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Japanese Title: マナリアフレンズ

Summary

The races ‘human’, ‘god’ and ‘devil’ are living together inside the mysterious world called Mystarsia. Anne is the lively princess of Manaria Kingdom. Grea is a shy dragon princess. With the encounter of these two girls, the live at Manaria’s Mysteria Academy begins.

Impressions

Thanasis

First things first, I have no experience playing the game on which the anime is based, Rage of Bahamut. I just recently entered the Japanese online card gaming scene after leaving Hearthstone behind for ShadowVerse. I’ve never been much of a fanboy but I can see how the quality of the illustrations (but not of the story, at least when it comes to Shadowverse) and the passion of the players can justify an anime adaptation.

If you are following the game, you probably know more than I do. The story (or what is going to be a story in the following episodes) focuses on two students enrolled in a magic academy, Anne and Grea. Anne is the princess of the country of Manaria and very popular at the school; Grea, on the other hand, is a half human-dragon and the princess of the land of dragons, essentially a transfer student. She is also very shy and the main focus of the episode’s fanservicy moments. Storywise, we don’t get much than Anne’s extraordinary talent for magic and Grea’s tremendous capacity for infatuation and loyalty. Yet, the flow of the episode, coupled with the fine art and animation (and soft piano music) made the episode fun to watch, even for a Rage of Bahamut newbie like me.

A must for players of a game; a nice 24-minute for everyone else.