Forum - View topicMagic of Stella (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Magic of Stella (TV) Genres: comedy, slice of life Themes: school life, video games Plot Summary: Tamaki Honda is a first-year high school girl who joins a somewhat peculiar "SNS-Bu" circle that makes dōjin (self-published) games. ---------------------------------- Episode 1: Well I guess it was cute. I'm somewhat surprised it's a full length (20+ minute) show as I was expecting a short at first. It kinda reminds me of New Game! as well. Fujikawa is my favorite character so far from the show. This has much less of the office feel though by the looks of it. Not bad, looks fun overall so far. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Between studying and all the shows it looked like this one slipped through the cracks at first.
Episode 1 I can't quite explain it, but something is drawing me in more than I would normally expect. I will start with the OP song. I actually made the comment that one of the things I really liked about the ED of New Game! was its inclusion of a pixelated fire and snake, it is a small thing but I feel like it really kind of speaks to me as a gamer what a pixel art sprite can mean. And the OP of this anime is full of pixel art, like with pixel art versions of all of the characters, and I love that. The credits even invlude the pixel asthetic, something New Game also did, and that is just an added bonus of feeling like it embraces the style that has actually returned in popularity. The general art is cute, maybe a little too much so, but in seems pretty solid. Seeing that this was done by Silver Link reminds me that they have included to release stuff I find personally interesting. None of the characters feel over the top yet, and I kind of want to see more. And the ED, it is kind of odd in that I think that it kind of feels like an old screen saver, and while most of the time this would sound like an insult, I think that along with the tone of the song there feels like something nostalgic... or deep, or I can't tell what but I like it. There is a simplicity there, and I could just close my eyes and enjoy the music. Episode 2 Yeah, there feels like some sort of embrace here of creativity. A bunch of the characters have their own weird ways of being creative, and can be embarrassed by some of the things they make. But even as embarrassing as those things are it feels kind genuine and steps forward in their own growth. I would have expected the blond member to the loud trouble maker, she is the one who does music, but she also seemed to take her part time job seriously. An interesting decision to give a couple of the club members other commitments. And I wonder how the creative process of digital drawing would be like. Her friend also seems to have a personality beyond responsible childhood friend. I also keep thinking that the president looks like Hikage from Non Non Biyori. |
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Yuri Fan
 Posts: 394 Location: Finland |
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The characters are so cute that I forgot they were in high school! #firstworldproblems
(Please note that I use # as a joke. I don't use it in real life.) |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Not that realism has much place in a moe-inflected high school anime, but one waits with bated breath to see whether the programmer will ever voice her grievances at being the only coder in the team. It is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.
But social media is a component of real life as far as it concerns me! We may all be forgiven for a few earnest hashes here and there. |
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Yuri Fan
Posts: 394 Location: Finland |
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I don't even use social media. I only ever use # as a (lame) joke! 
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Pretty solid cute-girls-doing-cute-things show. Characters have a nice easy going chemistry and play off each-other well. I do like that they are actually going through the process of creating a doujin game. As a programmer I'm looking forward to see how they'll tackle Shiina's responsibility in the club. The manga author I've heard has created some doujin games so there will at least be some experience and first-hand programming knowledge involved.
That said the translation for this series really leaves a lot to be desired. As the protagonist in the Ayame's scenario laments that there is no longer a 'player' to select a choice, the subs read "I've chosen a player, now there's no one else who will play". This line makes absolutely no sense. It would only confuse a viewer who doesn't already know the situation. The next line "No one else can choose this so I'm stuck here!" does at least get the point across, |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
Granny! 
In general I think the show has been doing great with characters having multiple sides. Like granny being friendly or could be terrifying when ticked off. And our main character's fixation on older men is making her fun. And I thought the creative use of their creation limitations is fun, their game story idea being somewhat meta. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 4
I really think that this series has gone beyond its cute appearance. It is hitting a few familiar beats, but in general it feels like it does have an air of creativity. Although on cuteness, I think that it came to mind that this show reminds me a bit of Acchi Kocchi (Place to Place), a cute show that kind of became forgotten but I think quite fondly of. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episodes 5, 6 and 7
 I am really liking this show.
There was this particularly interesting effect that might have been easy to miss, but the 6th episode's ED was kind of glitch as if it was on an old VHS tape. It is a little thing that may mean nothing to anyone, but I super liked it for the nostalgic factor effect, which has also been what I have felt over the 8bit sprites, the effect of little touches can have a big impact with me. And really I am just echoing my praises over the characters being multi-faceted, despite the light tone they continue to be fun to watch. They are light, but not dull. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 9
I really like how this episode handled things like being in a creative slump, and her kind of noticing things about her interest from getting more serious. The parts where she started taking pictures of herself to draw felt really naturally in how awkward she looked or felt over the whole thing. And also doing it just before tests and just waving them away because they are not really important. It was totally teenager. Even if her Electra complex is a bit out of control for her age. |
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Zork
 Posts: 199 |
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I'm enjoying this show quite a bit. The comedy is subtle but funny and the interaction between the girls is well done.
I see the ending does not show any of the show's characters in it as the credits are rolling. I can't recall any other anime where at least the main character doesn't show up in the ED. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
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Magic of Stella is my favorite show of the season. That's about all I can say decisively about it as I'm going to be forever five episodes behind but it's a well executed comedy series on par with Servant x Service for its character driven gags and set ups that, somehow, makes an effective story out of nothing when you don't even expect it to add up to anything.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
And so, the girls finish making the game and release it at Comiket. They all manage to get to the event and feel fulfilled over it all. And after a day out celebration Tamaki remembers that she wanted to make a game, and so they start on their next project, being what Tamaki likes. It is a nice ending that gives the feeling of reward for their work and the end of one project is the beginning of another. And as usual the different quirks of the characters. Magic of Stella has been a pretty good anime, I am giving it a rating of Very good (8/10), it might look like just fluff, but I think that is well done that the anime kind of succeeds past the expected limitations of such a slice of life genre. It is not out of being like the super cutest or a master of atmosphere, which is like how Non Non Biyori is particularly great, but it has its own thing. Most notably is how it handles the creative process, which probably beats out New Game from earlier this year, actually even the characters share some kind of similarities. But Magic of Stella kind of capitalised on making these characters feel multifaceted. Even the main character has some little similarity, like she is a particularly young looking girl who is fresh faced and kind, and yet friends around them also see a kind of hidden sadist or “seme” side. Tamaki also has her own quirky interests. Actually, I can’t even really look at any particular part of the show that might say that it is “Very good” level, but really I think that MoS managed to make itself better than the sum of its parts, it is simply solidly put together. I tend to find that this is something that Silver Link quite often manage to do. I am also fond of the artistic choices from feeling of nostalgia, some choices in uses of 8-bit, and I think ED song is particularly great, despite the ED not really being exciting it feels really atmospheric. Honestly I think that I just enjoyed Magic of Stella for what it was, it appealed to me, I expect others would not enjoy it as much as me, but the rare person with tastes like myself might find it well worth time. |
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