Since the breakout success of One Punch Man in 2015, the concept of the near-invincible superhero who can take on any and all foes with little to no effort, has developed into something of a subgenre in the anime world. Mashle is the latest entry into this mix. The hero who is more than the hero, to the point where he becomes a caricature of the original hero concept, has been embraced by fans of anime.
So following the success of One Punch Man, we were soon introduced to another super-powerful hero, with a purposefully bland, seemingly uninteresting personality. This was Mob Psycho, which also caught on almost as well as the original season of One Punch Man. Now we have a new entrant: Mashle. A Shonen anime that adopts the supreme hero concept and takes it in a new interesting direction.
Mashle: A Parody of a Parody
Whilst One Punch Man and Mob Psycho took the overpowered hero concept to an extreme, they nonetheless chose to remain faithful to the worlds in which the story was set. This was modern-day urban Japan, with high school (Shonen) or young adult (Seinen) settings for Mob’s and Saitama’s stories respectively.
Whilst the parody element was a function of the power levels and ludicrous nature and motivations of some of the villains that the heroes went up against, in Mashle, the parody element lies with the world at large. The tagline of ‘Magic and Muscles’ is an odd combination and the storylines are crafted purposefully to exploit this incongruence. Mash, the protagonist is the only person in the Magic Realm, where the story takes, without the gift of magic, which turns out to be a curse. But thanks to his muscles, and what he could do with them, things turn out differently. Hilariously.
Harry Potter with Muscles
In parody anime, it is almost inevitable that other popular IPs and character arcs will become the source of laughter. For Mashle, the main target is the Harry Potter universe. Being one of the most recognizable stories and worlds in all of entertainment, one could say it was high time someone made use of its rich world and lore. Credit to Mashle, the writers do a pretty decent job not only in recreating the settings: classes, clothes, teacher look-alikes, and even a dumbed-down version of Quidditch.
But credit to Mashle, it does not allow the humor elements, which are clearly one of the main goals of the show, to take over. There is a story built into the world. This includes villains with clear (harmful) motivations, and good guys, mostly incompetent, trying to find their way in this magical high school world.
Humor, Story and Action – Getting the Balance Right
As a big fan of One Punch Man, and having somewhat enjoyed Mob Psycho 100, I can safely say that Mashle is a breath of fresh air. Whilst it is not groundbreaking in terms of the core storyline, the showrunners do a good job of providing an interesting main character, a believable world and some terrible villains.
And importantly for anime fans who are looking for a good laugh, Mashle has quite a bit of that too. Mash is an interesting character. Who whilst powerful is not that powerful, which makes the story all the more interesting. A subject that we will be getting into, in Part II of this review so stay tuned.
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