ANIME MONDAY: Magi: Labyrinth of Magic – “Smile” Review


Previously on Magi:

Cassim turned into a Dark Djinn and began to wreck havoc on the palace. Judar soon joins him and things look their bleakest for Alibaba & the others before Aladdin makes his triumphant return to battle. Spoilers Ahead!

Aladdin manages to hold off Judar’s assault but he says that the key to winning is for Alibaba to save Cassim from the black rukh’s influence. Restoring his Blade of Amon, Aladdin urges Alibaba to pierce through the Dark Djinn but Alibaba is sucked into the creature’s body instead. As he tries to make sense of his surroundings, Alibaba notices Cassim on the inside and the final battle begins.

This episode is the conclusion of the Balbadd and let me say that it definitely goes out with a bang is this episode is a substantial upgrade from last week.

We see how the Fog Troop came to be when the mysterious weapons dealer approaches them with the idea of causing a rebellion. We see glimpses of Judar’s past while he’s fighting Aladdin as well as the organization known as “Al-Thamen” who want to cover the world in darkness. For added measure we also see Sinbad and his group be totally badass when they use their metal vessels to take out the weapons dealer.

Sinbad

One of the most important set pieces of the episode is definitely when Alibaba meets with Cassim on some sort of spiritual plane inside the Dark Djinn. Alibaba continues to plead his case with Cassim, but he’s not hearing any of it, causing the two to fight once more and this is where this episode is a definite step up from last weeks.

There is a great deal of emotional depth in this fight. 2 former friends who walked different paths despite growing up together. You can feel Cassim’s rage and jealousy towards Alibaba and it’s understandable. Alibaba had a loving mother despite living in the slums and his father was the king which meant that he found a way out; Cassim on the other hand lived under the abuse of his father and had to fend for himself and his sister. He always thought that evil and poison ran through his veins, his sister’s death only adding to those thoughts.

Alibaba on the other hand doesn’t see it that way as he still considers Cassim his friend despite all of the terrible things he’s done.

The second is a very heart warming yet heart breaking scene when the battle is over and Aladdin tells Alibaba about the purpose of Rukh. This leads to many tearful reunions with many of the citizens loved ones as well as Alibaba getting to see his parents, Mariam, and Cassim one last time, I admit I also shed some manly tears for these scenes.

“Smile” is an pretty good ending to this long arc with plenty of action, but mostly character drama. the dialogue is good, the animation is fluid, and the music hits in just the right places. The adventure continues next week on Magi.

4.5/5