REVIEW: ‘Mashle: Magic And Muscles’ Episode 8 — “Mash Burnedead And The Wolves of Magic”

With last week’s confirmation that the Magia Lupis are coming for them, Mash and the rest of the group are looking to prepare for whatever gets thrown at them next. But when students start waking up with their magical energy drained, the newest threat starts to take an unexpected shape in Mashle: Magic And Muscles Episode 8.

This week’s opening moments are full of ominous threats. First, we see the mysterious masked Magia Lupis member attacking a random student as he continues to pursue more coins for his group. After that, Mash, Lance, and Lemon rush to a fellow student’s bedside. He, along with many other students, has fallen victim to some strange form of attack that is temporarily sapping them of their magic.

While this opening largely works to set up coming threats, it also makes time to permit a sweet exchange between Mash and Lemon. As Lemon continues to harbor strong feelings for Mash, she presents him with a good luck charm that is, quite frankly, adorable. This wholseome moment works well, even though much of the messaging from Lemon unsurprisingly flies clear over Mash’s head.

With the new details of this growing threat laid out, Mashle: Magic And Muscles Episode 8 jumps to the next night, where we see Mash, Lance, Dot, and Finn searching the school for what force may be behind the recent attacks. The sequence starts off weak as the show spends the opening moments of the group’s search playing out tired bits of personality from Dot and Finn. However, once the episode moves past this to the actual investigation of all that’s been happening, things become more engaging. The stakes are raised when the students discover the newest victim of whatever magical ailment is plaguing the students, giving the following challenges more weight thanks to the unknown dangers ahead of them. But while I was surprised with how well the episode was slowly building the danger of this new problem, what was most shocking is how well it utilizes the character who is often the most obnoxious of the group, Dot.

As the group pursues answers to the current threat, Mashle: Magic And Muscles Episode 8 sees them eventually run into a roadblock in the form of one of the Magia Lupis. While Lance initially steps up to challenge him, it is Dot that fights this opponent. While the prefight trash talking devolves into Dot’s usual rants about hating good-looking, popular guys, once the fight gets underway, the fiery redhead surprised me with how cleverly he matches up against his opponent. His strategy is far better than expected, with the final result executing its fullest effect thanks to the animation and camera work delivering splendidly on both the force of Dot’s attack, as well as the well-earned confidence on his face as he sees his plan come together.

The episode wraps up with the party becoming separated and new challenges for each of them stepping into the light, giving viewers a tease of what next week will bring. I find myself cautiously optimistic that if next week can handle the battles as well as this Mashle: Magic And Muscles Episode 8 did, as well as continue to build the tension and threat that this episode establishes,  we could have the best-handled episode yet of this series.

Mashle: Magic And Muscles Episode 8 is streaming on Crunchyroll.