Harem anime is an extremely common and popular genre, especially when there's a lot of school girls and fanservice involved. For many otaku (including myself) shows like these are a turn off because they feel so generic and gratuitous. Fortunately every once in a while there is a series that comes along that puts a fresh spin on things and actually proves that the genre isn't completely devoid of creativity and fun. Maburaho is the newest series from ADV to fall into that category and even though the show's DVD release is almost at an end, it's worth checking out.

Put together by J.C. Staff (the team behind Azumanga Daioh and Slayers) Maburaho features an eclectic cast of characters and takes place in a magical world. In this reality a person's social standing is determined by how many magic spells that they can cast in a life time. The kicker here is that when you exceed your limit of magic your body turns to ash and you die. With this in mind you would hope that you'd have a lot of spells at your disposal. Unfortunately for Kazuki Shikimori this isn't the case and he is able to cast only eight spells before he kicks the bucket.

Joining Kazuki at school and in life are three girls that find themselves drawn to him for some reason. Yuna, Kuriko, and Rin are all beautiful buxom babes who are constantly at war over who gets to be Kazuki's girl. Naturally things get muddled for our lead kid, but things only get worse as he finds himself using up the last of his magic. Through a series of events over the course of the previous volumes each of his eight spells has been used up. Because of this his body has turned to ash, but for some strange reason he didn't completely die. He remains in ghost form and still walks the earth, though it won't be for long if Shino has anything to say about it.

In the last volume the class geared up for their school trip and in the first episode on the sixth release for Maburaho the trip comes to a close. All of the girls find themselves magically drawn to Kazuki's ghost form and in order to keep from embarrassing situations they decide to go on dates with him individually. This seems like a good idea at first until Shino comes along to try to turn Kazuki into a permanent ghost and add him to her collection. Naturally all of the girls have something to say about this and what transpires sets a course of events in action that may actually lead to the boy's resurrection.

As the kids get back home from their trip life seems to be heading back to normal somewhat. The only problem I have with the second episode on this disc is that since the series is so close to the end having a throw away recap episode is really pointless. We've been watching all along so we know what happened. Doing such a thing is really just filler to stretch the playtime, but to be fair several series do this kind of thing. The last episode on the disc takes on a little Cinderella-like story and focuses on Kuriko's character.

If you've been following the series to this point then you'll most likely be pleased with the sixth volume. The first and third episodes here provide the most story while the second is a meager throwaway at best. As the series gets ready to wrap things up with the next volume things are getting interesting, though I dare say a bit predictable. I've loved Maburaho since the moment I saw it, but only getting three episodes on a volume where one of them is a flashback montage really feels cheap. If you have reservations about the show you'll probably be better off buying into a complete collection if one is released.

Maburaho was produced in 2003 and retains its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. This is the kind of show that would have benefited from a widescreen presentation, but as it stands this is a vibrant transfer. The colors just pop from the screen and I didn't notice any flaw aside from some very minor aliasing. The animation is top-notch as well and everything appears fluid and lively. As we've come to expect over the years J.C. Staff does a great job putting together a show and Maburaho is no different.

When I sat down to watch Maburaho I naturally gravitated towards the 2.0 Japanese language track with optional English subtitles. The quality proved to be very good and the translation seemed accurate, though obviously the sound range wasn't nearly as dynamic as the English 5.1 selection. As far as dubbing tracks are concerned the voice work here is decent enough, though it's not as enjoyable as the Japanese option. The audio quality however is much better with a better range and use of the channels.

As usual there are clean closing and opening animations included on the disc along with some ADV previews. There is also four minutes worth of character drawings and sketches available to take a look at. Considering that the previous volumes for this series offered more it would have been nice if something else was tossed into the mix.

Maburaho is nearing the end of its run and unfortunately it seems to be running out of steam. This sixth volume includes three episodes that don't really push the boundaries of what we've come to expect. Two of the episodes further character and plot development while one of them is merely a collection of recap video with a light story tossed into the mix. Fans of the series will appreciate a lot of the humor here but newcomers may feel cheapened by the lack of content. In the end I recommend the show, but am only going to suggest a rental for this volume.

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