Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2

Episode 21

Mashle's continuing combat climax means its various fights aren't even close to done. Some of the side battles, like last week's involving Dot and Lance, are mostly dealt with, but that just means more focus can be given to the big ones: Wahlberg up above and Mash down on the ground. The result is a split episode, showing off the strengths and weaknesses of both Mashle as a series itself, and the structure it adheres to and riffs on in equal measure.

Headmaster Marky Mark gets entangled in an exhibition match against Innocent Zero's flunky Necrosse Mance. Here,Mashle continues to demonstrate its understanding of setting up characters, their power levels, and their abilities to hype upcoming clashes. Wahlberg bodying this guy who not only comes across as strong but is puppeteering the empowered corpse of past wizarding world superstar Adam Jobs who gets viewers engaged for the coming main event against Innocent Zero. However, the fight isn't that interesting as it indulges some of the worst habits of Mashle and its overall genre. Mance is a bad guy who over-explains every move both he and Wahlberg make in a way that sucks the air out of just seeing the action animated on-screen. Some of it is key information, like the way dark magic and Wahlberg's space-based countering of it technically works. But most of it is narration, which comes across as a lack of confidence in the storytelling.

It should have more confidence, because Walhberg is cool, in a very "Old guy showing us kids how it's done" manner. There's even an effective thematic nod to the idea of generations, as he takes on the ghoulish reanimation of his former master while remembering the lessons he was taught. It establishes a clear platform of Wahlberg going into battle to safeguard things for Mash and the rest of the next generation, with pretty solid odds that he's going to die like Dumbledore to do so. It means the whole fight with Innocent Zero this is building to has been done effectively, I just wish the warm-up match had been better executed.

I know Mashle can do better just within this episode, as the back-half fight against Cell War is night and day compared to that battle in the beginning. Mash gets to lighten things up in comparison to Wahlberg's fight, even as the goofball is engaging with his own heavy revelations. As foreshadowed, it turns out Mash is a magical creation of Innocent Zero, being one of multiple bodies designed to host hearts and contribute to the construction of a sorcerous super-bod. It doesn't undercut things as badly as I feared. The implication still seems to be that Mash's muscled-up strength resulted from his physical training. More importantly, his simple-minded reaction to the reveal, even in the face of the superpowered opponent he's staring down, maintains the series' approach to flippant comedy.

The truth of Mash's nature even loops back around to other thematic elements, specifically the idea of the inherent value of life, regardless of the circumstances of its creation. Mash himself invokes this and helps the specific revelation to work better than it might. It also fuels the immediate motivation that drives this fight, Mash feeling attached to the magical school and its people that Cell War threatens, and that itself is expressed in lighter, funnier ways. Whether they could or should have had more of this approach to Wahlberg's fight, I can't say, but I also can't deny that Mash's portion here is just plain more fun.

As solid as all that is, even this part of the episode still falls into some of the traps from the first half. Mash's enemy is prone to more of that excessive shonen series narration. And when Mash chokes him out to finally beat him, an omnipresent third-party narrator feels the need to come in and explain things. This doesn't feel like Mashle doing a bit compared to previous episodes where the entire stadium reacted in unison. Rather, it's just adhering to the expected style for a similar series, which robs it of its charm. Hopefully, this is just a one-off dip before a big upswing again in the remaining episodes, because I would hate for Mashle to run out of gas this close to the seasonal finish line.

Rating:

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.