Gundžó no Magmell

Initially, I had only read the English synopsis, and so I had great expectations - I thought that this was going to be like an animated version of Monster Hunter: World! I was expecting some thrilling expeditions into the heart of an unexplored continent, capturing that amazing atmosphere where you discover something new and unexpected every other second. After all, a brand new continent with dangerous flora and fauna offers inexhaustible possibilities for a skillful screenwriter. Another one of my expectations was that it would have fight scenes with a variety of great monsters! I guess that makes it all the more disappointing that Magmel of the Sea Blue really contains the bare minimum of what I have described. It is largely made up of stand-alone episodes, there are fewer forays into the unknown than I would have expected, and it is certainly not half as original and surprising as I would have liked. The fight scenes are not really very dramatic, and for example, the last one with the character turning into something like pink bubblegum and throwing "tentacles'' everywhere was just laughable. The whole of the (three-part) final story arc was what definitely ruined any reasonable impact it could have had on me. There was no interesting focus on Magmell, which could have been the biggest draw of the whole anime series, and instead, the anime’s creators tried to appeal to the audience's emotions. SPOILERS. They did not, however, do a very good job, and I was once again incredibly disappointed and even quite irritated by the classic "plot armor" they had for all the characters END OF SPOILERS. It could have been better if it were at least delivered in some nice and colorful graphics, however, even in terms of the animation it is certainly not a showstopper... This was another big disappointment of the spring 2019 releases. 4.1/10. (04.07.2019)