Customer Reviews

Magic User's Club! (Maho Tsukai Tai) - Boxed Set

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you look past the perversion as just FUN FUN FUN, then the series is for you!

This is one of my favorite OAVs series (Oh! My Goddess being another)! This tells the story of a Magic Users Club at a high school. Now this club only has.. 5 people (including the president), not to mention that one of them rarely comes. In this day and age, there is an alien object that came from space which people call the 'bell.' The world couldn't destroy it at all and then they just let it be because they thought the bell was harmless. They had all these things come out to join society (which just look like big round balls). They appeared normal, I mean, they even stopped at crosswalks with the other pedestrians!

Well, the Magic Users Club is headed by a big pervert who just wanted to look cool to the other underclassmen (who are all girls). He said that he was going to take out that bell and our naive main character, Sae, always believed him. So they all actually went to try to go after the bell but difficulties arrived. Anyway, I don't want to spoil anymore, just wanted to give you some background info. This is a really fun, great anime. It's simply magical and I think anyone would like it.

The OAVs have 6 episodes in all with a TV series to continue it which Media Blasters will release after the OAV.

Magic User's Club (Maho Tsukai Tai) is one of those anime titles that hasn't really made a big name for itself. Which is a shame as the animation is top notch on the OVA episodes. (1-6 on DVDs 1, 2 and 3) This is thanks to the input of Ikuko Ito (Sailor Moon , R, S and SuperS) This is the work she made instead of staying to work on Sailor Moon Stars. The colours are bold and cheerful and the animation is smooth and fun.
The series itself comes in two parts; The OVA episodes and the TV episodes. The OVA is far better visually and by means of storyline, but both are funny and follow the exploits of humourous and loveable characters.
This is a series that should be more popular but isn't. Something I attribute to the 'more mature' content and the sub-standard english language version. Luckily the japanese dialogue version with english subtitles is selectable.
Anyone who enjoys the likeable aspects of Sailor Moon and the adult humour of Uncut episodes of Tenchi Muyo! will love this series. (and the subbed version features the voice talent of Masaya Onosaka who has played Jadeite in Sailor Moon and Vash The Stampede from Trigun)

This is one of the best anime series out there.
Totally underrated and under-appreciated.
Its likening to Sailor Moon is not unprecedented. (Ikuko Itoh and Junichi Sato were key creators in both.)
It is true you only get 2 Episodes on each of the first 3 discs (the OVA) but don't believe reviews that say it's too short. There are 14 episodes from Maho Tsukai TV (made after the OVA) on discs 4 to 7 which makes this a longer series than Serial Experiments Lain and/or Hellsing and at this price, a much better buy!

Magic Users Club gives off the feeling that its going to be a cheap anime, with some good laughs. Actually, the animation is great, and it's insanely funny. It's always a bit weird, but they manage to pull everything together to make it great. This is the best new anime out there and a MUST SEE! Everyone I know that has watched it LOVES it, and it's growing in popularity!

This series took me a while to get into. It's sort of confusing if you don't pay attention to every single episode.

One day, a giant bell comes out of the sky and takes over the world. But people quickly learned that if they did nothing, the bell would leave them along. so now a few years later, everyone is used to it. Takakura, president of the magic users club (a deerly under-rated club which has to borrow space from the manga club) likes to impress the female members, and accidentally promises to destroy the bell himself.

Usually eveyone just ignores Takakura's boasts, but this time Sae (a new female member) get's jazzed up and convinces them to go and tackle the bell, ewven though they can't even fly their brooms yet.

Alot has to happen in the first episode, so the characters start out rather flat and simple. But as the show progresses they become much more 3-dimensional. The english dub is also fairly decent. Something rare these days. Lisa Ortez gives a fine performance as always, and Jammie McGoginal does a bang up job as Takakura (the perverted club president).

As for the Dvd, it's very well put together and has some good features such as creditless openings and artwork. Also, from disk 2 through the end, each dvd has an outtake reel with the english dub actors. A rare and hilarious feature that more anime should have. They even have a "slates" reel which are the original japanese text scenes (they put text over some so you can understand what's going on, so they included the original scenes as a bonus).

if you're looking for mindless entertainment, this is it. If you like perverted jokes, this is it. If you like a fun story, this is it. If you like serious stories with blood and guts, look someplace else.

Magic User's Club is a silly, goofy story which works well, but suffers from too many cliches. The premise is simple: Takakura heads the struggling high school magic user's club; in a foolish effort to impress the three new female members, he decides to use magic to defeat an invicible alien invader. Takakura's constant fantasies about the girls, even in the midst of fighting aliens, is the core of the show's humor--along with his embarrassment at the constant advances of the club's male vice-president, Aburatsubo. The main female character is Sae, the typical earnest, pure-hearted klutz. These characters are simply too familiar, straight from the anime cookie cutter.

