I watched this for fun and because it was one of the few things related to Tench Muyo that I hadn't watched yet when I was 10-11 years old, or something close to that, when it was exhibited on TV.
At the time I watched Tenchi Muyo, I found it super fun because I loved everything related to karate and ninjas and Tenchi looked like one walking that path. He looked silly but the entire group made everything better. There was action, silly moments, love, pets, everything a young kid could wish on the TV from an animated show.
This, on the other hand, has nothing related to that big and loved story that got us day after day, week after week, glued to the TV. If anything, it uses most of the initial cast as a tool to get people into it. It doesn't do it wrongly, but it may force people to think twice about what they think about Tenchi Muyo, this, and if they should or not watch it.
So yes, before starting criticize anything, I will warn that there are two ways of watching this anime:
- see it as something related to Tenchi Muyo
- ignore this being based as something related to Tenchi Muyo
I personally opted with the second, and also spoiler free as much as possible, even if it's a hard thing to do.
I understand if you don't, Tenchi Muyo was a really good show and anything that makes it different by using its name or cast will always feel wrong, but I would advice to at least try it that way. You will see it as something different, or at least more enjoyable and memorable.
Review:
Anything after Samurai 7, one of the best pre-2010 shows, needs to work really hard to be amazing for that age. Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club, unfortunately, isn't one of these hard-workers. It's more on the grounds of being competent by not trying to be amazing neither bad since it's mostly aimed to girls with a mix of dark here and there to create an enemy to the story. This doesn't mean that is horrible, it's actually fairly decent, but may be something that won't make people wanting to watch it until the end.
Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club tells us the story of a young girl with magical powers, how she made a ton of friends with similar problems, and how together they all surpassed that difference from all the normal humans. It's sort of an ode (tip: lyric poetry) to show that different people can coexist in the same world where people follow tendencies, try to be the same and end loosing their uniqueness.
It starts pretty lame in season one. Most of the episodes show someone of the main cast showing their life issues, what makes them different so to say, and Sasami trying to help them. You will definitively laugh at some and love the identity of every member of the magical group but you will want more that doesn't exist.
By now you may know that its begin lacks substance to make it standout in the middle of so many shows out there of the same type, but its last episodes are quite the opposite. Everything starts to be focused more on what happens to two members and it's a roller-coaster of emotions
This makes it attractive and almost forcing you to watch the second season to know more about it but at the same time makes you wonder about the name of the show since its called Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club instead of a generic name like Mahou Shoujo Club or <insert the name of another character of the show>: Mahou Shoujo Club (if you watch this until the end then you will understand why the another).
With the "second season" (I like to call it Part Two) they make it stand out a bit from the rest (and also what makes me love Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club): it ends what started close to the end of the first season and it's damn strong in emotions even if it's nothing like Clannad or Air. Or at least was, there are still more episodes to watch, episodes that ruin everything the entire environment created until now.
It makes you think that they used them to force it to last a tiny bit more (or to show that they're making use of Sasami in the show) when they had a strong ending based on the premise of different people can coexist in the same world as normal people that was truly perfect to what is shown since the first second. It's truly a shame and ruins the entire story by a lot.
But wait, there is more! In the middle of this fairly average anime there is one thing that is made right: music!
"A song to the Earth" [大地の歌] is truly gorgeous and the way it sneaks into the anime and how it's linked to a specific character makes it be something wonderful, specially the instrumental version.
Opening in both seasons isn't also terrible even if it's the same music, it's catchy and I would say that is one of the few good ones to listen in each episode instead of ignoring like most people do after the first episode (I'm one of them).
Link to A song to the Earth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flXAlS_55Kw
In the end it's not a terrible show. It could have been something good but poorly choices of the director prevented it from being better.
Random thought: Tsukasa seems to be super similar to Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
