Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club is another one of those highly neglected anime which doesn’t deserve that kind of lack of attention. To give a small indication, even the RAWS stopped appearing at a certain point. When you compare this to series like Zaizen Jotaro, you have to wonder whether something’s wrong. In any case, like the title suggests, it’s a mahou shoujo, focusing on Sasami, better known from the Tenchi Muyo series. Luckily, it has absolutely no harem-elements.

This series definitely shines in its middle part. Episodes 5 till 19 are filled with some awesome character studies, a couple of very successful chaotic episodes and some extremely funny moments, all extremely well balanced into the episodes. It’s at these points where the characters become extremely touching. The first four episodes serve as an introduction. Nice and all, but nothing special, that’s not really a major flaw, though. The main problem is that this series starts to loose a bit of its flame after episode 19. It becomes more predictable, and characters aren’t as touching as they were before. Luckily, the final two episodes become worthwhile again.

Still, there’s one thing that’s consistently good over the entire anime: the graphics. Especially the use of CG is brilliant in this anime. The art of the different characters also is extremely cute. Not what you’d expect from the promo-art. The music also offers an excellent selection, though this anime makes the mistake of overusing one or two tracks a bit too much.

Overall, Sasami has been a very good example why I love neglected shows so much. They either turn out very good or very bad. In this case, it’s the former. It’s a pity. While anime like Haruhi Suzumiya get hyped to death, shows like this one get left in the shadows.

Ah, and so ends Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club. Seeing as it’s the final episode, it’s time to get critical again, as I’ve seen lots of awesome anime who rather screwed up with their ending. Let me first start with some things I really liked about this episode:

- Sasami as a little child. Seriously, the episode started with such an immensely KAWAII shot of her young version, playing and discovering her own powers, and that for the first time in the series.
- Sasami and Ami-chan at the first half of the episode. The two of them are just not involved in the fighting at all, they’re just with the two of them. Surprisingly touching.
- Washuu. I’m glad that she’s back to her chaotic self, seeing her hysterical screaming was as hilarious as always. I wish she had a bigger role in the Misao-arc. It would have made them a great deal better. She really is a brilliant character when she’s in her element. ^_^
- The CG. It was of the same high quality as always.

There was one thing I didn’t like: the five girls from the magical world. It felt like the creators couldn’t find a good role for them for the final episodes, so they just sent them after Misao and the others. A short fight follows, and they let them go without any problems. The only time we see them back is at the end of the episode, as normal schoolgirls.

But what about the ending itself? Well, it was decent. I liked how Sasami never really fought, even though she’s the main character, and the strongest out of everyone. Ami-chan’s way to sacrifice himself was decent, just was the fact that he didn’t wake up. The moment right before Sasami made her speech also was interesting. Though ultimately, the ending itself didn’t capture my interest. After the main climax, Ami-chan makes a short trip, in which everyone is happy and smiling, and in the end, nothing really remains of Keura.

Overall, it’s been a fun show. I hope someone’s going to sub this. Still, there are better cute mahou shoujo around. It didn’t manage to beat Akazukin in the end, and now that I’ve seen a number of episodes of Futago Hime, I also have to say that that’s a better show. Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it. Especially the middle part was awesome.

We now turn to the shows focusing on cute schoolgirls. It’s never been my favourite genre, and these three didn’t really change this opinion.

Shuffle! Memories

For all the Shuffle-fans who were looking forward to this episode, don’t get your hopes up too high. This first episode was basically a recap episode, in which Rin introduced the different characters yet again. We see fragments of everything which didn’t have anything to do with the main story from the first season, with your occasional fanservice. Seriously, I almost fell asleep while watching this. To this day, I still wonder why I managed to watch Shuffle! till the end. Okay, the latter half was decent, though the first half was just pure garbage. Really, if the next episode doesn’t have anything decent, I’m never going to touch it, no matter how good the rest of the series might end up being.

Manabi Straight

Whoa, this anime definitely has energy. It takes place in an all-girl-school, and it focuses on five girls who probably are going to bring some kind of revolution with the almost limitless amount of energy they have. Especially the main character. So far, it’s been quite fun, though it has its flaws. I’m especially getting a bit worried when the first episode already starts off with a pool-episode. Also, this anime is supposed to play in 2035, but apart from the flying skateboard, I didn’t see any differences with 2007. Still, those are just minor details. I think I’m going to keep watching this, as long as it doesn’t degrade into a pure slice-of-life series (I want to see some challenges for Manabi). The graphics are also quite interesting. It seems that this show has been granted with a considerable budget in this department, and it fully utilizes that. The animation looks great, and the creators also decided to try out some new things in the graphical department. So far, these really work, apart from one detail. The cat-like mouth of one of the characters just doesn’t work. Also, one final point, the insert song was more annoying than it was interesting. Unlike a show as Red Garden, it hurt the show more than it contributed.

Hidamari Sketch

Ah, a slice-of-life series. Not exactly my favourite genre, and indeed, the first episode wasn’t bad or anything, but it really bored me to tears. If this were a comedy, it would have been a great one, though instead of that, the show keeps a slow pacing and at times it inserts a small joke, which in the end, isn’t that funny. Miyo could have been an interesting character, but this show is just too slow to bring out the full potential of the character. It tries being cute and funny at a very small pacing, which just doesn’t work for me. It’s ironic that the OP was the best thing of the entire anime. Unless you’re a slice-of-life fan, I wouldn’t recommend this one.