![]() ![]() Other jokes-such as the running gag where Sempai accidentally gives off the impression that she’s a sex worker through inadvertent innuendo or a poorly designed web page-are more cleverly written. Some of the jokes are merely an excuse for titillation, and they revolve around Sempai suffering from wardrobe malfunctions or accidentally drenching herself in various liquids ranging from water to milk to pigeon poop. The sex comedy in Magical Sempai is more hit or miss. The joke zips by fast and just keeps on going, and Magical Sempai peaks with this style of humor. ![]() Later, Assistant attempts to help Sempai overcome her stage-fright with a breakneck series of increasingly audience-like test subjects: a cicada husk, a live cicada, a scarecrow balloon, a ceiling tile with a stain in the shape of a vaguely human face, etc. Assistant’s refusal acts as the punchline for that scene, but the very next scene features a nonchalant shot where the camera tracks across the trick escape box, which now features bent and broken hinges and the lid laying at a weird angle, implying that Sempai kicked her way out between scenes. For example, in one scene after Sempai annoys Assistant beyond all reason, he refuses to help her escape from a locked box trick. The fundamentally antagonistic relationship between Sempai and Assistant also leads to some pretty amusing sight gags. Sempai is also bossy, domineering, and overconfident, so hilarity results when it’s revealed that Assistant has a natural knack for stage magic and none of Sempai’s hang-ups about performing in front of a crowd. She’ll stop at nothing to rope the indifferent Assistant into the “Fun Magic Club,” but-aside from eye candy-she has very little to offer. Sempai, on the other hand, is obsessed with rebuilding the “Fun Magic Club,” which has dwindled down to just her after the previous batch of club members graduated. Assistant is required by his high school curriculum to join an after-school club, but he’d rather just relax and play video games on his portable game console as a club member in name only. The friction between Sempai and Assistant is the primary source for most of the comedy. When the writing, the pacing, the animation, and the voice acting are firing on all cylinders, Magical Sempai is a hilarious little show, combining slapstick, bawdy humor, understatement, and over-exaggeration in a recipe for explosive laughs. At first, I wasn’t convinced that either gag would have the legs to last for the length of a short format anime episode (each episode of Magical Sempai is a brisk 12 minutes long), much less an entire anime season, but after only a single episode, the rapid-fire comic timing of Magical Sempai bedazzled me, and I was hooked. Now You See It…ĭirected by Fumiaki Usui and featuring animation production by Liden Films, Magical Sempai is a show with two recurring gags: (1) Although she is actually quite talented and hard working when it comes to the craft of prestidigitation, Sempai suffers from crippling stage fright, and she always screws up when she performs in front of an audience. Alakazam! Abracadabra! It’s Magical Sempai, a 2019 TV anime based on the humorous and raunchy four-panel seinen manga by Azu. Sempai puts on a show of badly mangled stage magic for her audience of one, throws up out of sheer nervousness, and arbitrarily decides that Assistant is her new on-stage and off-stage helper, so the two of them embark on an impromptu journey through the mystic performing arts. It’s all fun and games until someone loses their lunch, and when the previously anonymous, newly christened Assistant (voiced by Aoi Ichikawa), an ordinary high school student in search of extracurricular activities, wanders into the “Fun Magic Club Room” (actually an unused room adjacent to the high school chemistry lab), he meets Sempai (voiced by Kaede Hondo), a buxom young lady obsessed with the craft of illusion and sleight of hand. Meet us in the Fun Magic Club Room right after school for a look at the ridiculously fun Magical Sempai! ![]()
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