Soushin Shoujo Matoi

Soushin Shoujo Matoi For my rating system I did not use the 1-10 scale. I used the 1-5 "The Little Man" Scale. For more information check out my profile. Story: (2) Let's start of with the weakest part of the show, which is the story. In general it is a basic light-hearted magic girl story. The main character just one day stumbles into this world of exorcism and needs to learn everything about it before fighting evil.(sound familiar ?) In each episode they face new monsters to save themself or others, but rather than having a clear set end goal the show is more about the character interactions, theirbackstory or what they wish for. That is why I would argue that the show is rather character-driven. One of the biggest problems that the show, in terms of story has is that in the early stage the writting fails massivly to engage the viewer into the story. At first it felt convoluted in some aspects and made next to no progress, also they made no effort to develop the main cast. That is why they were kinda awful at first. A major factor that it felt convoluted was that there were two organisations introduced early on and both of them were for the most part of the show completly meanigless. One is a bit understandable since one of the main cast was with them, but the other one was completly pointless and felt tacked on. There are also some things about the different dimensions which were poorly explained as well. What you also should expect coming into this is your typical deus ex Machina Shoujo/Shounen type writing. So if you want some smart tactics to turn the tides of battles or a well thought out plan before engaging this will definitely not be your cup of tee. The other thing that Shounen/Shoujo battle type writing is also present in here, which means that there is a clear cut between the good/bad characters. You will find next to no gray areas in this show. The positive side of the story is that all loose ends are tied up and I found no majoy plot-holes. Animation: (4) The studio that is responsible for this Anime is White Fox and the art director in charge was Yoshito Takamine, who also made the art for Re:Zero Kara and Akame ga Kill. With that being said, you can probably imagine what type of quality the animation in this show has. Let's start off with the battle scenes they look gorgeous. The attacks look stunning, especially the one from the main character. There are next to no flaws with that. The only nitpick I have is that they did nothing insanely great like rotation-shots or highly dynamic scenes. This results out of the fights being most of the time either ranged attacks or one-shot melee attacks. Next are the backgrounds they have a consistently high standard and do not feel cheap. The only thing I wished for would be that they should have had more variety on the higher dimensions(besides the highest one which was fascinating to look at). At last we come to the characters and how they looked. The thing I disliked the most about them is their faces. There are 2 different types of faces in this show, which is sometimes a bit strange. Other than I really liked the costumes. They were unique for each character and they fit the personality of the character quite well. For the design of the villains they were easy to differentiate too. However I think some of their designs looked too simple. Sound: (5) Now we get into the good part. The music for this show is done by Katou Tatsuya his other works include the OSTs for Mirai Nikki, Free and Shokugeki no Souma. The OST he created for this show is orchestral for the most part, yet it also has some pieces which are played on flute. He also uses vocals on his soundtrack. Some are used in the form of a chorus and some are used as a solo, not as a language, but to add the sound of a human voice to his pieces. One Track in particular is exceptionally well made, which is the one that plays after most fights shift in favor of the good side. The OP/ED are not outstanding, yet I listened to both of them a couple of times. The seiyuus did also a fine job in carrying the emotional weight that their respective roles had. I especially liked Shingo's Seiyuu. However I thought that one in particular was over-the-top cartoonish. The sound is definitely not the best one I heard yet, but it is really memorable and terrifically made. Character: (4) Have I mentioned that the show started of uninteresting yet ? Well the weak start, on the side of the story, was like poison for the characters early on too. At first sight the main cast consisted of an annoying-loudmouthed sidekick, a badass sidekick and our main character which ran around like a headless chicken for the first 4 Episodes. However all of the 3 main cast members improved tremendously when each of them got their dedicated episodes to them. Especially the main heroine went from really cowardly over a phase of struggle and doubt to become someone capable accepting her fate. This is a rather standard development for most heroes/heroines, but I really want to point out that it was done well in this show. All of the characters had also clear and understandable motivations for what they did. Besides the characters individually their relationships also grew a lot. For me personally the best depicted one, was between Matoi and her father Shigeo. It had layers and was well constructed from start to finish. From the awkward interactions to some stuff I won't spoil here, it was a really heartfelt story. From the 6-7 supporting cast members there was only one character, which was, in my eyes, completely pointless and had no reason to be in the story at all. The rest had either and emotional weight or were crucial for the story progression. A bit of a letdown in the character section were also the villains. Most of them had no real backstory, no motivation for what they did and were overall completely lackluster. In some regard it felt like that some of them were only there to be smashed. Enjoyment:(4) I had no expectations coming into this show, but it positively surprised me and exceeded my expectations, because I probably enjoyed it more than I should have. Still the target audience was not my demographic, because of that I did not like the storytelling of too much black/white. I could have been layered better with some shades of gray. It also started of rather generic for the first 4-5 Episodes. Which made me drop it for around 2 weeks. However as the show progressed the characters grew more and more up to the point, where they started to become likable. Also for the Animation White Fox brought their A-Game and put a lot of effort into most of the scenes. Besides that the OST is gorgeous and elevates the show with well timed orchestral pieces and a beautiful battle theme. Overall I would say besides the weak story and the shallow antagonists the show had everything I hoped for and I enjoyed watching it.

