Rental MagicaFriday, 18 March 2011 10:14

Off to YouTube again for this latest series, as Nozomi brings us the magical adventures ofItskui Iba and his employees at Astral. They're mages for hire - or, more officially, Rental Magica...

Spell Wave Contamination: the magical equivalent of radioactive fallout, and something thatvarious specialist companies bid to deal with when it occurs. Itsuki Iba is the son of thePresident of one such company, Astral - but he's found himself suddenly in charge and havingto learn the ins and outs of magic after his father mysteriously disappeared, leaving him incharge of the company. Hopfully only on a temporary basis. It's a situation that he reallydoesn't like - on top of losing his father, he's feeling out of his depth running the company, andthe head of a rival company is making threatening moves on him. Their most recentdecontamination job seems to have more to it than there first appeared, too...

Itsuki, as we meet him at the beginning of the series, is really out of his depth. Childhoodfriend and master of Celtic magic Honami is trying her best to help him get his feet under thetable, but it takes a while to happen - especially as he's also coming to terms with the abilitygranted to him by his Glam Sight, which manifests itself in the form of a bad case of redeye. Under normal circumstances, his cursed eye is kept safely under an eyepatch that's charmed tokeep his Glam Sight under control. When needs must, though, Itsuki can removie his eyepatch- and instantly become a far more powerful, confident person. Although such things do come ata cost.

It's fortunate, then, that he's got a competent staff to call upon. Honami we've alreadymentioned, but there's also Shinto shrine maiden Mikan; and Nekoyashiki and the four cats thatback him up. As the series goes on we're also introduced to ghost-girl Manami and Buddhistmonk Sekiren. They're all acknowledged experts in their own fields (although in Manami's casethat field seems to be "serving tea"), and when brought together there's very little that they can'thandle. Also visiting the Astral offices regularly is Adelicia, head of the rival Goetia companyand master of the art of Solomonic magic - she went to magical school with Honami, where thetwo were close rivals and head & shoulders about the rest of their class in skill, but she alsoharbours something of a soft-spot for Itsuki - as does Honami. Cue magical fireworks.

The series is 24 episodes (two 12-episode sets on DVD), with most of the episodes beingessentially stand-alone: someone approaches Astral with a job of some description, Itsuki andthe gang get to work, and more often than not there's a spanner in the works that makes the jobseem particularly difficult until Itsuki decides to rip off his eyepatch. Formulaic? You betcha. There are occasional diversions from the formula, usually when the show takes a look into thepasts of its main characters, but for the most part it's strictly by the book.

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Rental MagicaFriday, 18 March 2011 10:14

That's a bit of a shame, though, as its when the series focusses on the past that it producesits best stories. The tabboo-breaking of Adelicia's father; the hints that are dropped (but sadlynever really explored) around the disappearance of Itsuki's father; the finaly tradition that couldcost Mikan her life; pieces of Honami's past coming back to haunt her. These are all damngood stories, but between them we're only talking probably 8-9 episodes. The rest of the seriesis the formula, and while those episodes are interesting enough in their own right, they'renothing particularly special.

The characters aren't strong enough to raise the game, either. Honami and Adelicia are thetwo stand-outs for me - both determined and in their own ways the cause of plenty of trouble -but that's about it. Itsuki is relegated to harem-lead-hell, oblivious to the affections of the girlsaround him and incapable of making a decision without resorting to Glam Sight mode; Mikanand Manami fill the fanservice roster but have very little in the way of real personality; whileNekoyashiki and Sekiren (and I keep thinking Sekirei when I type his name... gah...) suffer fromsimilarly 2D personalities without the benefit of being easy on the male eyes. The end result isthat, for a lot of the series, I was just floating by on autopilot and not really caring much eitherway about what was happening on the screen. There are occasional moments, outside thecharacter episodes, where things "click" and you can get more enjoyment out of them, but forthe most part the show's just there, playing in the background.

"Could do better" is definitely the verdict, then. It's okay as far as it goes, but just neverseems to put any real effort into going any further. One for the rental pile (no pun intended!).

Two notes for this one - first, Nozomi stream their episodes on a schedule and they come andgo. You can find their full streaming schedule here . Second, Rental Magica is region-lockedto North America, so if you're in the UK you need to use a geolocking workaround - Google isyour friend if you're so inclined. You can neatly sidestep both these problems, though, bybuying the DVDs.

