Sometimes, main franchises receive spinoffs that are light hearted. We have seen this with Hidan no Aria AA and Hina Logi with the cast mostly female with the yuri turned up to eleven.
Mysteria Friends is one of those spin offs from Cygames’s Rage of Bahamut. Cygames originally planned to make this spinoff in 2015, but they shelved it until 2018. Yes, it’s that same Cygames that created Granblue Fantasy, which is far more popular gachamobile game than Rage of Bahamut. They also make Uma Musume as well, which received its own anime in April 2018..
Synopsis
Mysteria Friends focuses on the day of life of two princesses who are attending Mysteria Academy. The academy is where all races who are normally at war with each other come to learn about magic in peace without discrimination. Of course, the students who are also princesses include a human named Anne and Grea, a half-dragon girl. Together they spend their days learning magic while getting to know each other more.
Thoughts
As expected, this show is light-hearted and doesn’t have much action or conflict. Besides that, the mock emergency drill at the academy where they unleashed a bunch of monsters is the only time the viewers see any real action or conflict. Still, it’s funny how Anne ends up destroying more of the academy mostly because a monster dared to attack Grea. Yes, Anne is really talented, but she can’t go without creating a big mess. This is evident when she destroys the library not once, but twice. The first time wasn’t her fault. However, the second was despite her having good intentions to save Grea.
Even so, there are a lot of nice moments between Anne and Grea. I will only share a few that I really liked since there are plenty. Besides Anne stealing Grea’s shredded skin and getting excited over it, there is the cosplaying in the third episode. While Anne’s disguise didn’t work, they went into a shop that Miranda, their teacher secretly runs. She makes clothes or rather, cosplay outfits on her free time. I have to admit that Grea really looked good in the dress that Mirana and Anne forced her to try on.
Of course, there is more where that came from. Grea teaches Anne how to swim in a secret spot on a beach, which is nice. Of course, you can’t forget Anne trying to slip some love potion into the tea that she made. It’s obvious that Anne loves Grea quite a lot, especially with her desire to sleep over at Grea’s room for one night. She eventually gets that wish granted at the end when the academy approved her request to share a room with Grea in the last episode.
Despite the episodes being only 14 minutes long, the production values are very high with the nice scenery, animation and music. To me, the animation and music fits well with the overall fantasy theme of the story. The characters are also enjoyable. While I don’t care too much about Anne’s bodyguard, thankfully, he doesn’t have much significance outside of protecting Anne.
Overall, Manaria Friends is an enjoyable slice of life with plenty of nice moments with Anne and Grea. If you enjoy yuri genre anime with some slice of life and fantasy thrown in, give it a try.
Grea might be my favorite character from the Winter 2019 season. Maybe. But you’re absolutely right saying “the production values are very high.”
I thought the pacing was great, too — the show let Grea and Anne’s relationship develop naturally. And it it just me, or is the way Grea says “Anne” almost heart-breakingly adorable?
I agree, it’s nice to see their relationship develop throughout the 10 episodes. But yes, Greas reactions towards Anne can be downright cute that it’s too much to handle.
My #1 anime of Winter 2019 and one that already has a spot in my Top 3 of 2019. Anne and Grea are worthy successors to Fine and Izetta. Their love is beautiful and pure. No strings attached whatsoever. Just what I wanted. Hanna and Poppy were a cute side-couple as well.
Here’s hoping we get a 2nd season in the near future. I want more. Much more.
I agree. While it’s short, there are a lot of nice moments with Anne and Grea. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future.
That reminded me of how much I loved Izetta! Guess it’s time for a rewatch…