DISCLAIMER: Had to re-upload because of fallacies in my opening statement. Matoi the Sacred Slayer is an under-viewed show but don't let that stop you from watching it if you are a fan of the magical girl genre. An area that I find MtSS to be particular lacking is the plot/story department which is what this show struggles with to a large extent. I can’t confirm whether it wants to be an episodic show with an overarching storyline or that it undergoes the linear format which is not the case through retrospection. It all takes off with shrine maiden Sumeragi Matoi being shocked with the fact thatshe has managed to awaken her latent magical abilities. This act of transforming in to a magical girl is called a Divine Union, which is the process of undergoing a physical connection with a supernatural God that has manifested itself and is unique to that individual. This enables her to consciously borrow powers from her aligned God to partake in battles involving demons that are commonly known as Nights. These ‘Nights’ are evil demons that take possession of unsuspecting individuals, hence allowing them to manipulate their bodies to their liking while deriving the host of their own consciousness. There isn’t much to add to this point as most episodes follow the same format of encountering a Night at some point. The lack of variation is the downfall for this series, the residue of depth that is left to be filtered is a quick process because in the end its just magical girls fighting enemy demons. There is expansion in the form of how the world functions combating these walking disasters known as the Nights. The anti-creed of Fatima is an organisation based in the Vatican with the objective of banishing all the Nights from the world. They send out two individuals with one of them being Clarus Tonitolus aiding in the efforts of fighting these atrocities that are out to do harm. It is known she can activate Divine Union herself but it is usually controlled due to the fact she is supervised by her superior Cariot, who she reports to on a timely basis. A character known as Haruka Luciela makes her introduction representing a scientific organisation called the IATO. Her role is basically to record the findings of Nights through special instruments which can detect their presence as they appear which isn’t hard to do considering they all turn up next to Matoi. There is some exposition with regards to the world and the number of dimensions that exist in the universe. The peaceful Gods and mischievous Nights vacate a total of 24 dimensions which sounds kind of silly at first, it just feels like an arbitrary number. They could instead have a single different dimension housing the supernatural entities to simplify things but that’s just a minor gripe of mine. The lack of plot does not give rise to poorly written characters, quite the contrary in fact. Matoi having just reunited with her detective father Sumeragi Shingo is struggling to adjust with her new surroundings. The idea of calling her father on a first name basis feels strange but understandable when you consider the fact she was living with her grandparents just recently. The absence of her mother who disappeared without a trace is noticeable which was brought up countless times by Shingo. The awkwardness is there, as Matoi finds it a challenge just to make small talk with her only existing parent. The longing of her mother is a dream that she wants fulfilled sincerely and her father shares the same exact sentiments through his inner monologues. An aspect that irks me is the lack of openness between each other, as Matoi keeps her identity of being a shrine maiden of Divine Union a secret to avoid implications. Kusanagi Yuma is apparently the cousin of Matoi considering she is also a shrine maiden herself and is quite clingy at times. She comes from a family of priests who specialise in the act of exorcism and are quite informed about Divine Unions and Gods in general. Yuma is known to have had her abilities sealed, as they leaked out during her early childhood but has managed to reawaken them through determination and sheer persistence. The other user of Divine Union Clarus is given some characterisation during her screen time which is seen through her flashbacks. A close friend of Clarus’ was left in a vegetative state after being attacked by a Night which has only fuelled more fire to her hatred of the Nights. Her objective in the end is to help the goals of Fatima to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. Other than that, she doesn’t progress that much and remains largely a static character. I didn’t mention this until now but one aspect I found to be just stupid and quite frankly unnecessary was the reversion of Divine Union. The reversion causes the magical girls to lose all their clothes, effectively leaving them buck naked for all to see which in this case are middle schoolers, who are under the age of 16 and are classified as children. It got so bad to the point that Matoi was contemplating on stocking up on clothes considering her closet was running bare. This isn’t a pet peeve but an actual concern of criticism. This would be resolved if this wasn’t inserted in the script and countless shows have gotten around this issue – see One Piece and logia devil fruit users. Now on to the general aesthetics of the show, the character designs are looking smooth but for the females is giving them that moe look to appeal to the targeted audience (them otaku). The designs are kind of exaggerated with the eyes being enlarged but not to the level of Clannad. The characters are distinct in terms of appearance making them easily distinguishable. For example, Haruka is the blonde lady wearing the cream office