) it has a female MC so all the males may find it a bit hard to put themselves in the MC's shoes (in fact, for the most part, males are not treated too kindly in that story).

Then they don't have enough training. All male otaku that respect himself can self-insert in a cute girl.

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

As for male MCs in general, I've come to the conclusion that unless the storywriter intends a romance from the start, they do more harm than good. Basically, the As for mixed parties, the moment writers let even one male into the story, it starts to distort. For one thing, the pressure is now on to make some kind of romance, even if the writer is no good at it. Further, even before the romance is on, the pressure is on to give the Male a disproportionate share of the really good abilities. Even if the author manages to avoid this temptation or even deliberately makes Male weak, the pressure is on to give the male character some good moments with whether his abilities would fairly speaking warrant that good moment pushed into secondary importance.

So, go right ahead with all-girl stories.

Sound to me to a certain Kamachi work seriously. I suppose that you talk in general.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

I'm reading one of those myself, and yeah, I want it to be given a chance. At the very least it has to be more deserving than Smartphone dammit! Though it is disadvantaged by
1) being published by something called Earth Star rather than say Kadokawa
2) it has a female MC so all the males may find it a bit hard to put themselves in the MC's shoes (in fact, for the most part, males are not treated too kindly in that story).
3) in some places it is not suitable for imaging. Though the comicalization did a great job on concentrating on portions that are, and given how anime adaptations are one-cour these days, they can probably be quietly cut out since they are secondary bits.

What's the title?

[arkhangelsk]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

What's the title?

Specifically, this one
http://comic-earthstar.jp/detail/noukin/
http://www.es-novel.jp/booktitle/24heikinchi.php
The title being something like "I said I wanted Average Abilities, did I?" Personally, I recommend comic first, then LN.

Spoiler for Rave review:

I really must hand my hat to the author, because he managed to keep my full interest across 6 books and 2 comics (though that last also had much to do with the person handling the comic, who clearly both liked and knew how to best sell this series) despite what to me is a most unpromising premise. I mean, just from the title you can tell the protagonist will not have average abilities, meaning an OP character (oh, how I usually despise those!) To double the sin, protagonist wants to be Average, an arrogance only available to those who comfortably never were. Promising.

As it turns out, protagonist ended up having nearly every ability its system has to offer. Most OP series settle for giving the character super strength, super attack magic, a single manifestly OP ability, or a more mundane sounding one that turns out to be very useful. This protagonist has everything, so you can't even keep things interesting by "outflanking" them (like ZKC did after making its three protagonists the strongest in raw ESP strength).

As of Book 6, Protagonist has super-strength, super-speed, super-attack magic, super-defensive magic, nearly unlimited lift capacity, alchemy, super-acute and night vision, expanded audio range and sensitivity, expanded olfactory range, ... oh yeah, she just started flying.

What doesn't she have? OK, she doesn't have Teleport - but then that's just a way to get around fast so if you have Flight you cover most of that. And she doesn't have resurrection, but then what happens the moment that appears is that the story starts throwing over cases of the seriously wounded over to the dead, so that in story terms isn't a huge lack either. I suspect Smartphone's protagonist has comparable breadth, but from what little I see of him in-anime (b/f being completely turned off) he doesn't have nearly as high a multiplier.

Further, the story has an enormous amount of unwert. In Book 1, the choice of resurrection method means Protagonist crushed a small child under her tracks even before the game started. In Book 2, she abandons some merchants to be attacked by Orcs. In Book 3, she toys around with a dolting parent for 30 minutes. In Book 4, she breaks the leg bones of her captives. In Book 5 ... OK, nothing like that happens in Book 5. In Book 6, she toys around with her opponent to the point he had a magic accident and was nearly permanently crippled. There's context, but you get the point.

So, imagine an author writing well enough to overcome all these disadvantages, so I don't really mind all that at all through all of that (it took me days to even notice the unwerts). In fact, while it will not generate any ROFTLMAO (or any other really strong emotions for the matter), the text is extremely light, never a moment that's hard to plow through (I have also read Konosuba, and I can tell you that has a lot of slow moments plus entire fail books) and is extremely comfortable, fun and even heartwarming to read.