This is one of those shows where the broadcast order differs from the DVD release, which wasin chronological order. That's why there are two episode numbers on each episode - the first isthe chronological, the bracketed one the broadcast order. There's very little in the way ofongoing story here, though, so it doesn't really matter which order you choose.

1 (2) - A Witch's Vow Spell Wave Contamination: the magical equivalent of radioactive fallout, and something that

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Rental MagicaFriday, 18 March 2011 10:14

various specialist companies bid to deal with when it occurs. Itsuki Iba is the son of thePresident of one such company, Astral - but he's found himself suddenly in charge and havingto learn the ins and outs of magic after his father mysteriously disappeared, leaving him incharge of the company. Hopfully only on a temporary basis. It's a situation that he reallydoesn't like - on top of losing his father, he's feeling out of his depth running the company, andthe head of a rival company is making threatening moves on him. Their most recentdecontamination job seems to have more to it than there first appeared, too...

2 (5) - Magi Night Since Itsuki became Astral's president, the company's performance has been far worse thanusual - they've only successfully completed on contract, and that wasn't even a big one. It'senough of an issue that The Association, who control companies who deal with magic, areconsidering delisting Astral - unless Itsuyki and his staff can complete one particularly difficultjob. Details of the same job have also been given to Adelicia and Goetia, who have plenty ofincentive to make sure the Itsuki fails to complete the contract. The two sides have verydifferent approaches to getting the job down - but whose will come out top when it counts..?

3 (6) - Glam Sight With both Astral and Goetia having failed to complete the Magi Night contract, it remains ineffect until the next Magi Night comes around. The Association, though, has become awarethat the spell wave contamination they were contracted to deal with is likely the result of taboobreaking by Goetia - but faced with a chance to bury the competition permanently, Itsuki insteadswears to their Association rep that he saw no evidence of such a thing, letting Adelicia off thehook. That leaves Adelicia in his debt - and open to his suggestion that the two companiesshould work together. Although the idea doesn't go down too well with his staff...

4 (4) - Because You're Not Alone Itsuki's getting a bit fed up with the vistors he's receiving from school - they're spending far toomuch time causing him trouble, and not enough time cheering him up. The flipside of that isfellow patient Manami Kuroha, whose been spending plenty of time with him - and they bothseem to enjoy each other's company. Manami's been in hospital for quite some time, mostly ina room by herself, and having Itsuki on hand has really broken up the loneliness and monotonyshe was feeling - so she's not looking forward to him being discharged, probably in just a fewdays. Honami feels that there's something unusual about Manami, though - an almost ghostlyquality - while the hospital is suffering from a bad case of spell wave contamination...

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Rental MagicaFriday, 18 March 2011 10:14

5 (11) - The Flower That Blooms on the Dead Itsuki and the other Astral employees are out on late-night training when Itsuki discoversfirst-hand that burying your head in Manami's bosom really doesn't work. It's the ghost thing. Having his business card holder knocked from his pocket also reveals a rather unusual contactof his: Diana, a "fetish purveyor" (weyhey!) and President of the Trismegistos company. Nothing dodgy going on, though -in this case, "fetish" refers to rare and unusual items. Dianawas an associate of Itsuki's father, Tsukasa, simply approached Astral, hoping they'll carry outsome work for her now that they're back in business. There's a particular flower she'd likeharvested: caterpillar fungus, which lives as a parasite on human hosts, slowly draining thelife-force from them. Diana has clients who would like to be host to the plant, but while suchbusiness is run-of-the-mill for companies like Astral, the idea doesn't sit too well with Itsuki -while someone else would very much like Itsuki to fail in this job...

6 (1) - Mages for Hire! A "dog", said the job description, but while it has four legs, barks, and has teeth, Itsuki'sbelieving that Nekoyashiki hasn't been entirely honest with him about this job: the "dog" hasturned out to be a very large, very angry spirit, and the Astral gang aren't finding dealing with itto be easy going. At least until Adelicia drops in. Itsuki collapses once the battle is over,though, immediately raising the concerns of the others. Later, a classmate of Itsuki's drops bythe company, looking for help in locating her missing grandfather. He'd been a client of Itsuki'sfather at one point, and she's hoping the family connection will help with the search - which hascertain similarities to the disappearanec of Itsuki's father...

