Soushin Shoujo Matoi

Matoi Sumeragi wishes for nothing more than to lead a normal life away from the spotlight. She is quite satisfied alternating between school and her part-time job at her best friend Yuma Kusanagi's family shrine. But this routine life is permanently disturbed when a Night—an evil extra-dimensional entity—attacks the shrine. Matoi is able to drive it off after unwittingly calling upon the powers of a god, the natural enemies of the Nights.

Matoi and Yuma are soon joined by Claris Tonitolus, an experienced exorcist from the Vatican, and agent Haruka Luciela, who works for the secretive Night defense organization IATO. Despite not knowing the perpetrator behind these attacks nor their motive, Matoi must come to master this newfound power in order to protect both the people around her and the once normal life she holds so dear.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sumeragi, Matoi Main

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Kusanagi, Yuma Main

Oozora, Naomi Japanese

Tonitrus, Clarus Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Sumeragi, Shingo Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Luciela, Haruka Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Saphirus Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Ludos Supporting

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Tezuka, Hideo Supporting

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Cariot Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Yayoi, Amane Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Itou, Takumi Assistant Producer

Oochi, Kazuaki Assistant Producer

Kamiji, Tomoyo Assistant Producer

Sakoi, Masayuki Director

Reviews

Dec 20, 2016

jc9622

Recommended

I know you're looking at the studio right now and thinking "Hmm White Fox? I bet this is also going to be dark like Steins;Gate or Re:Zero". I'll get right to the point but this is NOT a magical girl show with a dark atmosphere. This is just a regular magical girl show. However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this show.


[Story]: (6.5/10)
The story of "Soushin Shojou Matoi" (or Matoi The Sacred Slayed in English) isn't anything special like Madoka Magica or Yuki Yuna is a Hero. It's basically about a normal middle school girl named "Matoi" who wants to live ... a simple, ordinary life. Due to a sudden turn of events, she suddenly became a magical gir-...woops, my bad....I mean, an exorcist girl whose job is to exorcise the demons known as "The Nights". She and other exorcist girls teams up to defeat the Nights that's ravaging their world. Think of other magical girl shows out there and you'll barely notice any difference between this show and other magical girl shows. I guess the only slight difference here is that the girls here have their own "familiars" or what the show likes to call them "Kami" (Gods) which fights alongside them.

Now that doesn't mean the show is bad. Sure, this type of story has been done before but the show was surprisingly pleasant to watch. The show had a very mediocre start (1st episode was honestly bad, albeit really boring) but it progressively got better bit by bit as the show went on and by the 2nd half of the series, the show was enjoyable to watch and I ended up enjoying the story (The mystery about the Nights, who they are, what they're doing in this world and their purpose) as it unfolded. I also enjoyed the development between Matoi and her dad, which is, in my opinion, one of the best aspects of this show. Just ignore the scene where Matoi's dad accidentally groped her daughter's boobs, which is very disturbing even if it was only used for comical purposes.

Speaking of grabbing someone's boobs, the show doesn't have a lot of fanservice. Most of the fanservice scenes that you'll see are only present in the first half of the series. 95% of them are Matoi getting stripped and running around naked because anime. Thank God, my mom didn't walk in and spot a naked middle school girl running around on my screen or else she would have called the cops on me immediately even though I'm her son. Anyways, in the second half, the fanservice got very light. There's still the "obligatory" beach episode but unlike the other beach episodes out there, it wasn't some useless filler fanservice-heavy episode. The episode was still relevant to the plot which kinda surprised me.

The comedic aspect of the show was alright. Yuma is supposed to be the comic-relief character of this show but before the "Yuma-focused" episode, Yuma's actions weren't funny for the most part and at that point of the show, it became apparent to me that the show was just trying too hard to be funny. However, the episode that focused on Yuma was legit hilarious and it's when Yuma truly shined. Moving on, the dramatic aspect of the show was also ok but I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't one part of the show that made me emotional.
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[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
If you've watched any of White Fox's shows before then I can almost guarantee you that the first question that will pop up in your mind when you look at this show is "White Fox made this?" or somewhere along those lines. Judging by the art style, this doesn't even look like a White Fox show. This looks like something "Studio Trigger" made. That cheap-looking but somehow beautiful and unique looking art that Studio Trigger is known for is what Shoushin Shojou Matoi looks like. It makes me wonder if this is White Fox's insurance policy just in case Re:Zero flops because this show looks cheap compared to their other shows. Anyways, I actually like the art style. It looks somewhat unique and beautiful. The animation for the action scenes were also fairly smooth and wasn't a pain to watch.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
The OSTs for this show is awesome. No, it's not awesome. It's AMAZING!! Reading it off my review can't properly convey to you how amazing the OST is though so you have to listen to it for yourself. The OSTs for this show's action scenes is what made them more exciting to watch. I actually decided to research who did the OST and it turns out that Tatsuya Kato is the person who composed the OST. The same person who also did the OSTs for both seasons of Shokugeki no Souma (Food Wars) which explains everything. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Chou Musubi Amulet" by Mia REGINA. This OP is one of my Top 10 OP for this season. The song sounds very...I don't know how to say it properly....powerful. You'll understand once you listen to the song. The song is also very catchy and the singer's voice sounds wonderful.
The ED theme song is "My Only Place" by Sphere. I love songs that have dramatic/melancholic tune and the song was exactly just that which is the reason why I love this ED.
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[Characters]: (7/10)
Matoi Sumeragi, the main protagonist of the series, is a character that I ended up liking more and more as the show progressed. At first, I thought she was an annoying and useless character and I thought she was going to constantly whine throughout the series about her wanting a regular life despite the fact that she was chosen to become an exorcist girl but I'm glad she changed for the better at the end. Matoi isn't just some character who wants to fight because "Fuck it, I'm a Mahou Shoujo". She clearly doesn't want to fight because she wants a regular life but she fights because she wants to protect those she cares about. Especially her Dad.