suit accompanied by her large bosom. That was an extreme example but the fact of the matter is, she’s only there for fan service. The animation by White Fox is fine but there was no ‘Sakuga’ scenes I could find and it feels inferior to Re;Zero’s animation which finished last season. It might just be the art style in general but nothing stood out apart from the flashy colour palette which contributed to the glitter and flashiness. The sound is composed by Katou Tatsuya who is known for his works Mirai Nikki, Shoukugeki no Souma just to name a few. The show incorporates a lot of wind composed music which is evident in the opening and other segments. The use of the drums is emphasised to the point it may be a standalone piece or in combination with other instruments. The drums are personally to my liking as it’s complementary to the Japanese setting which involves shrine maidens, who are most familiar with its usage. The voice acting for the characters was alright but for characters like Yuma felt way too childish compared to their age, other than that nothing stood out as being noteworthy. To conclude, the show is not that imaginative compared to other similar series. You'll get a happy ending in this one for those seeking that type of finale. It's kind of meh to me as it never really resonated with me.

Soushin Shoujo Matoi is a magical girls genre anime that follows a rather ordinary girl as she inadvertently summons the powers of a god that gives her the power to become a magical girl whose purpose is to exorcise evil spirits. While certainly sounding like a average magical girls anime which was my initial thought as well the anime actually has a deeper lesson which is that of friendship that can overcome the hardest of hardships and that if your wish for something is strong enough they may very well come true. Soushin Shoujo Matoi follows the lives of Matoi Sumeragi a rather ordinary 14year old that just moved into the area to live with her father. Matoi is also a trainee shrine maiden that works at the local shrine. One day Matoi and her best friend Yuma inadvertently summon a god that grants Matoi the power to become a magical girl and thus becoming a rather unwilling defender of the city that she and her father live in. Matoi's appearance draws in different parties to determine who she is and at the same time she must defend the city against the evil spirits called nights that seek to unite the various dimensions that Earth is part off and rule over it. Along the way Matoi also discovers what made her mother leave her family and must also find and rescue her while fighting her own battles. Matoi Matoi voiced by veteran seiyuu Ayaka Suwa of Absolute Duo and Asterisk wars fame is one of the main characters of the show. A 15 year old trainee Miko that works at the local shrine with her best friend Yuma Matoi recently moved into the area to live with her father Shingo after her mothers sudden departure. Because she lived mostly with her mother she has little experience in living with her father and their attempts to know each other is one of the central points of the story. Matoi is a rather ordinary girl in that she cares little for fame or fortune and her one wish is to be an ordinary girl that has a ordinary family. Upon being granted the power of Divine possession by her friend and being granted a god and being able to transform into a magical girl Matoi was scared of the power and did not want to use it and want it as she just wanted to be ordinary. However this attitude of hers changes as she saves more and more people and finds the meaning of this and thus gaining the courage and reason for being a hero. This slow gradual evolution of Matoi from the meek and easily scared girl to a girl that understands that her powers can be used to help and save those in need as well as protect those dear to her i felt was well done and one of the highlights of the show. Heroes are rarely ready for their duties and roles that they have been thrust into and most often they must find the reason why that they must fight for and the people that they should be protecting. Matoi's evolution i felt exemplified this belief perfectly. Ayaka Suwa i felt did a great job portraying the character of Matoi. Yuma Yuma voiced by veteran seiyuu Naomi Oozora is one of the main characters of the show. A 13 year old girl Yuma is Matoi's best friend and they both actually work at the shrine that her family owns. Cheerful, Hyperactive and loyal Yuma acts as the comic relief for the show always managing to cheer Matoi and co up when things look grim. Unlike Matoi Yuma wanted to become an exorcist because many of her ancestors were and will go to any lengths to become one. Yuma's inadvertent ritual was what gave Matoi the power of Divine Possession. Yuma's determination to become a exorcist forms one of the subplots for the story and was actually quite an enjoyable one when one sees just how much Yuma wants to become one and i was glad that the arc ended with her becoming one. Yuma's seiyuu Naomi Oozora i felt did a great job portraying the energetic and lively Yuma and even in the most dire of situations her voice still makes me smile. Clarus Clarus voiced by veteran seiyuu Haruka Tomatsu of Sword Art online fame is one of the main characters of the show. A 15 year old girl and member of the Fatima which in the anime is the Vatican's secret anti creed service that deals with nights and creeds which are powerful demons. Clarus is an interesting character as she exhibited the most change out of all of the main characters of the show so much in fact that she seemed to have two different personalities. Clarus's first personality was a rather cold one that was all business with her only goal