And since I know I am the type that will usually really hate this kind of story setup, and yet I am enjoying every moment of it, I must give the points to the author. Just to make sure, I tried two comics of another series that is about OP characters ... I had an allergic reaction, thus confirming this being my normal response to such material.

[alex_drian]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

Specifically, this one
http://comic-earthstar.jp/detail/noukin/
http://www.es-novel.jp/booktitle/24heikinchi.php
The title being something like "I said I wanted Average Abilities, did I?" Personally, I recommend comic first, then LN.

Spoiler for Rave review:

I really must hand my hat to the author, because he managed to keep my full interest across 6 books and 2 comics (though that last also had much to do with the person handling the comic, who clearly both liked and knew how to best sell this series) despite what to me is a most unpromising premise. I mean, just from the title you can tell the protagonist will not have average abilities, meaning an OP character (oh, how I usually despise those!) To double the sin, protagonist wants to be Average, an arrogance only available to those who comfortably never were. Promising.

As it turns out, protagonist ended up having nearly every ability its system has to offer. Most OP series settle for giving the character super strength, super attack magic, a single manifestly OP ability, or a more mundane sounding one that turns out to be very useful. This protagonist has everything, so you can't even keep things interesting by "outflanking" them (like ZKC did after making its three protagonists the strongest in raw ESP strength).

As of Book 6, Protagonist has super-strength, super-speed, super-attack magic, super-defensive magic, nearly unlimited lift capacity, alchemy, super-acute and night vision, expanded audio range and sensitivity, expanded olfactory range, ... oh yeah, she just started flying.

What doesn't she have? OK, she doesn't have Teleport - but then that's just a way to get around fast so if you have Flight you cover most of that. And she doesn't have resurrection, but then what happens the moment that appears is that the story starts throwing over cases of the seriously wounded over to the dead, so that in story terms isn't a huge lack either. I suspect Smartphone's protagonist has comparable breadth, but from what little I see of him in-anime (b/f being completely turned off) he doesn't have nearly as high a multiplier.

Further, the story has an enormous amount of unwert. In Book 1, the choice of resurrection method means Protagonist crushed a small child under her tracks even before the game started. In Book 2, she abandons some merchants to be attacked by Orcs. In Book 3, she toys around with a dolting parent for 30 minutes. In Book 4, she breaks the leg bones of her captives. In Book 5 ... OK, nothing like that happens in Book 5. In Book 6, she toys around with her opponent to the point he had a magic accident and was nearly permanently crippled. There's context, but you get the point.

So, imagine an author writing well enough to overcome all these disadvantages, so I don't really mind all that at all through all of that (it took me days to even notice the unwerts). In fact, while it will not generate any ROFTLMAO (or any other really strong emotions for the matter), the text is extremely light, never a moment that's hard to plow through (I have also read Konosuba, and I can tell you that has a lot of slow moments plus entire fail books) and is extremely comfortable, fun and even heartwarming to read.

And since I know I am the type that will usually really hate this kind of story setup, and yet I am enjoying every moment of it, I must give the points to the author. Just to make sure, I tried two comics of another series that is about OP characters ... I had an allergic reaction, thus confirming this being my normal response to such material.

Oh, was that, I know it but I have read it.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by Requiem-x

You know, on hindsight its actually amazing we haven't had an isekai story with yuri vibes before (If there's some novel that does this, I don't know about it). It doesn't look spectacular, but it does look fun, and I like Hazuki already, and her "friend" already looks cute judging from the preview, so sure, lets give it a go. The only real gripe I have with this is that Kantoku's designs don't have seem to have translated as well in this as they did on henneko.

Did not notice your post, so quoting it now. Yep, I'm glad to see one animated too. Not much going on yet, but I like it. Can' t wait to see the other characters get introduced. ^^

[arkhangelsk]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Not much going on yet, but I like it.