7 (3) - Purification of the Gods Itsuki and the gang are at a festival, but it's not for the fun of it - there's a job for them to bedoing, at a shrine dedicated to the god of swords. Itsuki's quite intimidated by their client, atfirst, but such things can't get in the way of work. A saniwa is one who can hear the judgementof the gods, and Astral have been called in by Ms Shinogi, a maiden of the shrine, to deal withher brother, who has been trapped in time since they had tried to use forbidden powers to callon a saniwa ten years earlier. But the Association's interest in the shrine means that this is onejob Itsuki may want to pass on...

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8 (15) - Legend of the Mermaid Astral have hit the beach to enjoy some down-time, and it seems that Itsuki's having troubledealing with the girls in their swimsuits. Even Adelicia's tagged along - although she's morelikely to end up in all-out war with Honami than anything else. When Itsuki and Manami go toexplore a nearby save, though, they soon find trouble for themselves when they're surroundedby a strange fogged and dumped out at sea, surrounded by lost ships from several eras, and noapparent way back home...

9 (8) - Hot Spring Magic From the beach to the hot spring, and you beging to wonder just how much work the people atAstral actually do. Although to be fair, Honami's using her time soaking in the bath to also workon some ideas for what they can do to help Itsuki with his eye. Nekoyashimi, meanwhile, ismore worried about finding a way to see the girls naked, and who can blame him. Honami'stheory is that hot springs may provide what they need to stop the contamination that'sprogressing through Itsuki's eye - but unfortunately, with Adelicia on hand to wind her up,Honami's efforts keep going awry...

10 (13) - Initiation Rite That there's a rivalry between Adelicia and Honami is no secret, but let's go back a bit and takea look at how it began. The pair attended the same nagical academy, where Honami's choiceof Celtic magic as her specialism drew quite some scorn from her classmates - by far the mostdifficult type of magic to master, and far beyond the like sof Honami, allegedly. Adelicia, on theother hand, had already proven herself adept at her chosen form of magic, easily defeating herclassmates when challenged to duels, and more than living up to her reputation as a magicalprodigy. So the realisation that there was someone in the school who could prove to be morepowerful than her didn't go down too well. The school's Rite of Initiation, though, gave Adeliciaa chance to prove her superiority - or at least, that was the plan...

11 (7) - The Red-Haired Girl While Itsuki's wandering on his own and bemoaning Honami's lack of teaching skills, he meetsa young red-headed girl, sitting on her own in the street and looking in need of help. Sheintroduces herself as Lapis, and goes on to explain that she's a homunculus - an artificialhuman created by magic. Which perhaps explains her unfamiliarity with the human way ofdoing things. Itsuki isn't one to be bothered by such things, though, and because soon findshe's made a friend. And also a potential client, as there's something rather valuable that Lapiswould like Astral to find for her...

12 (9) - Father's Successor Judaix has also taken an interest in Adelicia, apparently curious as to why the heir to Goetiahas been helping Isuki of late. With Adelicia snooping around his lair anyway, confronting her iseasy - and Adelicia's escape is anything but. The Association, meanwhile, has something togive to Itsuki, an inheritance to be passed the successor to Astral - but there's an objection tothe object being handed over. It seems that Judaix doesn't consider Itsuki to be a fit and propersuccessor to his father, and has decided to challenge his right to take control of Astral...

13 (10) - Tears of the Homunculus Facing Lapis again has Itsuki tempted to take off his eyepatch, especially as she has amagical eye of her own now - but Honami's warning is rigning in his ears, and he resists thetemptation. Backup fortunately arrrives, too, in the unexpected form of Adelicia, clearly not asdead as reports would have us believe, and ready to fight Lapis for a little bit of revenge - ifLapis hadn't retreated, anyway. Her retreat doesn't mean that the fehde is over, though - onlythat it's moved on to another phase. A phase where Honami is the target...

14 (12) - Christmas Eve Requiem It's December, and the Astral offices are a hive of activity, with everyone chipping in to helptidy the place up and get the company paperwork in order before Christmas. Everyone exceptItsuki, that is, who's busy wondering what he can do by way of a "thank you" for the others fortheir hard work. Cleaning duties are interrupted, though, by the arrival of a mysterious maskedwoman, who rather unsubtley tells the girls that Itsuki had visited her a few days previously,asking for advice on what gifts girls might like for Christmas. Which of course sets off a storm ofspeculation as to which girl he was thinking of. Adelicia, meanwhile, has been lost in thoughherself - and any accusations that her thoughts may revolve around "Itsuki" and "presents"would be swiftly denied. It's not long, though, before she joins forces with Honami to uncoverjust what Itsuki's up to...

