Magi – 25 (Finale)

One of the most fundamental and essential concepts present throughout all of Magi is the romance of adventure.  The romance of adventure is not an idea that unifies the romance between two characters with the genre of adventure (although one could argue that a powerful bond existed between Aladdin and Alibaba), but one that quantifies the stylization and presentation of adventure that is largely romantic and idealistic.  Whether it was questing through treacherous dungeons, relying on the help of mystic, majestic djinns and their phantasmal magic, fending off monsters and assassins alike or hunting for treasures of unimaginable wealth, the image and feeling of adventure in Magi was portrayed as glamorous, glorious, rewarding and extremely passionate.  Magi wanted to show these elements of adventures through this distinctive perspective which then helped enthuse and entertain the audience.  As you can imagine, this concept had a significant and permanent impression in Magi.

Before beginning, it’s worth nothing that almost all adventure stories are romanticized to some degree.  Whether in the form of ancient temples teeming with ferocious monsters and tormenting booby traps or evil villains and wicked wizards seeing control or domination or any form of magic that either helps or hinders, all adventure stories contain some amount of idealistic imagination to aid in its storytelling and entertainment.  Even adventure stories that are based on examples from real life are likely to be embellished or dramatized to a certain extent, especially those passed on by hearsay or distorted by time, or built up to make it so that the story is worth telling.  Of course, Magi is no exception with its story.  For example, you can take various elements of Magi, say the dungeons or the djinn, and replace them with real world counterparts to further illustrate how romanticized this anime is.  The action and adventure in Magi is essentially romantic, being used to represent its challenges and its rewards, its struggles and its triumphs in such a way to make everything seem more spectacular, more remarkable and above all, much more enjoyable.

The romance of adventure in Magi had an impact well beyond that of just the dungeons and magic.  The themes of searching for lost friends, rescuing slaves, preventing war and even saving a kingdom are all storylines that were portrayed as romantic idealizations in Magi.  And this is expected, especially considering that these ideas are what the story of Magi wanted to be.  Considering the presence and degree to which these stories are told and these adventurous elements were employed, its clear that Magi wanted to be a grand tale that catered to our desires, of a story that both intrigued and fascinated us.  Just as the stories of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights delighted audiences for centuries with its classic tales of might and magic, Magi too develops its story in a romantic manner that plays tribute to the work that inspired it.

To me, this post means more to me than the last individual anime post in the foreseeable future.  To me, this post symbolizes two characteristic of blogging an anime that pushed me in this direction, one being the perturbing lateness with my posts and the frustration that stems from it.  You see, I had the idea and theme for this post since midway through the very first episode of Magi.  However, instead of writing on this subject for the very first episode, I decided to save the topic for a later episode, one that’d be more appropriate and for one that’d be on time.  As the episodes rolled on, I began to juggle more on my schedule and subsequently, I began to struggle finding time to watch anime, let alone write about it.  Trying to watch over a dozen anime each season and write about them, even something as simple as a paragraph or two proved to be more challenging now than it was last year or even a few months ago.  And when I did find the time, I often found I was neither in the mood to watch or write about anime.  It had arrived at the point where I began to rationalize that I didn’t have the time in me to write individual posts like these anymore without sacrificing quality or value.  I do wish I could return to this format and style of blogging since it allows me to do develop ideas much better than my weekly posts, especially when exploring themes, explaining my opinions, and grasping certain practices and styles of anime and storytelling in general.  If you look back at the two-and-a-quarter years of which I have done these individual posts, you’ll see how my understanding, my writing, my voice and my appreciation for anime has evolved over these years from just this blog and these shows alone.  But it also represents a period of which I had more free-time than I do now which is why these posts are going to halt for now.  So when I think back to this post and this topic on ‘the romance of adventure in Magi’, I’ll always think of it more as the post that symbolizes what I want to do with blogging and the reality that I just can’t do it right now.  But rather than end this with something sentimental or emotional, here’s a picture of Morgiana to make you feel better.  I hope you enjoyed!