Well, I suppose we all do, at least mildly. They are playing everything completely by the center variant of the book so far. Though it is stereotypical, there is a reason why the center variant has its status. Cute, ditzy girls have been scientifically proven to stimulate the male interest, and the show is rather heavy on the fanservice. Still, the show had better show something to differentiate itself from the crowd soon.

I mean, this author's dead and they are putting it up over the heads of works from living, producing authors. There has to be some real merit in this work, right?

Originally Posted by alex_drian

Sound to me to a certain Kamachi work seriously. I suppose that you talk in general.

Yes, I speak in general terms. The rot is at all levels, and not really limited to isekai. Pro and amateur works both suffer this problem. It is so ubiquitous one gets acclimatised, but it is still nice to see works where the allocations of abilities and deeds are not based off the gender of the character.

Originally Posted by alex_drian

Oh, was that, I know it but I have[n't?] read it.

Then I'll suggest comic first. It's not a "compressed version" of the LN, more a retelling using the same main points, but it establishes the characters, gets you to like them and solves two weaknesses of the first book of the LN, which should make you enjoy it more:

Spoiler:

1) due to the way the reincarnation took place, a decision had to be made on whether to write up the protagonist as mostly a 10-12 year old (as per her "host" body), or an 18-year old (as per protagonist's age at time of death). The author started off with some "strategic ambiguity". The mangaka who's clearly a reader himself and has to turn it all into pictures had a better clue of which works better. and (I think) the author eventually followed his lead.

2) The LN's graphicist is of professional quality, but really cute characters are probably not his forte and unlike the mangaka he had a poor initial conception of how to best "sell" the protagonist - he gets better, but not in Book 1, and even when he does he's fighting a natural. Let's just say that by reading the manga first, your mental image of the protagonist will be congruent with the author's intention and also how the in-world characters see the protagonist.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

Specifically, this one
http://comic-earthstar.jp/detail/noukin/
http://www.es-novel.jp/booktitle/24heikinchi.php
The title being something like "I said I wanted Average Abilities, did I?" Personally, I recommend comic first, then LN.

Spoiler for Rave review:

I really must hand my hat to the author, because he managed to keep my full interest across 6 books and 2 comics (though that last also had much to do with the person handling the comic, who clearly both liked and knew how to best sell this series) despite what to me is a most unpromising premise. I mean, just from the title you can tell the protagonist will not have average abilities, meaning an OP character (oh, how I usually despise those!) To double the sin, protagonist wants to be Average, an arrogance only available to those who comfortably never were. Promising.

As it turns out, protagonist ended up having nearly every ability its system has to offer. Most OP series settle for giving the character super strength, super attack magic, a single manifestly OP ability, or a more mundane sounding one that turns out to be very useful. This protagonist has everything, so you can't even keep things interesting by "outflanking" them (like ZKC did after making its three protagonists the strongest in raw ESP strength).

As of Book 6, Protagonist has super-strength, super-speed, super-attack magic, super-defensive magic, nearly unlimited lift capacity, alchemy, super-acute and night vision, expanded audio range and sensitivity, expanded olfactory range, ... oh yeah, she just started flying.

What doesn't she have? OK, she doesn't have Teleport - but then that's just a way to get around fast so if you have Flight you cover most of that. And she doesn't have resurrection, but then what happens the moment that appears is that the story starts throwing over cases of the seriously wounded over to the dead, so that in story terms isn't a huge lack either. I suspect Smartphone's protagonist has comparable breadth, but from what little I see of him in-anime (b/f being completely turned off) he doesn't have nearly as high a multiplier.

Further, the story has an enormous amount of unwert. In Book 1, the choice of resurrection method means Protagonist crushed a small child under her tracks even before the game started. In Book 2, she abandons some merchants to be attacked by Orcs. In Book 3, she toys around with a dolting parent for 30 minutes. In Book 4, she breaks the leg bones of her captives. In Book 5 ... OK, nothing like that happens in Book 5. In Book 6, she toys around with her opponent to the point he had a magic accident and was nearly permanently crippled. There's context, but you get the point.

