The World God Only Knows: Magical Star Kanon 100%

Rbastid Jan 31, 2016

6

OMG! a Kanon spinoff!……no one was yelling. Story - 7/10 Surprisingly this OVA did actually turn out to be somewhat entertaining and filled in some bits of information you'll need for the upcoming season. Elsie hears they're having auditions to play Kanon's sister on her show, being a huge fan she tries for the job, but is informed she's too old. As luck would have it, while at the TV studio, Kanon is taken over by another loose soul and transformed into a younger version of herself. This also leaves an opening for another soul to pose as Kanon in order to prey on the children auditioning for the show, taking advantage of the self doubt many of them feel. Now Elsie, without the help of Keima, finally gets the chance to save the day on her own, and meet her idol. What makes this episode important to later ones is that Kanon's transformation, which she can't possibly ignore, causes her to start asking questions. Elsie does her best to explain the situation, so now Kanon knows what's going on in regards to the loose spirits, though some of it still confuses her. Animation - 9/10 For once the cute little chibi style and other little goofs fit well in the episode, as it's all about seeing little versions of the characters and having a good time.  The opening and closing credits are Kanon music videos. They're very well made and what you would expect in a video if Kanon were a real pop idol. Sound - 6/10 As usual nothing has changed from the series in regards to the voices. The only downside was that being a Kanon special, all the music was pretty terrible (for my taste.) Characters - 4/10 Most of the characters were the same as those in the series. They introduce Kozue as the winner of the audition, but other than that it's the normal gang. In typical fashion, we learned not a single thing about any of the characters. Overall - 6/10 It kind of amazing that a few of these OVA's actually advance the story and add more to the plot than the series itself. While the episode was basically one big Kanon promo, it seems to  be trying to help us get to like her, as she'll play a bigger part in the next season.

sortitus Oct 9, 2013

7.4

Since OVAs are incredibly easy to review due to their length, I'm reviewing this before the main series. It was a fun adventure into the world of magical girl shows with a basis on KnzSS's premise, so lets get into the nitty gritty of what made Magical Star Kanon 50% (it's funny because of all of the little people replacing the regular cast, right?) tick. Setting (7.4) Based on an interesting premise, naturally everything isn't explored in one episode. Some aspects weren't strictly logical within the world, but it was fairly internally consistent. Story (7.3) The story was fairly fun to experience and shot fairly straight down the path it chose without major detours. Unfortunately, it didn't feel like the story was resolved through the power of the characters, as never before seen powers were granted to wrap things up as a mahou shoujo series would. Visuals (7.9) This failed to set up a distinctive style in the time given, but was well composed and had movement that was perhaps slightly better than the parent series due to the focus it received. Sound (8.4) VAs were all top-notch and the music was impressively good, especially considering it was for a one shot OVA. Background sound wasn't especially noticeable, but nothing stood out as bad. Characters (6.1) The convenient pulls from nowhere didn't do MSK any favors in the character section, destroying any chance for real character development, buit what do you expect from an OVA on this front? They all behaved fairly well within their established characters and didn't take any big incomprehensible actions, but they had little room to show their guts in the on-the-rails story they were forced into. Overall (7.4) As expected, Magical Star Kanon 100% is nothing more than a fun 20 minute Kanon character CD promotional item. If you've enjoyed what little you've seen of Kanon in the Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai TV series, this is worth a watch. Just be aware that the near complete lack of Keima leaves very little of the zany comedy aspect intact.