Magical Sempai

Magical Sempai

Magical Sempai anime series cover art
Magical Sempai

Overview

Magical Sempai (Tejina-senpai / 手品先輩) was one of the better anime series of the Summer 2019 season. But unfortunately, the episodes were only 13 minutes long, not the full 24. And I do think this is a series which would have benefited from having full-length episodes.

That said, it’s not as if the half-length episodes really hurt the series in any way. Each episode is broken up into multiple, standalone-ish skits. The reason full-length episodes would have been better is simply because more skits could have been squeezed into each episode.

This series is an adaptation of a manga and was created by the studio LIDENFILMS. You may recognize them from series like Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches and Hanebado! Overall they make some pretty decent anime, but nothing that really stands out — this is no exception.

And with tags like “comedy,” “ecchi,” “school,” and “seinen,” you really shouldn’t go into this series expecting to find your next 10/10 anime. But I have to say, for what it is, it was good — not second season coming soon good, but good.

If you like comedy and ecchi series I think this is definitely one to try. If those genres typically aren’t for you, then you probably won’t get much from this series.

“Plot”

The plot of Magical Sempai is fairly straightforward. There’s a school magic club that doesn’t have enough members to survive, but its crazy “club” president refuses to let it die. However, most other series with this initial setup follow our main characters as they revive the club and save their school from doom and destruction.

This isn’t the case in Magical Sempai.

Instead, the club president just wants to perform magic. She doesn’t really care if the magic club is official or not, other than the fact that as an official club she gets a room to practice in. But she was already using a room anyway, so it’s not like being official matters all that much.

Senpai from the anime series Magical Sempai
Senpai

In order to stay afloat, the magic club is eventually forced to merge with the equally small street performance club. And while the leaders of these two halves won’t admit it, they both do essentially the same thing. Magic is a street performance, after all.

But, that’s not the only form of plot this series has. There’s also the “plot” which is really the reason most people probably picked up this series. The leaders of both halves of the magic and street performance club definitely have large “plots,” but I think the street performance plot is bigger.

It’s a tough call, really. Let me know which side you think has the bigger “plot” in the comments.

There’s also the science club which is located next door. Despite only having one member this club doesn’t seem like it’s in danger of being shut down — probably because it’s actually academic. But one thing is for sure, it doesn’t have much “plot.”

Characters

The titular Magical Sempai is never actually given a real name. Instead, she’s simply known as Senpai. It’s kind of like how all the characters in Goblin Slayer don’t have real names either. If there’s one thing Senpai loves, it’s magic. Unfortunately, she’s terrible at it and only gets worse when she has to perform in front of others due to stage fright.

Senpai’s assistant is simply known as Assistant-kun. He doesn’t particularly care about magic one way or the other, but he was still convinced by Senpai to join the magic club. Or, it’s more appropriate to say that Assistant-kun felt bad because Senpai has no friends. Her large “plot” also factored into his decision to stick around.

Saki, Senpai, and Madara in their bathing suits from the anime series Magical Sempai
Saki, Senpai, and Madara in their bathing suits

Saki-chan is the president of the street performance half of the magic and street performance club. While street performance is her passion, she’s not as obsessed with it as Senpai is with Magic. She’s also quite good at street performing. However, she is obsessed with her younger brother, Ma-kun (no, not the one from Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?).

Ma-kun, as just mentioned, is Saki-chan’s younger brother. He’s the other member of the street performance half of the club. Despite how Saki-chan talks about him, Ma-kun is a pretty average, yet overweight, high school student. He’s also not obsessed with his sister like she is with him.

The final character who matters is Madara-san, the one and only member of the science club. She doesn’t make many appearances throughout the series, which is unfortunate because she’s voiced by Rie Takahashi. But at the same time, her character isn’t all that entertaining anyway.

Conclusion

I ended up giving Magical Sempai a 7/10, which is surprisingly higher than it was rated on MAL. Though, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering my ratings rarely match up with those found there. But it’s still somewhat surprising that people wouldn’t like this series.

Magical Sempai is by no means a great anime, but I don’t see anything it does wrong. It has a decent amount of ecchi for an ecchi series, it’s funny, and it has likable characters. What more can you really ask for with a series like this?

Oh, and it actually has a really good OP and ED. The OPs from this season were surprisingly good all around, and Magical Sempai is no exception. However, I think the ED is even better for this particular series. Both the song and the visuals are better than the OP.

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