So, imagine an author writing well enough to overcome all these disadvantages, so I don't really mind all that at all through all of that (it took me days to even notice the unwerts). In fact, while it will not generate any ROFTLMAO (or any other really strong emotions for the matter), the text is extremely light, never a moment that's hard to plow through (I have also read Konosuba, and I can tell you that has a lot of slow moments plus entire fail books) and is extremely comfortable, fun and even heartwarming to read.

And since I know I am the type that will usually really hate this kind of story setup, and yet I am enjoying every moment of it, I must give the points to the author. Just to make sure, I tried two comics of another series that is about OP characters ... I had an allergic reaction, thus confirming this being my normal response to such material.

Thanks. This is surprisingly fun. I usually hate the OP protagonist thing too, but the concept here makes it feel kinda fresh. Plus the MC is way too cute.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

Well, I suppose we all do, at least mildly. They are playing everything completely by the center variant of the book so far. Though it is stereotypical, there is a reason why the center variant has its status. Cute, ditzy girls have been scientifically proven to stimulate the male interest, and the show is rather heavy on the fanservice. Still, the show had better show something to differentiate itself from the crowd soon.

I mean, this author's dead and they are putting it up over the heads of works from living, producing authors. There has to be some real merit in this work, right?

I've watched various kinds of all girl shows or almost all girl shows... like Kancolle, Girls und Panzer, Madoka, Love Live, Yuki Yuna is a Hero, and some less popular titles like Hina Logi - spent money buying products of this one since I liked it. The few that I could not stomach are Kirakira precure and that show about cycling in a school with "josou-bu" in it's title. Right now, currently following Toji no Miko and the show about going to Antarctica. I've watched so many of these anime that the lack of any male lead does not bother me at all.

As for Marchen Madchen, I like the art style and the setting of the story.. so even if this goes generic magical girl show all the way, then I still won't drop it.

[arkhangelsk]

We are now up to the 3rd episode.

Spoiler:

As if realizing they are out of time, they start bringing out a suspicious committee's representative who takes a rather stereotypical position. The most interesting part is actually to see whether events will show their side of the story to be any more than pure gas.

And of course we have the other schools, who of course are actually pretty goody-goody types when you get down to it. And we have the MC, who has to overcome some psychological barrier, but really, the result is not in doubt.

And Hazuki (MC), people like airheads but repeating the same neta from last week isn't exactly a winning strategy. Also, I must say her voice actress (I don't care what her name is) really isn't the best, so she often sounds just off-key. Cute voice acting is not just about maintaining a helium pitch, darn it.

Overall, the plot is stereotypical and the execution really average, but throwing in the reserve gained them enough points I'll be here next week.

In an attempt to read ahead a bit and because I have a 20% off coupon to burn, I bought the recently released Manga Book 1. It is just as well it only cost me a couple of hundred yen effective, because the anime has already surpassed the end of that book.

I like how Hazuki's family members are brightened up and actually seem friendly compared to the manga's presentation, but I think they should have found a way to retain a point where even new works like anime and manga also get books, just not very strong ones.

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 3:

Didn't expect that.. so the tournament has the purpose of cleaning the originals. So the thing is if a library full of original books don't get cleaned for a long time... terrible monsters that eat people would start to appear.

Well, looking forward to the tournament.

[FlameSparkZ]

Amusing story with an interesting concept.

I imagine that the older and more famous the story book is, the more power is has? That would explain why they say Cinderella is among the strongest Originals...it is well known around the world, and it might be one of the first "wish fulfilment" stories ever recorded

I'll keep watching this, I'm curious about what kind of Originals the other characters have. (Though I'm kind of expecting the British leader, blatantly called Arthur, to have the Legend of King Arthur as her Original and transforming into a Saber lookalike )

[arkhangelsk]

We are up to episode 4 and they finally did something that surprised me.

