Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie Review

An action-packed fantasy for genre enthusiasts.

Rental Magica is a science-fiction fantasy anime exploring a supernatural world of magicians and monsters. The series is produced by Atsushi Itou (The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Big Order), Hiroyasu Asami (Summer Wars, Wolf Children), Tsutomu Takano (in their lone producing credit), and Nobuhiko Sakoh (Cosplay Complex, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu). The series features original animation from ZEXCS (Chrome Shelled Regios, Our Home's Fox Deity).

Rental Magica is based on the original light manga novels penned by Makoto Sanda and featuring character designs and illustrations by pako. As broadcast originally on Chiba TV, Rental Magica is available in North America from distributor Nozomi Entertainment (RightStuf). A fantasy series for genre enthusiasts.

The magical mages of Astral serve as an elite special forces team fighting against dark magic monsters. These highly skilled magicians are part of the Astral mage society and each member is gifted with a unique role within the dark-magic fighting team. As missions are carried out by the dispatch group, young hotshot Itsuki Iba (Jun Fukuyama) becomes the unexpected leader of Astral – despite not even having any magical abilities at all!

Honami Takase Ambler (Kana Ueda) partakes in the fun as the secretary to Itsuki. Honami is a magician skilled in the art of Witchcraft. Using her skills to help Itsuki, the journey forward is one paved with an array of obstacles. The Astral mages face a new threat when rival magic company, Goetia, gives them competition for the same evil-stopping contracts. Will Astral push ahead of Goetia and emerge as a leader in demon- annihilation?

The action sequences in Rental Magica are entertaining and are one of the prime focal points of the series success. Fans of exciting action-packed adventure and supernatural excitement will enjoy the unique spin that the series gives audiences. The unique blend of witchcraft and monsters is one of the more compelling components.

The animation is compelling and provides the series with a strong visual foundation. Under the art direction of Masaru Ohta (Arjuna, Macross Zero), Rental Magica is a reasonably engaging anime production with solid artistry. The animation isn’t in the top-tier of anime but it is solid and is satisfactory for the genre. A solid effort by Ohta.

One of the most compelling elements of the production is found with the character design work by Minako Shiba (Noir, Black Butler). The unique character designs are effective for the series. These designs showcase the differences between the characters of Rental Magica – from exceling at witchcraft to lacking magical abilities.

The cinematography by Atsuko Okui (Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, The Prince of Tennis) and Takeshi Kuchiba (Kase-san and Morning Glories, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes) imbues the series with lush aesthetics. The visual element of the production adds to the genre setting by enhancing the tone and style.

Featuring a score composed by Jun Ichikawa (Engaged to the Unidentified, Seven Days War) and Takahito Eguchi (D.N.Angel, Trinity Blood), Rental Magica is a compelling showcase for music. A impressive (if not exceptional) score and one that adds a sense of energy to the action backdrop.

Written by Makoto Sanda (adapting his original work) and Mamiko Ikeda (Chrome Shelled Regios, Emma: A Victorian Romance), Rental Magica is not the most original concept for an anime series. There are many other anime series with similar concepts and approaches to blending fantasy and action. Yet it is reasonably engaging. While not a home-run story, the concept is compelling enough that Sanda made something fun out of the anime.

Director Itsuro Kawasaki (Arc the Lad, Magical Girl Ore) provides Rental Magica with the energetic style fans hope for with action anime series. If for nothing else, Rental Magica offers anime enthusiasts some simple fun with action and adventure. Fans of the genre will find it worth checking out.

Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Nozomi Entertainment, Rental Magica is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The presentation is beautiful and colorful. The wonderful color reproduction capably preserves the series vibrant artistry and animation style. The vivid landscape art is stunning and exuberant in high-definition. The encoding is superb and manages to showcases the action and adventure of the series with relative ease. The presentation capably handles the art style and doesn't suffer from egregious compression issues. A solid effort from Nozomi Entertainment.

Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release is presented in Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The release does not provide an English dub option (and this is something which will surely be a little disappointing to English dub fans). Nonetheless, the release provides a lossless audio encoding preserving the original sound for the Japanese stereo mix. The English subtitles are quite good. Dynamics are impressive. Dialogue remains clear and easy to understand.

Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc 1:

Special Promo 1 (HD, 1:22)

Clean Opening 1 (HD, 1:48)

Clean Closing 1 (HD, 1:49)

Commercial Spots 1 (HD, 00:54)

Nozomi Trailers (HD, 2:50)

Disc 6:

Special Promo 2 (HD, 4:09)

Commercial Spots 2 (HD, 00:54)

Web Commercials (HD, 3:37)

Clean Opening 2 (HD, 1:48)

Clean Closing 2 (HD, 1:49)

US Trailer (HD, 1:42)

Rental Magica Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rental Magica is a decent enough action anime series. The production has effective animation, compelling animation, and a cool concept. Fans of supernatural action anime may wish to check it out. This is certainly not a classic series but it has some fun elements for action fans. The Blu-ray release has impressive video and audio and a small selection of bonus features is also provided on the release. The set will certainly satisfy devoted fans of Rental Magica. Recommended.