Matoi and her Dad's relationship is one aspect of the show that I really enjoyed watching. Hell, I loved watching their relationship grow. At first, their relationship was a bit weird. The fact that Matoi calls her dad by his first name should already tell you that they have a strained relationship. As the story progressed though, you'll understand what happened between Matoi and her parents and why Matoi calls her Dad by his first name. The last 2 episodes which further enhances the father-daughter relationship are the scenes that they handled really well. It wasn't too melodramatic and it was a right amount of drama that admittedly made a guy like me emotional.

Matoi is a really good main protagonist and she also got a good amount of character development but unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the other characters. Yuma Kusanagi, a friend of Matoi, is at best a decent character. She was annoying at the start and truth be told, she almost ruined the show for me with her annoying-ass personality and her unfunny jokes but after she got her own dedicated episode, her character improved but she's still not as good as Matoi's character. She also got a decent amount of character development. Her backstory pretty much explained almost everything about her and why she's an exorcist girl.

One last character that I want to talk about is Claris Tonitolus. If it wasn't for the fact that she's one of the main character of the series, she would have been a completely forgettable character. Her personality is boring and they did explain why she is the way she is and her purpose for fighting the Nights but that doesn't change the fact that she was boring to watch at the first half of the series, besides her being a badass when she turns into an exorcist. Although, her character improved slightly on the second half so she was more bearable to watch on the second half.
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[Enjoyment]: (7.5/10)
Soushin Shojo Matoi was painful to watch at first. It was boring and I even thought of dropping this show but thank god, I stuck with it because it ended up being a good series at the end and a show that I enjoyed watching every week.
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[VERDICT]
I had somewhat of a high expectations when I decided to watch this show because it was being animated by White Fox and while it didn't really live up to my expectations, I still like the show for what it is. A regular magical girl show that isn't trying to be too dark or edgy and with a decent story and a good cast of characters which took time to get used to. This show is definitely recommended if you just want a magical girl show that isn't too dark in nature or characters suffering in despair.


[OVERALL]: (7.5/10)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 30, 2024

justinharsey

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (10/12 eps)

Spoiler

When it comes to creating any series, trying to maintain a certain level throughout is a challenge. One problem with short run anime is trying to shove in as much content as possible in the time allotted when it's clear that the idea needed more time to fully develop. For this series, it falls apart by the 9th episode.

The reason I watched this series is because I like to look into certain individuals or studios and what all they've done. Currently that is studio White Fox. Being their only original work, this magical girl series has a unique take and is more playful with itself ... than it appears (given the stigma of the genre), but it's potential starts to wain with its quick run time.

The 9th episode starts the downfall. Up until his point, the series was well-paced, the lore & mystery was intriguing, the character were fun to watch, and was direct pretty fine for 2/3 of its life. One problem with this is how much time is given for the series' finale. Episode 9 kickstarts the final arc with a lackluster directing, a crammed plot, a villain that appears and dies as quick as they came giving no time for any sense of what they are about, and important plot stapled in. The following episode only suffers in the same manner adding the common problem of many anime of having characters babble out their thoughts and ends with random twist villain cliffhanger moment.

This is not to fault the team behind it. The animation is good; not White Fox's best but not unwatchable. Episode 6's self-aware opening where the comedic character inserts her face over the other girls is a fun little laugh. This is one of those cases where it should have been a 2-cour series, but being original it probably is harder to sell that especially given the saturation of the media increasing in the 2010s.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 21, 2016

FireEmblemIke24

Not Recommended

DISCLAIMER: Had to re-upload because of fallacies in my opening statement.

Matoi the Sacred Slayer is an under-viewed show but don't let that stop you from watching it if you are a fan of the magical girl genre.