to eliminate the enemies of her organisation. Her only other goal at this time was to destroy the creed killer that was responsible for harming her former partner. This version of her i didn't like much as she was too focused on revenge and didn't care about anything else. Clarus's personality does eventually change after she meets Matoi and Yuma and she quickly discovers the joys of having friends and someone that she can do what 15 year old girls should be doing namely hanging out, going shopping and eating delicious food. As a result of this Clarus actually become more positive having made friends that she cares about and with them plenty of good memories. This ultimately caused her to reevaluate herself and resulted in Clarus becoming happier and deciding to fight to protect their friendship. Haruka Tomatsu i felt really did a great job here as the character of Clarus had many facets of personality that demanded great attention to which Haruka was easily able to portray. Luciela Haruka Luciela Haruka is one of the support characters on the show and is voiced by veteran seiyuu Ayako Kawasumi. A member of the IATO that also fights against the nights her character originally came to Japan to find out about the divine possession that was housed in Yuma's shrine but later become one of Matoi and Co's strongest allies. Shingo Shingo voiced by veteran voice actor Hiroki Touchi is one of the support characters of the show and is Matoi's father. A hard working police detective Shingo in addition to his job also has to deal with living with a daughter that until recently was living with his wife. Shingo's attempts to get to know his daughter form one of the central points of the anime and it was rather enjoyable seeing them try their hardest to get to know each other. As a police detective Shingo often has to deal with the effects of nights attacks on civilians within the city which often makes it hard for Matoi to operate and as such watching Matoi hide from Shingo during and after such a operation is quite funny. Watching the bond between the two develop over the series though was pretty heartwarming and even more so when the third arc stepped in. Azumi Azumi is a high ranking shrine maiden that works with Yuma's grandfather. Despite being a rather short woman Azumi is actually quite powerful and also has a rather mischievous personality that allows her to deal with different types of people quite easily and quite humorously for those involved. Azumi was played by veteran seiyuu Mayumi Shintani. Hideo Tezuka(Pochi) Hideo Tezuka that Shingo calls Pochi is a police detective that assists Shingo in his cases. Lazy, carefree and a womanizer one wonders how he become a police officer and indeed Pochi mainly serves as comic relief for the show along with Yuma. Later on it becomes clear that Pochi is not who he seems to be. Amane Yayoi Amane Yayoi voiced by veteran seuyuu Ayahi Takagaki of Sword art online fame is a shrine maiden that works for an organisation that fights the nights in Japan. Amane knew Matoi's mother Shiori and respected her a great deal and was also her best friend. Amane and everyone that she works with knows the sacrifice that Shiori made in sealing the hole that threatened the world. As such Amane took Shiori's words and wishes too heart and took care of Matoi and Shingo. When Amane discovered that Matoi had also become a magical girl Amane was surprised that she was following in the footsteps of her mother and provided her with advice on her fears and worries that she had. Most importantly Amane was able to tell Matoi her mothers reason for taking up her task that caused her to vanish further easing her burdens and making Matoi understand the reason her mother chose that path. Amane's seiyuu Ayahi Takagaki i felt did a great job portraying Amane and despite being a support character i felt that she could have been a good main character as well. Arts and animation Art style for the series i felt was pretty well done with the character designs being pretty well designed. The fight scenes were very well animated and detailed and the environments were nicely drawn and designed. Music The series had some really good music and i loved the opening and ending themes. The series also made skillful use of insert songs which was all pretty good. Voice acting Voice acting for the series i felt was top notch with particular praise going to Ayaka Suwa, Naomi Oozora and Haruka Tomatsu who voiced Matoi, Yuma and Clarus respectively. Ayahi Takagaki who portrayed Amane also did a great job playing her character. Conclusion Soushin Shoujo Matoi i felt was a great anime that had a great story, excellent setting, excellent fight scenes and well designed characters that was played by an excellent voice cast. Initially i wasn't so sure of Matoi as a character as i felt that she lacked the motivation and the reason to be a hero but i stuck with it and i have to say that im glad that i did. Seeing Matoi's gradual evolution as a character from being scared and indecisive to a determined and skilled magical girl that finds a reason to fight and the things that she wants to protect was really heartwarming and im glad that in the end Matoi was able to seal the hole and save the world while also using her wish to save her mother. Matoi's ultimate goal and wish of finding her mother and bringing her back so that she can have an ordinary family like an ordinary girl does sound silly when you put it that way but it was a great wish that emphasized on Matoi's personality which is that of an ordinary girl. This was an anime that started slow but gradually got better as it went on with each character getting plenty of character development ultimately making them better characters.