15 (14) - Memory of the Stars An old acquaintance of Nekoyashiki's, Kei Isurugi, appears on Astral's doorstep for assistanceconducting an Onmyodo "star festival" ritual. Though usually a simple task, Astral's client mayhave ulterior motives for their involvement - years earlier, Isurugi's sister Sakuya was killedperforming the star festival ritual, an event that also caused massive spell wave contamination. Isurugi is hoping for a specific result from having Nekoyashiki repeat the ritual now - but eventsdon't go quite according to plan...

16 (16) - The Red Spear While he's on a training retreat to the mountains, a mysterious monk named Sekiren savesItsuki's life. He claims to be an absentee Astral employee who has only recently returned toJapan - a claim that Itsuki accepts at face value. Hoping to make himself more useful to thecompany (without needing to call on his Glam Sight), Itsuki asks Sekiren to teach him martialarts - but the monk's training proves to be a little hard for Itsuki to deal with...

17 (17) - Demon Rebellion Itsuki's concerns are raised when one of Adelicia's colleagues comes looking for her - seemsshe's disappeared, and can't be located. It turns out that Clive Roland, a renegade mage fromGoetia, has put Adelicia in a dangerous situation. With her powers diminished, she and Itsukimust somehow prevent him from summoning Asmoday, one of the four strongest demons ofSolomon...

18 (18) - The Bonds of Solomon While Adelicia and Itsuki were attempting to subdue Clive, Daphne launched her owninvestigation into his activities. She and Sekiren uncover a startling piece of informationregarding the fall of Adelicia's father - and a dangerous adversary determined to keep it asecret...

19 (19) - The Medium's Birthplace Nothing is as it seems when Nekoyashiki accompanies Mikan on a visit to her family.Nekoyashiki disappears, and Mikan's grandmother, Suzuka Katsuragi, refuses to allow hergranddaughter to return to Astral unless Itsuki and Honami agree to eliminate a dangerouscreature on a nearby mountain. But, as ever, thre's more to the request than there firstappears...

20 (20) - The Oni Ritual With Suzuka having used Itsuki to track down Kaori and Nekoyashiki, the ritual has begun. For Itsuki and his friends, facing off against an oni as a part of the ritual is no easy task - andwith two young lives on the line, there's a lot at stake. It may take more than even the Astralteam members' collective skills to ensure the safety of Mikan and her family...

21 (22) - The Sleeping City The Association suspects Astral, or more specifically Itsuki, of breaking a magical taboo - aserious accusation - and has assigned young man Fin Cruda to oversee the company while theallegation is investigated. He already seems to have a special connection to one of Astral'smages - he was at least partly responsible for training Honami in Celtic magic - and to makematters more complicated, he knows more than he's willing to say about Itsuki's Glam Sight...

22 (23) - Changeling Fin believes that Honami has a direct connection to the city's dragon, one that will allow her topredict where it will appear - and, more importantly, may allow her to cure Itsuki's eye,something she's been feeling guilt about for a very long time. Nekoyashiki, though, believesthat the timing of events is suspicious, and that someone is deliberately trying to draw thedragon out for their own reasons. He may have a point, as it becomes clear that Fin's intentionstowards Astral are far from honourable...

23 (24) - Astral The Astral members prepare to face off against Fin anf Honami, who is now helping him. Thespell they're casting has awakened the dragon that had been sleeping beneath the city - and it'sa spell that relies on the provision of a precious sacrifice, with Itsuki looking set to fill that role ifthe others can't get to him in time. Ultimately, though, it turns out to be Itsuki who's the only onecapable of saving the day...

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24 (21) - White and Black Dresses When the Association requires Adelicia to either appoint a new head of Goetia or marry, sheopts for the latter, but her subsequent proposal leaves everyone - especially Honami - morethan a little surprised. You see, rather than opt for Itsuki, as everyone had perhaps expectedher to, she's decided to marry Honami. Which is probably not what the Association had in mind,either. Honami's quick to realise what's behind Addie's request, though, and agrees - and withthat decided, the preparations for the wedding begin...

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