REVIEW: ‘Mashle: Magic And Muscles’ Season 2 Brings More Of The Same

The word is out. Mash Burnedead (Chiaki Kobayashi, Ragna Crimson) cannot use magic. With the world ready to judge him, Mash has one more chance to prove he belongs in the Magical World. But a sinister figure is moving in the background. A new plot is about to come to light. One that Mash is a key component of. How will the young man make it through Mashle: Magic And Muscles Season 2 from A-1 Pictures?

From its opening episodes, this season sends a message that it never strays from. Viewers are in for more of the same. If you loved season one, congrats. If you were hoping for an expansion on the show’s core elements, sorry. This clarity comes with how the series addresses the growing knowledge that Mash is a “Lackmagic.”

Dominating the first couple of episodes is a meeting between Mash, the heads of the school, and a few Divine Visionaries. We see everyone judging Mash’s worth, debating what should become of him. The meeting is eventually interrupted by the season’s big bad, Innocent Zero (Shin’ichirô Miki).

Only after Mash saves one of his judges does he earn enough leniency with a majority of his judges that he gains the opportunity to prove himself. What task must he complete to earn his spot in the Magical World? He must pass the Divine Visionary Exam. Which, as viewers of Season One will recall, was what he was trying to do anyway.  All the first set of episodes in this season do is introduce the villain and raise the stakes slightly. Now, rather than exile to a concentration camp with his grandfather, he’ll be killed if he fails. Worse, but does it add that much?

This acceptance through worth is a theme that this season revisits multiple times. The show frequently tries to portray people accepting Mash because he saves their lives as moments of growth. In reality, it feels like the message is, “If you want acceptance, you have to be useful.” This hurts the narrative a lot. Even when his classmates and others come around on Mash, it feels like it is only for him. That anyone not capable of punching through magic barriers or kicking their legs so fast they can fly, would still be disowned and packed off to the concentration camps.

From here, Mashle Season 2 follows several of its key characters as they participate in the Divine Visionary Exams. The exams take the form of single and group competitions that pit the students against each other. Like many school tournament arcs, the series tries to amplify the danger by allowing students to kill each other. This does little but make those watching look bad.

Students and teachers alike think nothing of the bloody torture some of the students inflict, making them look incredibly heartless. This is the only result of the mayhem because of Mash’s continuing plot armor. Every challenge, even those that seem tailor-made to undercut his strengths falls to the wayside. No matter how flashy the animation attempts to make a battle or how imposing the villain’s design makes him, this fatal flaw always sucks life out of every danger.

Innocent Zero eventually arrives, interrupting the exams. Freezing the crowd in place, Zero prepares to make off with Mash, who is of vital importance to his unfolding schemes. However, Wahlberg (Mugihito) can resist Zero’s spell. Freeing several of the students, the group challenges Zero and his henchmen. The battle splits in two with the students protecting their still-frozen classmates, while Wahlberg challenges Zero.

The confrontation between Wahlberg and Zero may be the highlight of Mashle Season 2. The magic utilized between the two masters takes what the series shows viewers of magic to an all-new level. As subsequent spells escalate the duel, the animation captures the scope wonderfully.

But while the multi-episode battle delivers several highlights, it also has significant flaws. It quickly becomes apparent that whatever Wahlberg attempts to do, Zero will have the perfect counter primed and ready. There is no firm explanation for these escapes—he’s just that powerful. This iron-clad plot armor has much the same effect on the spectacle as Mash’s does everywhere else.

The other way this battle fails is how Mashle Season 2 tries to set it up as an ideological struggle. While Zero seeks to become a perfect being at the expense of all around him, Wahlberg claims to be fighting for the future. He sets the students the series focuses on as shining examples that he wishes to protect. He sees them as individuals who can hopefully save their world from its prejudices and failings. This lands as nothing short of hollow.

The show repeatedly calls out Wahlberg’s place atop the world of magic. Why hasn’t he already fixed these problems if he is so powerful? We’ve seen that the “might makes right” concept is so firmly entrenched in this world that students can kill each other over a title without hesitation. Why hasn’t Wahlberg flexed some of his magical muscles to force people to be better?

At the height of the danger, when it seems like all may be lost, Mashle Season 2 marches out a flimsy pretext to see Zero beat a hasty retreat. Once the final danger passes, we see things quickly return to normal for the students as they must prepare for coming exams.

Generous doses of the series’ heavy-handed brand of comedy are sprinkled throughout the various plot arcs. While these moments occasionally land well, the majority fail miserably. Poor timing and repetitive punch lines are the biggest factors that hold back this element of the show. However, there is one sequence of pure comic gold during the Zero fight that deserves all the kudos.

Mashle Season 2 brings along all the shortcomings of its predecessor. Its sub-par humor and unstoppable protagonist keep the show from ever gaining any real traction. Coupled with ill-implemented attempts to elevate some of its characters as ideological pillars and it all feels hollow. While there are brief moments of success, they are far too few to ever recommend the series. Whether it’s humor or action, there are just better places to look than here.

Mashle Season 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.