5 Reasons to Watch The 'Magi: Adventure of Sinbad' Netflix Anime

Not to be confused with the stand-up comedian, Magi loosely bases its characters on the various heroes and heroines of the Arabic collection of Middle Eastern stories One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as Arabian Nights. Sinbad, in particular, is the star of this prequel.

If you haven’t seen the first two seasons, this one follows the growing life of the most notable man of the seven seas, a few years before the start of the series. Here are a few reasons for you to check it out if you haven’t started Magi yet before it airs on Netflix July 14th.

Magic

If roiling typhoons spiraling out of swords and sand giants shootings flames from their hands sounds dazzling to you, this is definitely an anime to try. There are magic tools, djinns, and magicians. There are also plenty of characters who are equipped with mystifying weapons that can produce astounding powers. And with those sweet powers, there are even more impressive battles with good animation, especially with Sinbad who is owner of a vast number of magic treasures, tools, and djinn (genie) vessels in the show.

Sinbad

He’s charming and powerful, with a kingdom he rules over with a lighthearted smile and and an astoundingly large number of Magic Vessels, which are tools that house the power of a djinn. He’s frankly a pretty cool character.

From seasons one and two, the audience knows very little of how Sinbad conquered so many Dungeons, which are gigantic structures that hold one of the numerous djinns as well as a shit ton of gold, or how he became the King of Sindria. This new season will give new and old fans alike a look into his intriguing past, maybe even discovering why members of the antagonistic organization of the series want to call him “the irregularity.”

Huge Fights

There are sword fights, fistfights, magic fights, and with the production of the animation coming from A-1 Productions that brought us anime like Black Butler and Blue Exorcist, the movements of these battles are very fluid and even more impressive.

The more the story develops in the original, and the more the story will develop for the third season, the more powerful the villains, and thus our heroes, become. It’s similar to shounen anime like Naruto or Shaman King where the protagonists gain power in conjunction with their villainous counterparts of that arch, but because Magi is such a short series in comparison to other shounen, it makes for a whirlwind of epic battles and exponentially growing abilities.

His allies

Sinbad’s allies are introduced in the first two seasons of the show. The Eight Generals are some of his most powerful and loyal comrades – and a few of the most entertaining, mysterious, and impressive characters of the series. Up until this point though, only tidbits of their past and how they pledged their services to Sinbad have popped up in the show, but in this prequel there are should more backstory and hopefully more screen time for this colorful cast of the Seven Seas Alliance.

Middle Eastern Mythology

When there is a fantasy anime, there are mainly two kinds: mythology based on Japanese culture with ayakashi and fox fires and shrines, or Western folks tales with dragons and knights and wizards. This isn’t always the case, of course, and that is extremely evident with Magi because it is based on Middle Eastern mythology, taking characters like Aladdin, Sinbad, Ja’far, and Alibaba (Ali Baba) from One Thousand and One Nights and keeping them in a world with djinns and flying carpets and turbans. It’s a refreshing and enlightening change from the usual.