Set in a magical academy that teaches humans, gods and demons, Mysteria Friends (aka Manaria Friends) is based on the Rage of Bahamut social game that's hugely popular in Japan. Concentrating on two Princesses from different lands, the series is a tale of friendship and magic.
Mysteria Friends had a troubled start, first announced in August 2015, the entire staff was replaced and the series rescheduled for 2019, and is now airing on Crunchyroll. The reasons for the delay were never clarified, but the end result is a 3 year delay. Was it worth the wait?
This first episode introduces us to bright and outgoing Princess Anne, a capable mage who is popular across the campus, and the shy, reserved Grea, a Dragonborne demi-human who is also the Princess of her native land. Their awkward bonding is the core of the series, which certainly captures the attention with sharp character designs and incredibly detailed backgrounds. The camera fairly lingers on wide shots of the beautiful, sun-drenched academy, with a dreamy colour pallette making every screen-capture look like a work of art. It is undeniably beautiful.
The initial episode is split into two parts - a 10 minute opening episode that focuses on Anne and Grea, followed by a 4 minute short explaining the role of Owen the Paladin. Oddly enough, the second episode has far more energy, with Owen clearly quite taken with Anne, who he is charged with protecting at the Mysteria Academy.
The first half is oddly very stilted and lacking any real energy. It's a mix of over-earnest reactions by Anne or Grea to the other over incredibly trivial dialogue, and lingering lustful shots of both as they regard each other from a distanc. It can be read as Yuri (Girls love) or just friendship at this early stage, but it heavily implies the former through the episode's direction. I've little problem with "cheesecake" like this, though I confess it's not something that really draws me in personally. As such, I found this opener to be pretty hollow - there's no hint of a story, intrigue or character arc, it's just two girls idolising each other and being awkward.
I found more to like in Owen's short showcase, as he at least seems to have entertaining character quirks that are reminiscent of Full Metal Panic's Sousuke Sagara, and my hope would be that future episodes feature him heavily. His ridiculous (and obvious) staring at Anne from a distance, grimly determined to leap in and save her at any minute, is rather endearing.
At 14 minutes, this is a short show, and subsequently a short First Thoughts. You can make reduced runtime shows like this work well - the most recent example I've seen is the new Transformers Cyberverse series, which packs in a surprising amount in 11 minutes, but Mysteria Friends seems content to say very little, and subsequently I can't really recommend it unless you're a fan of Rage of Bahamut or awkward girls being bashful at each other in attractive settings.
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