An area that I find MtSS to be particular lacking is the plot/story department which is what this show struggles with to a large extent. I can’t confirm whether it wants to be an episodic show with an overarching storyline or that it undergoes the linear format which is not the case through retrospection. It all takes off with shrine maiden Sumeragi Matoi being shocked with the fact that ... she has managed to awaken her latent magical abilities. This act of transforming in to a magical girl is called a Divine Union, which is the process of undergoing a physical connection with a supernatural God that has manifested itself and is unique to that individual. This enables her to consciously borrow powers from her aligned God to partake in battles involving demons that are commonly known as Nights. These ‘Nights’ are evil demons that take possession of unsuspecting individuals, hence allowing them to manipulate their bodies to their liking while deriving the host of their own consciousness.

There isn’t much to add to this point as most episodes follow the same format of encountering a Night at some point. The lack of variation is the downfall for this series, the residue of depth that is left to be filtered is a quick process because in the end its just magical girls fighting enemy demons. There is expansion in the form of how the world functions combating these walking disasters known as the Nights. The anti-creed of Fatima is an organisation based in the Vatican with the objective of banishing all the Nights from the world. They send out two individuals with one of them being Clarus Tonitolus aiding in the efforts of fighting these atrocities that are out to do harm. It is known she can activate Divine Union herself but it is usually controlled due to the fact she is supervised by her superior Cariot, who she reports to on a timely basis.

A character known as Haruka Luciela makes her introduction representing a scientific organisation called the IATO. Her role is basically to record the findings of Nights through special instruments which can detect their presence as they appear which isn’t hard to do considering they all turn up next to Matoi. There is some exposition with regards to the world and the number of dimensions that exist in the universe. The peaceful Gods and mischievous Nights vacate a total of 24 dimensions which sounds kind of silly at first, it just feels like an arbitrary number. They could instead have a single different dimension housing the supernatural entities to simplify things but that’s just a minor gripe of mine.

The lack of plot does not give rise to poorly written characters, quite the contrary in fact. Matoi having just reunited with her detective father Sumeragi Shingo is struggling to adjust with her new surroundings. The idea of calling her father on a first name basis feels strange but understandable when you consider the fact she was living with her grandparents just recently. The absence of her mother who disappeared without a trace is noticeable which was brought up countless times by Shingo.

The awkwardness is there, as Matoi finds it a challenge just to make small talk with her only existing parent. The longing of her mother is a dream that she wants fulfilled sincerely and her father shares the same exact sentiments through his inner monologues. An aspect that irks me is the lack of openness between each other, as Matoi keeps her identity of being a shrine maiden of Divine Union a secret to avoid implications.

Kusanagi Yuma is apparently the cousin of Matoi considering she is also a shrine maiden herself and is quite clingy at times. She comes from a family of priests who specialise in the act of exorcism and are quite informed about Divine Unions and Gods in general. Yuma is known to have had her abilities sealed, as they leaked out during her early childhood but has managed to reawaken them through determination and sheer persistence.

The other user of Divine Union Clarus is given some characterisation during her screen time which is seen through her flashbacks. A close friend of Clarus’ was left in a vegetative state after being attacked by a Night which has only fuelled more fire to her hatred of the Nights. Her objective in the end is to help the goals of Fatima to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. Other than that, she doesn’t progress that much and remains largely a static character.

I didn’t mention this until now but one aspect I found to be just stupid and quite frankly unnecessary was the reversion of Divine Union. The reversion causes the magical girls to lose all their clothes, effectively leaving them buck naked for all to see which in this case are middle schoolers, who are under the age of 16 and are classified as children. It got so bad to the point that Matoi was contemplating on stocking up on clothes considering her closet was running bare. This isn’t a pet peeve but an actual concern of criticism. This would be resolved if this wasn’t inserted in the script and countless shows have gotten around this issue – see One Piece and logia devil fruit users.

Now on to the general aesthetics of the show, the character designs are looking smooth but for the females is giving them that moe look to appeal to the targeted audience (them otaku). The designs are kind of exaggerated with the eyes being enlarged but not to the level of Clannad. The characters are distinct in terms of appearance making them easily distinguishable. For example, Haruka is the blonde lady wearing the cream office suit accompanied by her large bosom. That was an extreme example but the fact of the matter is, she’s only there for fan service.

The animation by White Fox is fine but there was no ‘Sakuga’ scenes I could find and it feels inferior to Re;Zero’s animation which finished last season. It might just be the art style in general but nothing stood out apart from the flashy colour palette which contributed to the glitter and flashiness. The sound is composed by Katou Tatsuya who is known for his works Mirai Nikki, Shoukugeki no Souma just to name a few. The show incorporates a lot of wind composed music which is evident in the opening and other segments.

The use of the drums is emphasised to the point it may be a standalone piece or in combination with other instruments. The drums are personally to my liking as it’s complementary to the Japanese setting which involves shrine maidens, who are most familiar with its usage. The voice acting for the characters was alright but for characters like Yuma felt way too childish compared to their age, other than that nothing stood out as being noteworthy.

To conclude, the show is not that imaginative compared to other similar series. You'll get a happy ending in this one for those seeking that type of finale. It's kind of meh to me as it never really resonated with me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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