Aladdin continues to get caught up in events as the tribe rallies around Baba.

What They Say:
Aladdin’s faith in Hakuei is well-founded – she is trying to make the Kouga Empire a protectorate through peaceful means but falls victim to Ryosai’s scheme. Unaware of this, the Kouga Clan is enraged over the attack on Grandma, and prepares for battle.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show refocusing on just Aladdin in the previous episode, with a good nod towards Alibaba, we got to see a bigger part of the landscape when it comes to Aladdin’s story. His time with the nomadic tribe has given him some time to bond with others, but it’s come at a time when the Kou empire is intent on bringing them into the fold. Peaceably was their intent, but some in their forces are just itching for a fight and cause one easily enough. One that sets quite a division among those in the tribe as Baba ended up wounded and there’s a number of people, an overwhelming amount really, which makes it hard to turn back the tide of war. Which is, of course, the last thing that Baba wanted to have happen.

This is a difficult situation for Aladdin to watch since he doesn’t particularly care for violence in a way and especially the idea of so many people dying. But we see that those of the tribe that are against the fight are intent on pushing back against it, sometimes in very dramatic ways as they do what they can to calm their own people. While I expected to see the younger set try and do their best to sway people, or to have Aladdin get involved, instead it’s Baba who makes the trek out to stop them in their tracks with an impassioned speech, one that ist definitely her last. But it’s the kind of defining moment that works well for the character and the tribe but also for Aladdin to see and understand, helping to educate him just a little bit more.

While this does set the tone well for the tribe, it doesn’t stop what the Kou empire is intent on doing with this particular force. It does shift the dynamic to just a few of the key people in the tribe to do the fighting, along with Aladdin, that in the end gives us Hakuei with a pretty powerful look about her doing what needs to be done. The action part of the episode is a good deal of fun as it unfolds here as the two sides go at it, but it’s when Aladdin’s djinn shows up, and another one as well, that things get quirky and weird in a way. As we’ve seen with other djinn, there are some real personalities here and they have some engaging conversations with each other that we aren’t privy to since Aladdin’s has no head. It does work to set the course of the show just a bit more though since it’s all about the Kou empire and it expands the idea of the magi just enough.

In Summary:
Magi continues to be an interesting series and one that I think has a lot of potential to it, but it still comes across as one that doesn’t have a strong direction to it. I do like the idea of Aladdin searching out other magi and understanding what it is that he is, but it feels like there really needs to be something more to it than just him traveling around and getting into situations. I do like the situations he gets into, but it’s easy to lose interest in it in this fashion after awhile, even if it is as well animated as it is. This episode has some very striking sequences to it when it comes to the action and runs the story decently, but it still is a story that doesn’t have a big draw or a lot of engaging reasons to really care what’s going on beyond the basic idea of one side being bullied by the other when they shouldn’t.

Grade: B

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.