Obligatory picture of an anime chick. Apparently, she has something to do with magic too.

I recently rewatched a segment of Mononoke and began thinking of magic’s role in anime. Immediately, a number of titles which had affected me, whether through the apparent novel, cliche or misuse of magic sprang into my mind, and I thought it’d be fun to write about and identify the roles magic plays in anime.

The Role of Magic

I must first confess that I’m in Ursula K. Le Guin’s camp when it comes to magic. In the Earthsea saga, magic is a tool, instead of an entity, which distorts the vulnerable fabric of the world governed clearly by Taoism. A mage’s or witch’s usable power is limited by a delicate balance in the world, one which if tipped will produce adverse side-effects. Any magic-user who seeks to exploit magic always meets a match with power equal to their own, whether it’d be dragons, other magic-users, etc. for in order for evil to exist, an equal good must exist to create a balance.

Never once in Earthsea is magic portrayed as explicitly good or evil, and never once is magic used to a significant end without some sort of sacrifice from the user. It is a bias of mine that magic in any work of fiction should be parallel to this mode of magic in some way or another (Taoist influence optional)—a passive facet of nature controllable by anything which recognizes its existence and able to do so, but not to the point of exploitation.

Air TV: Magic as an Evil Entity

When it comes to magic being an ‘asshole’, no other show did it better than Air TV. Magic in Air worked as an entity which, seemingly arbitrarily, made the lives of the girls hell on Earth. It even went so far as to inflict the ultimate punishment of death on Misuzu (gao-girl, in case you don’t remember), and for what? Karma? Association with Yukito? It’s never made clear and we will never know. (Note: I didn’t include Act of God because He isn’t all that popular Japan, and as far as possible I’d like to leave Him out of anything I write.) I have been proven wrong. Misuzu is indeed the reincarnation of Kanna, so she received the curse as part of a ’soul-hereditory’ curse. This part still holds true for Yukito’s mom and the two other girls, though.

“Say goodnight, milk.”

Though many people credit Air being an emotional roller-coaster, the involvement of magic undermines most if not any sympathy a viewer might have for the characters affected. All tragedies require a proper, believable cause to evoke a reaction from its viewers. Without this solid backbone, a tragedy would cheapened and become too convenient, panderous even, to believe.

In such a story, magic is no longer a passive plot device, but a nameless, malicious character, a little boy playing with toy soldiers and beheading their little plastic heads when bored. A show in which such a character exists can only point towards lazy screenwriting, the application of phlebotinum by the bucket-loads. They should have made Misuzu Yukito’s mother’s cousin’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s… well, you get the idea.

However, not all shows which feature this kind of magic are as bad as I’ve made Air seem. Memories: Magnetic Rose has the memories of Eva pulling the two astronauts to their deaths in the show through illusion and visions of a better life, but the difference is that Eva exists as an intelligent entity with a history and personality to justify her evil acts while Air’s magic is conventional and does bad things to the characters arbitrarily.


Mononoke: Magic as an Absolute Solution

Almost a sister to ‘Violence as an Absolute Solution’, magic is also always often used as a convenient tool to end a problem and return circumstances back to before the story began. The only difference is perhaps that where violence is limited to solving situations through destroying the cause of the problem, magic is also able to regenerate or heal a problem which has already caused an impact. KA-POW! Examples of this are common in shounen anime (Slayers), and games where the main objective is to kill the boss, thus solving everything (200 Magic Points, Fireball! 300 Magic Points to restore all Hit Points!) This form of magic is the closest there is to characters exploiting magic.

Allusion to a fart.

Though Mononoke does use magic as an absolute solution, it is a detective show before it is a fantasy about an exorcist kicking ass, spending most of the time looking for the Form, Truth and Regret of a malicious Mononoke before the short elimination to stop it from causing trouble. Mononoke runs a ‘think and make clear before you subdue’ philosophy, something which reality and other shows lack. Such an idealistic form of investigation and (then) conflict is only possible because of magic, emphasizing magic’s role as a prominent tool with intelligent uses instead of just a convenient and shiny form of wallop or regeneration. One may look at Mononoke as a show which took this cliched use of magic and put it to novel use.

Howl’s Moving Castle: Magic as a Setting

In contrast with both forms of magic above, Howl’s Moving Castle has magic exist simply to be part of the world characters live in, making it closest to being a ‘passive facet of nature’. This form of magic is rare as it essentially limits the use of magic to auxiliary uses instead of the protagonist’s weapon of choice in a conflict to end all conflicts, but it does have much merit, especially in augmenting the atmosphere of a tale. Miyazaki (whom I am a rabid fanboy of) often uses this form of magic to its prime, so unsurprisingly a work of his is used as an example.

Yes, true love is about kissing a creature back into a prince.

In the world where Howl takes place, magic is everywhere and people take it for granted, treating it as a part of life and very much in the realm of the normal. However, as the story moves along, people begin to realise that the magic as a force which enriched their lives also had the potential for destruction.

Howl’s colour scheme sets the mood from the beginning scenes prior to Sophie being turned into a granny. At first, we notice that the town is vibrant with colour and song, but as we move along this multitude of colours is slowly darkened and only the dark colours remain, and finally into the climax where Sophie enters into the realm of absolute blackness before the show lightens up again with the ending of the war. The type of magic which runs through each colour scheme follows the mood, with Sophie sky-strolling through bright city while a fork of lightning rips through the darkness as Howl fights his master’s flying beasts.

Though magic is all over the place, it takes a supporting role to the story—Sophie’s adventure which is pushed forward by her courage, will and love for Howl. Magic plays no part in deciding the turns and key events in the story. This is the essence of magic as a setting and perhaps why it is my favourite of all types: it gives screenwriters no avenue for an easy out.

Asatte no Houkou: Magic as a Catalyst

For my last observation, magic as a catalyst. Not very different from magic as a setting, magic as a catalyst has magic play a prominent part in the furthering of a story, whether it’s a one-shot effect or continually throughout the show. Asatte no Houkou’s a slice of life anime which used this type of magic to excellent effect, creating tension and cause for drama through the story as the main characters struggle to come to terms with the alternate reality they wished for but never expected to come true.

“If only spectacles were as cheap as bras.”

Asatte is a human story at heart, but what’s impressive about it was its use of magic only once. Its role is limited to that single moment in the first episode and when it wears off in the last, and is used created a classic ‘what-if’ scenario where themes of love, obligation, nostalgia and growing up are explored.

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