Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2

Episode 19

The hallowed institution of the Big Fight Episode in shonen anime comes with its own expected hallmarks. Satire though it is, Mashle is no exception to indulging these. And honestly, I wouldn't want it to be—this second season has been killing it in terms of delivering straight-up battle action. The storytelling and the show's staff properly built up this bout between Mash and Macaron, so seeing them deliver on those promises is something to look forward to. Even if you know the beats and are familiar with the rhythm, that doesn't diminish the impact of a song so long as it's performed strongly enough.

This being Mashle, the fight does still deal with some of the series' trademark quirks. Mash's first effective blow on Macaron is heralded with audience members calling out and explaining what happened, per genre tradition…except their explanations and understanding of Mash's "magic" is actually wrong, which is explained by an additional member of the audience. It's an escalating gag at the expense of such a classic element. There is a bit too much "straight" over-explaining from the audience as the battle goes on, so the anime isn't immune to the very tropes it's riffing on. But that acknowledgment, along with an early sidelong snark about the very pacing of shonen battles, goes a long way toward lightening the experience.

Not that things are especially heavy in this engagement (that would seem to be coming up next episode). While Mash's right to exist is officially on the line in this fight, the battle with Macaron is about as straightforward a combat-sport tournament bout as you can get. The excitement and engagement come from the moment-to-moment trading of fighting styles, made to work by the way Mashle built up the contrast in these combatants. It's not simply that Macaron has so much raw magical power compared to Mash's lack of it—their musical magic is specifically of a non-physical variety that Mash can't simply punch away. They truly are a hard counter-pick bad matchup for Mash, and seeing the creative ways Mash comes up with on the fly to deal with them is what keeps viewers guessing.

Further escalations are entertained via another time-honored tradition of shonen battle action: the form change. Macaron getting a more trim, cute look as they unleash their true power is a tale as old as time, but the clever part is what that upgrade does for the fight itself. For the first time, Mash finds himself clashing with an opponent on direct physical terms, only enhanced with a specific kind of magic. It's an escalation not just for us viewers in real life, but for the in-series audience. A real, proper slugfest is something these magical nerds haven't seen before, so of course they get into it at their first taste of true tussling.

Of course, this wouldn't be nearly as engaging for the home audience as the in-universe one if this fight didn't look the part of the big deal they're hyping it up as, so thankfully Mashle continues to excel in that regard. With Macaron's transformation-induced ability to just instant-transmission all over the place, it's easy to imagine a version of this fight that cheaped out on the visuals and animation. But thankfully the crew has the same opinion of fight animation that Macaron does of fried shrimp: you gotta put some sauce on it. The animation here excels at depicting the intertwining speed and impact of Mash's attempts to trade blows with the blitzing Macaron. It also engages in bigger setpieces, like Mash's early wall run around the arena to avoid a magical attack. Even small moments like Mash dusting himself off have little extra flourishes.

It's all a tremendous visual argument in favor of Mashle's ongoing pivot to more straight-up action (with the occasional cream puff joke). This episode was about bringing the in-school audience around to appreciate Mash in the same way the viewers can so heartily appreciate this kind of material. So when the new big bad in Innocent Zero drops in at the very end to reveal a plot twist or two and kick off a higher-stakes reason for rumbling, that audience is primed to expect this to continue being a proper good time.

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Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is still the reviewer for Mashle, and wizards are still nerds. Get some reps in with him over on his Twitter, or peruse the magical back catalog of his blog.