Spoiler:

The website did say something about American girl having a nasty edge to her, but considering this story's apparent category, I was taken off guard by the concept that the American girl is actually malicious to the extent she's happy to kill.

I'm also amused considering this day and age that the evil role was not allocated to the Chinese

So, at least they pulled off something fresh. However, while I think American girl is OK as a villain, if they are going to go that stereotypical path of bringing her back from the brink it's going to be challenging to recover from this one.

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 4:

Finally, some action and not just some running around. Also did not expect that Lynn (american girl) is like that, she's almost pure evil... taking advantage of homeless people, telling the homeless person to attack someone who can't transform yet, using dirty tactics like the poison air bath, and I might be wrong but... did she intend to kill the chinese right there?

Kasumi can talk seriously when she has to. Now some more things are revealed about Shizuka's mom.

Looking forward to episode 5.

[arkhangelsk]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Finally, some action and not just some running around. Also did not expect that Lynn (american girl) is like that, she's almost pure evil... taking advantage of homeless people, telling the homeless person to attack someone who can't transform yet, using dirty tactics like the poison air bath, and I might be wrong but... did she intend to kill the chinese right there?

I'd say she was. Anything to release the "good books" and to get them in America. I won't say this is necessarily a bad development - at least it was surprising. A bit like Madoka Magica's Episode 3 in giving a previously lighthearted, stereotypical show a suddenly changed tone. As long as the story doesn't then try to play it as if that was nothing, that Lynn should just be forgiven - that kind of thing.

I guess the part where the Japanese school is in a weak position was no surprise to anyone. It's stereotypical and it isn't like they haven't been hinting at it.

To be fair, they probably aren't homeless. The Japanese just says they don't have a "place to be". I think that means countries that are not America, Britain, China, Russia, India and Japan don't have their own Madchen schools, so children with magical talent there are a bit lost. And Japan is about to join them.

[FlareKnight]

I guess this sets us up for the path of giving Qazan and her group their own place to be with the Japanese school. Though of course not until after the big showdown. Right now she is fairly easy to manipulate even if she knows she's being manipulated. That's how bad the position is for Qazan and her friends. The American girl can be as openly evil as she wants since it isn't as if Qazan has many great options.

In a sense Qazan was basically saved from having to make a hard decision. Obviously was poking Hazuki into figuring out how to use that book and fighting back. At least with Shizuka showing up that takes care of having to try and kill Hazuki. Unreasonable to take that fight any further.

Talk about making mixed media sound like a terrifying thing .

[alex_drian]

Nothing like a bit of suffering for slap the MC in action. Is bad that this week the quality was mediocre, in fact, this week a lot of episodes have this problem.

[FlameSparkZ]

The plot thickens, and the magic world's America is being painted as the bad guy with their experiments regarding mixed media
...and also the deal with Qazan.
However, it seems Britain's leader is also doing her own thing, possibly trying to manipulate Hazuki or make her give up and go back to being a normal girl.
On top of all that, now there's the tension between Hazuki and Shizuka due to her birthday, things don't look good for our little Cinderella

Looking forward to the next episode :3

[felix]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

As for Marchen Madchen, I like the art style and the setting of the story.. so even if this goes generic magical girl show all the way, then I still won't drop it.

They did go all-in on making the protagnoist as adorable as possible. I can't really fault anything about it, if anything suprisingly the cuteness may be the most distracting thing The cinderella modern setting variation works in it's favor as well.

Also pretty happy with the pacing of this. But maybe that's just because watched a bunch of it at once—–-

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 5:

Things are getting interesting now. Hazuki arrive just in time to join the battle... but how to fight without her book. Must be painful running through the streets barefoot.

Eagerly waiting for the next epiosde.


@felix

Cuteness factor is indeed one of the things that kept me here. For me, the weakest episodes are 2 and 3.. somehow felt bland. But episode 4 and 5 made an improvement on things.