What does living an ordinary life mean to you? How much of it would you be willing to give up for the sake of protecting it? Soushin Shoujo Matoi is here to bring us answers to these questions from the perspective of a middle school girl who, as most magical do, accidentaly gets magic powers and is forced to save the world. And with that one sentence I have pretty much summed up the story of Matoi. Story is not the forte nor is it the focus in the anime. It much more serves as the backdrop and device to keep the characters busy rather than actually beingthe point of interest. And I can't say I was bothered too much by this fact. Everything else in the anime, especially the characters and overall atmosphere of the anime, manages to keep it an interesting watch. Before I go ahead and talk a bit about the characters I want to take some time and address what I think were the goals of the anime. Storytelling goes out the window since as I've mentioned earlier going into the anime and expecting a good story is as foolish as going into AnoHana expecting a knee-slapping comedy. But the anime manages to even make what little story it has not boring by going against and embracing certain magical girl tropes. The anime in the beggining almost feels like a parody of the entire magical girl genre, except it really isn't. I don't know if parody was their goal but the entire middle part of the anime feels like one big joke. Heck at one point, one of the main characters even hijacks the opening sequence. In all seriousness though, I think the writers for the show must have somehow forgotten their original plan when writting past the second episode, since the first episode starts out as regular mahou shoujo fair and is by far the most boring episode of the series. After the second episode and up until the later parts of the final arc there is little to no seriousness to be found in the show. I don't know why the show is like this, but it works and if it weren't like this and would instead go for a more standard and cliched, more cliched than it already is, route it would have been way less entertaining. But enough about the seriously confused writing, I'll take some time now to talk about the more important characters of the show starting with, obviously, our main exorcist girl Matoi. Matoi feels like a main character that's also part of the comic relief duo of the show. Which is really odd considering that at one moment she needs to act like the straight man to her counterpart Yuma, and the next moment she needs to be super serious tackling some super-dimensional threat. In the beginning of the show she is the unwilling mahou shoujo with an attitude that makes her instantly likeable. She doesn't want to be a magical girl and she let's you know it. As far as her character development goes, she might be the only character in the show to undergo any major developement with her slowly warming up to her job as a magical girl. After Matoi we have the sidekick characters Clarus and Yuma who could form a comedic duo in their own right. In fact, any character in the show when put together with Yuma will probably seem like the straight man of the duo. You'd think that her constant hyperactive, loud, obnoxious antics would get old and annoying quickly but they miraculously don't. In fact she might be my favourite character from the entire show just because she has the "loudest" personality, even when every other character is dead serious, she isn't. She manages to be obnoxious to the characters in the show without being obnoxious to the viewer. Probably because we never actually see a character get annoyed at her, which makes her feel less frustrating than she actually is. Clarus on the other hand is the most serious character on the show, if you discount her dead-inside partner that is. Once again we are presented with an extreme to round off our trio of magical girls. She is the extremely focused on her job, no-nonsense, blonde who balances out Yuma's shennanigans. If you've ever seen this type of character before, you can probably guess how her story plays out especially after finding out that wishes empower the beings that give the girls their powers. You can't have characters in an anime without animating them and holy hell did White Fox ever screw the pooch on that. The anime uses a mix of CG and handdrawn animation in most of it's scenes and for the most part the special effects and fight scenes look decent and there's not much I can comment on there. The animation for the less action-packed parts of the anime sometimes looks like it was done in 2 minutes by an some unpaid intern. Faces often times look derpy and limbs, especially hands look like there was little to no effort put into them. Sometimes when characters are in motion they look a bit gooey and the linework all around looks a bit unstable. It's not the worst I've ever seen, Studio Pierrot has done worse, but it would still pull me out of the experience whenever I saw a derp face or a misshapen hand or leg. All in all I think Soushin Shoujo Matoi deserves a bit more recognition than it got because it is a genuinely fun anime and should appeal to most mahou shoujo fans. Even if you're generally not a fan of magical girls this anime does away with a few of the cliches that make magical girl anime be a bit repetitive. It doesn't pull a Madoka on the genre, nor does it perfectly embrace the tropes of the genre like Cardcaptor Sakura but it does what it wants to do really well and manages to create a very entertaining experience. If you're looking for a more recent entry into the genre I suggest you give this title a shot.

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