Fortunately, the characters do exhibit some growth, and the execution of the show rises above the generic elements. The show's humor constantly skirts a good taste boundary, particularly when Takakura's thoughts run away with him, but it never crosses the line. I would suggest a higher age rating than the 13+ indicated on the disc, given the sheer volume of imagined undressing and staring (but note, there's no actual nudity on this disc).

One peculiarity with these discs: this series spans 7 discs, but it's actually two shows. The first three discs each contain 2 half-hour episodes--this is the original Magic User's Club direct-to-video series. The last four discs contain 4 or 3 episodes each (of about 23 minutes) of a followup TV series. There isn't a whole lot of show packed onto this first disc, but I still recommend it if you're looking for goofy, undemanding humor.

I can't recommend this one highly enough! Terrific animation, great voice actors and a really original story make this DVD a must have. I waited breathlessly for the US dub and I was not disapointed. The US voice actors really capture the spirit of the characters, especially Aburetsubo. :-)

The music in this show is outstanding as well, on a par with Rurouni Kenshin. This is a fun show with just the right touch of ecchi humour.

Magic User's Club, or Mahou Tsukai Tai! (`I Wanna Use Magic!'), as it's known in Japan, follows a group of high school students who are a part of the Magic Club, a school club in which the members learn to cast spells and ride broomsticks. The club is led by Takeo Takakura, a quirky nerd who is constantly attempting to fend off his frequent perverted fantasies, as well as the unwanted affections of Ayanojyo Aburatsubo, the club's effeminate vice president. The show focuses on Sae Sawanoguchi, a clumsy and comparatively unskilled but well-meaning member of the club. She is joined by her best friend, the frank Nanaka Nakatomi, and the flighty Akane Aikawa, her underclassman. This box set includes both the complete OVA series as well as the TV series, a continuation of the OVAs.

Magic User's Club seems silly and shallow at first, but blossoms into a touching, engaging anime as it progresses. Although humor is very often pushed to the show's forefront (the jokes predominantly involving Takeo and his colorful fantasies involving the female members of the club), Magic User's Club actually has quite a bit of heart, and things get significantly juicier and more dramatic as the OVA and TV series close in on their finales. Sae is extremely clumsy, but her personality and character development are presented in a more endearing, relatable way than most typical anime klutzes; as the series progresses, she grows into an extremely powerful magician, and becomes increasingly more confident.

The OVA series features the club members deciding to take on The Bell, a mysterious alien spaceship that has remained parked in the skies of Tokyo for years but is seemingly unstoppable due to its ability to incinerate any inanimate objects (including all forms of aircraft or weaponry). In the TV series, the members of the Magic Club are tormented by the increasingly ominous Jurika Jinno, a mysterious new student who joins the Magic Club and begins toying with its' members emotions, confronting them about their respective unrequited loves and other confused, selfish desires.

One major asset the anime boasts is its gorgeous, emotive animation-Ikuko Itoh, the chief animator of this series as well as two seasons of Sailor Moon and Princess Tutu, positively brings the characters and scenery to life. It's truly some of the most detailed, expressive hand-drawn animation I've ever seen, particularly in the OVA. MUC also has a great soundtrack, with songs and scores befitting of their accompanying settings and themes.

The 6-episode OVA series is great as it develops and does a solid job of introducing the characters, but the real character development begins in the TV series. MUC is surprisingly diligent about developing each of its characters, and there are few other anime that follow the daily lives of teenagers, displaying their fears, desires, insecurities and aspirations in such a beautifully honest manner.

The more emotional aspects of the show are occasionally overwhelmed by the risqué gags and silliness, but when the humor works it works well-one of the most consistently funny running gags in the show involves the camera slowly panning in on a room as two or more club members make a series of statements and noises that allude to something sexual, but ends up being something completely innocent; also, some of Takeo's fantasies are genuinely hilarious. There's no full nudity or anything extremely explicit, so things are kept to a PG-13 standard. Magic User's Club is something of an acquired taste and a bit of a grower, but once its appeal sinks in, you're guaranteed to be wanting more of this exquisitely entertaining, charming anime.

I have alse seen the TV-episodes, and they're much better, but the OAVs introduce every character! If you are going to buy the TV-episodes, buy these first. You will really enjoy it! Isaki apam mehinam eto caffe nam!

This series is great! It is most certainly the number one most funniest series I have ever seen! You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll laugh some more! I'd give it infinite stars if I could! The only thing I don't like about it is it's too short: only a total of 6 episodes were made! But I guess that in a way that's good because then you don't have to spend way too much money to see the whole series, like you would with some other anime. Anyway, you should definitely get this DVD, along with the others. I can't recomend it highly enough! It's great! It's funny as hell! If you don't get this DVD, believe me, you are only hurting yourself! Believe me, you have NEVER seen anything so wildly outrageously halarious! If you like the kind of comedy in Tenchi Muyo, then you will absolutely love this one!!