Magical Sempai First Thoughts (Mild NSFW)

As I was doing final edits on this, I realized I could have totally titled this First THOTs but decided not to pull a Kenny pun. Tejina Senpai or Magical Sempai as titled in Crunchyroll is a very ecchi show about Sempai, the titular (in more ways than one) Magical Sempai, and her Assistant, Assistant-kun. It’s a quick half-length show with 12 minute episodes and a handful of 3 to 4 minute skits that display the hilariously inept Sempai and the mostly straight edged, but still teenage boy Assistant-kun. I picked this up because the cover art seemed interesting with Sempai seeming to be like a mix of Dagashi Kashi’s Hotaru and Shimoneta’s Anna. As it turns out, that’s kind of exactly what she is in both form and substance, and I for one love it. My interest was sealed when I saw a random scene with a dove and Sempai from episode 1 on r/Animenocontext.

Physically, like I said she has the absolute crazy eyes of Hotaru toned down to like an 8, and Anna’s clumsy hot appeal, but with a fang as a bit of a surprisingly unique twist. As a character, Sempai is actually much more in line with most of the nerdy people watching this show than Hotaru or Anna, with her being very socially awkward. My favorite example of this was her having a very sad and pitying moment where Assistant-kun calls her out for having a stuffed animal for a pet in lieu of real friends to which she only denied the stuffed animal. One of the best aspects about her though, is that she’s grounded to reality and realizes she’s pretty bad at magic. The kicker is that she doesn’t let this get to her, and she continues trying her best even though she tends to fail, to both her and Assistant-kun’s horror and disappointment.

And onto Assistant-kun, I actually sympathize with this guy on a few different levels. Getting roped (sometimes literally) into this crazy woman’s plans partly out of pity and partly out of the fact she’s hot is a trap I may or may not have fallen into in the past. Beyond that, he’s able to see past most of Sempai’s tricks and actually ends up being more capable than Sempai herself at magic, being both more charismatic (which is funny given his fairly deadpan personality, something I normally only enjoy in female characters) and a more entertaining performer. One thing that I also enjoy about him is that he isn’t immune to Sempai, nor does he find himself in the dense sexless mindset many protagonists in his case find themselves. There’s a fair amount of chemistry between the two, but it is a component of their relationship, not the focal point.

The show seems to imply other characters who, like the main two characters, don’t seem to have names either, just titles. I don’t know why but the anonymity makes it somehow funnier with times like a moment where Sempai tries to hail Assistant-kun on the PA system and admits she has no idea what his name is. This coupled with random moments and scene locations (like them just genuinely stealing the science club room) makes this quirky show all the funnier for me. Overall, this seems like the show I’ll watch this season to put a genuine smile on my face after a long day of work or a poor round of 40k or Overwatch/PUBG.

So while I could argue these ecchi comedies tend to be right proper trash, the comedic pacing is on par with Aho-Girl and kept me laughing more than groaning about the terrible situations that Sempai got herself into and was overall entertaining. I have great appreciation for the fact they don’t paywall ecchi this shit, and make it an overall comedy with ecchi moments rather than an ecchi focused comedy. Again I feel it’s about one step up on the ecchi than Aho-Girl and with less Gintama, but it’s still shaping out to be a great show. Also, I’m sorry I didn’t get this article out last week as I intended but I’ve been moving and starting a new job but things are kinda settling so hopefully you’ll see more content from me as well as from the rest of the BAYOG crew. I have no idea why this took so long to write up in all honesty because for this season this seems like the most casually entertaining show on my queue. What do you think of Magical Sempai? Too much ecchi or too little plot? Or is the humor just not your jam? Let me know below and check out some more of our articles!