With Morgiana down for the count, Aladdin and Alibaba have an uphill battle to face that’s only getting worse.

What They Say:
Isnan, an emissary from Al-Thamen, appears with Princess Dunya of the now-defunct nation, Musta’sim. She insults Alibaba by calling him a “prince whose country was overrun and destroyed.” In her hand is the same Dark Metal Vessel that Cassim had held…

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Magi certainly started moving in a big way after the initial burst of action that had a good sense of adventure about it. The bonding time with Hakuryu was definitely welcome and it’s pretty necessary going by appearances as we shift into the final arc. With Morgiana down for the count at the moment and the arrival of Isnan with a definite threat about him as he represents a will from Al-Thamen, things simply do not look good for the main cast of characters. And rightly so, between what’s happened to Sinbad and the others back at the island and the way these guys are a bit weaker after their recent actions and adventures. That sense of fun that was welcome has been removed for the moment in order to get very, very serious. Which the series does well, if just a bit too much of.

The show has the two main arcs going on here, split a little bit in some ways, that keeps the action going well. Wihle Aladdin and Alibaba have to face off against Isnan, Sinbad and his group back on the island are squaring off against Judar, who still has quite the chip on his shoulder and is just raising the stakes with what the Kou empire has on hand to deal with all those that they want to subjugate and conquer. It’s not all action though as things actually manage to settle a bit as it instead goes for some dialogue and a fair bit of a standoff, which is an interesting turn to take. But that’s more so with what Sinbad is trying to deal with in order to stave off a bigger issue, allowing the real fight to reside with Alibaba and Aladdin.

And we do get some good action to be had there as the pair face off against an interesting group of opponents. Though there’s a bit of a back and forth to it in some ways, we do get to see that Aladdin is proving pretty capable, especially with the recently gained knowledge that he has a near inexhaustible supply of energy with which to use magic. That makes him pretty powerful, but his opponents can get in some pretty good hits as well, especially considering their dark powers. But as I’ve found from this particular arc, since things settled down after the lengthy piece in Balbadd, I’ve been losing interest in the show as it hasn’t felt like it really has a direction. It does have one, but it’s coming across as less than focused and interesting and it’s certainly upped the power level and scale of the characters involved in a way that doesn’t feel like it fits with the earlier arcs in the series.

In Summary:
Magi doesn’t break any new ground here and what it presents is decent and serviceable, but it’s lacking any real heart or connection. The subplots I want to follow, such as seeing what’s going on with Morgiana, is kept minimal here and a good chunk of it revolves around fighting. Which isn’t always a bad thing as the show can really shine in that area. But it’s produced an array of uninteresting villains without enough of a background to make them compelling while also turning it into more of a standard shonen show in some ways. There’s some beautiful animation here and nothing is skimped in that regard, but the story has almost lost me at this point and I’m just enjoying it through inertia and the main cast of characters as they face challenges that I can’t find myself caring about.

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.