Maburaho, Vol. 1

Oh no, not another anime series with perky teenagers engaged in magic and supernatural power displays! Kazuki Shikimori is a 17-year-old student at Aoi Academy, a Japanese equivalent of Harry Potter's Hogwarts--except that the student body at Aoi seems to be entirely at a remedial level. Although Kazuki comes from a long line of magicians, he is only given the ability to cast eight magic spells. If he tries nine, he will disintegrate into dust. Don't ask where that came from, but this magic quota makes him something of a pariah among the students who can cast hundreds of spells. Initially scorned by the other students, Kazuki suddenly finds himself being pursued by three sexy girls. Whether they are genuinely interested in Kazuki or his family connections is not initially clear, but this does not sit well with the other guys at the school, who make their jealousy known. It is hard to run an inventory of the problems of Maburaho (rated 14-up) since it short-circuits on so many levels: including weak animation (some of the least interesting in recent anime), painfully dumb storylines, unappealing characters, woefully inadequate English dubbing (even by anime standards) on the dual-language disc, and a heavy sense of familiarity. Not recommended. [Note: Maburaho, Vol. 2 is slated for release on June 14.] Aud: P. (P. Hall)