Mashle: Magic and Muscles (マッシュル -MASHLE-) is a 2023 television anime series based on Hajime Kōmoto’s manga series of the same name. The series was directed by Tomoya Tanaka and produced by studio A-1 Pictures, with script composition writer Yōsuke Kuroda, character designer Hisashi Higashijima and music composer Masaru Yokoyama. The series first aired in Japan on April 2023.
Background:
“This is a world in which magic is casually used by everyone.
In a deep, dark forest in this world of magic, there is a boy who is singlemindedly working out.
His name is Mash Burnedead, and he has a secret. He can’t use magic.
All he wanted was to live a quiet life with his family, but people suddenly start trying to kill him one day and he somehow finds himself enrolled in Magic School. There, he sets his sights on becoming a Divine Visionary, the elite of the elite.
Will his ripped muscles work against the best and brightest of the wizarding world?
The curtain rises on this off-kilter magical fantasy in which the power of being jacked crushes any spell!”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, June 2024.
Shonen Jump have serialised dozens of stories of varied genres and they came be super serious or a gag that parodies various properties. Mashle is very much a mish-mash of different genres and media – namely One Punch Man and Harry Potter but the concept works pretty well even if the tropes do end up being fairly repetitive. Like Black Clover’s Asta, the protagonist Mash can’t use magic but is super strong and can pretty much bullshit his way through a wizard academy when needed.
Mashle serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump during the year of 2020, that same year where the world was impacted by the global pandemic, and was also where we saw the debut appearances for Ayakashi Triangle, Burn the Witch, Sakamoto Days and Undead Unluck, as well as many others though they didn’t survive as long as the former five. Eventually the series did wrap up after 18 manga volumes but that didn’t stop an anime adaptation from being worked on by Aniplex and A-1 Pictures which was announced in 2022. From what I can remember, they mentioned they planned to adapt the entire story which seems to be accurate as we have a third season in the works as we speak which is great.
But more importantly is it any good? Yeah I personally say so, but Mashle is an acquired taste however due to the humour that it gives. Mash himself does a lot of random stuff throughout the series but it’s watching the magic users react to his actions is what makes the story a lot of fun to watch. The action sequences were good fun and if I had to critique the series as a whole it could have gone for longer but they moved forward to wrapping it up sooner than later which I suppose is due to Shonen Jump’s strict model of wanting a new chapter on a weekly basis which has impacted a lot of creators in that scene (it’s certainly not sustainable).
A-1 Pictures have also done a pretty good job especially given their track record with animation can be hit or miss, though in recent years its been fairly solid with Solo Leveling and Too Many Losing Heroines! both shaping up well. This is also A-1 Pictures’ first anime project to be based on the Weekly Shonen Jump property but definitely not the first for Aniplex as we’ve seen them produce Nisekoi: False Love in the 2010s and even as far back as Rurouni Kenshin in the 90s.
So as you can probably guess, Aniplex of America did in fact secure the streaming and home video rights for Mashle in the United States & Canada as well as the United Kingdom & Ireland. The former of which they have released on home video whilst the latter is for streaming. A UK distributor has yet to sub-license the home video rights from Aniplex as of the time of this write-up. The series did well enough to receive an English dub at least.
Limited Edition Contents:
Aniplex of America don’t advertise their sets as limited editions these days but they pretty much are going by personal experience over the past decade. If it has fancy packaging or added physical items then it’s definitely limited.
The limited edition Blu-ray release is presented with a DVD-sized o-card slipcase, a digipack case housing the discs including the original soundtrack CD, a special coaster, four Mini Character Stickers and a 46-page special booklet featuring episode information, character designs, art board designs and special illustrations.
There’s also a J-card type wraparound for the information and specs which can also fit inside the set for safe-keeping. This packaging is very unique when compared to the previous Aniplex of America releases and it’s partly because it’s mirroring the design of the Japanese Blu-ray releases. The booklet itself is also very different in design but looked pretty good. The limited edition Blu-ray set was released for an SRP of $134.98.
Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 1 was ordered together with its second season as well as the Lord El-Melloi series from the Crunchyroll Store during its final sale before the store locked out most consumers to be exclusive to their Mega Fan & Ultimate Fan tiers. Price for both seasons were $97.18 each.
Physical Contents:
- O-card slipcase with clean artwork
- Digipack case packaging
- J-Card wraparound includes specification and details of the set
- Original Soundtrack CD
- 46-page Special Booklet
- 4 Mini Character Stickers
- Special Coaster
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 11th June 2024
The limited edition Blu-ray release for Mashle: Magic & Muscles Season 1 contains all 12 episodes across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring done by Aniplex.
The set includes the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! English dub commissioned by Aniplex of America with optional English subtitles for the on-screen text.
The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the Blu-ray discs are region accessible to players set to A & B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 English Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English, English (On-Screen Text) |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 3 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Textless Opening “Knock Out”
- Textless Ending “Creampuff Funk”
- Web Trailer Episode 1 (00:58 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 2 (01:43 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 3 (01:09 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 4 (00:48 runtime)
Disc 2:
- PVs (04:10 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 5 (01:35 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 6 (01:20 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 7 (01:33 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 8 (01:29 runtime)
Disc 3:
- Character PVs (02:11 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 9 (01:21 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 10 (01:46 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 11 (01:34 runtime)
- Web Trailer Episode 12 (01:10 runtime)
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Mashle: Magic & Muscles Season 1 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Aniplex of America for the United States & Canada.
The limited edition Blu-ray set is available exclusively through the Crunchyroll Store (currently for $107.98) which is now locked exclusively to members who are on the Mega Fan tier (£6.99/m or $13.99/m) or Ultimate Fan tier ($17.99/m). That said, you can get around this by ordering at Robert’s Anime Corner Store (currently for $124.87).
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