Again, poor Mash lacks magical abilities and while that didn’t hinder him when he was just living with his “father” in the woods away from society after a series of events forced him to join a well-known magical school, Mash now finds his life a bit harder to deal with. Luckily, Mash is a powerhouse of a young man who solves most of his problems by either hitting them with his fists, kicking, lifting absurd amounts of weight and/or a combination of everything we just stated.

The humor in Mashle is that despite Mash being literally surrounded by powerful witches and wizards all gunning for a prestigious title called the Divine Visionary, Mash uses his pure might to make things work. Mash can’t fly a broom so in one episode, Mash throws his broom with all of his strength, jumps on it as it's flying, and pretends that is him flying on a broom…We know the phrase “not everything can be solved with brute force” but Mash shows maybe everything can be solved with muscles.

When you think of buff guys, especially in the world of anime, you probably think of big dudes who talk loudly and show off their muscles. Mash…may have names for his muscles—which is strange—but he’s a very humble and semi-airheaded individual with a heart of gold. That’s why the humor in Mashle hits perfectly. From breaking doors, because he forgot how to open them—a running gag in the show—to eating cream puffs after lifting an iron…Mashle’s humor is from just how it often is so downright absurd and goofy that it is comedic. Mash’s first major exercise is to use magic to make words on a test paper stop moving.

Obviously lacking magical abilities, Mash literally puts fear into the spell by breaking a wand and yelling at the world—in his monotone voice—to stop moving around. Solving a maze, Mash doesn’t run around and find the proper exit but instead brute forces his way through the magic-filled walls and escapes. This type of humor is sometimes ridiculous but that’s why we haven’t found a single episode of Mashle to not be funny!

A-1 Pictures is well known for their incredible feats with animation and while Mashle might not be the next SAO franchise in terms of looks, we can’t deny it captures the majesty of the manga quite well! From the various goofy faces made by Mash and his friends/enemies to the more epic moments of Mash beating an enemy with his pure power, Mashle looks very good and mirrors the feel of the manga to the letter. We do feel Mashle—not per se A-1 Pictures' fault mind you—reuses images like Mash nomming on cream puffs or just standing there in his mushroom head glory but it can feel a bit repetitive at times and we’re only three episodes in. Still, maybe part of the comedy can stem from Mash and his almost non-caring face despite how good the dude is and how innocent he is as well.

Bodybuilders or dieticians will tell you that the Plateau Effect is real as it means your body gets used to the routines you’re doing and instead of gains you find yourself hitting a standstill with whatever you are doing whether it be losing weight or gaining muscle. Mashle: Magic and Muscles might end up having that Plateau Effect after a few dozen episodes as the humor is great but rarely ventures off into unseen territory. When not taking jabs at another wizarding series we mentioned too much already, Mashle relies heavily on Mash’s ways of being for humor and to create various situations for our MC. These events might get old after a while and we could see diminishing the comedy and drama that the show relies heavily on. However, this could all change later as Mashle progresses so it’s only a worry, not an issue we have with the series just yet.