Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo

The Wife is a Magical Girl
Alternate Title: Madam is a Magical Girl
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Format: 13 episodes
Allegiance: J.C Staff
Director: Nishikiori Hiroshi
Vintage: 2005
Intelligence Agency Report by: Orax
Twenty six year old Asaba Ureshiko is the manager of a town she lives in, but she’s long overdue in handing that job down to a successor. Kurenai Sayaka, the successor-to-be, wants to forcefully make Asaba oblige and step down from her position so she can make a new town to her own liking Unfortunately, this is only one of Asaba’s many problems, as someone new has decided to live in her household, and his presence seems to cause any relations with her husband to only bring them further apart.

Field Agent Report by: Orax
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
6.50
7.25
6.00
8.50
8.00
Overall 6.25
(not an average)

Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo is unique in that it’s a magical girl show that features a grown woman. As a result, it had potential to present a more mature tone to character interactions and intra-cast relationships. While this is done to a certain extent, it unfortunately does not help an ultimately mediocre series that doesn’t achieve much.

Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo is basically a magical girl series for guys. It’s littered with fan service and sexual jokes with just a touch of actual romance. To begin with, the series doesn’t do much to impress viewers, starting off with a rather annoying “Witch of the Week” formula that lasted a few episodes. To my surprise, the second episode made good use of timing and random comedy to create a rather refreshing combination. Unfortunately, they didn’t keep it up, and what’s left to attract any viewers is the art and fan service. The art itself is standard and doesn’t do much to impress, but it is clean and colorful.

As for the characters… to be honest, they weren’t anything special and they never really gave any lasting impression. In the end the only character that showed any depth was Asaba Ureshiko. Her relationship with her husband and the burden that he carried through his lack of understanding gave this series it’s only meaning. Other than that, these characters followed an easily predictable plot that failed to hold my interest. Still, it was interesting to notice how certain characters want to rush into adulthood while others want to delay that as much as possible. It doesn’t help that much of the background involving Realm was left untold. Why were these worlds created and destroyed in the first place? There was no explanation of how the system was set up and why the series only focused on Asaba’s particular town.

Unappealing witch fights, boring characters, and unmoving drama sums up the whole of this series. The plot is pretty simple and the only element that had any real potential was not used as much as I would have liked to see. Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo gives you a portion of its world to immerse in, but doesn’t bother explaining the rest. All in all, it’s a mediocre anime that I really wouldn’t recommend.