Anime has regularly depicted video games and players, usually falling back on the narrative gimmick of turning gameplay into a sort of total-immersion virtual-reality environment. Magic of Stella goes the opposite route, verging on the mundane as it shows a high school "doujin" club of females determined to design their own games—particularly a role-playing adventure about an ailing princess named Stella. Shy first-year student Tamaki joins the game-building SNS Club but she constantly worries about not being a good enough artist to measure up, and a deadline is approaching to enter the "Magic of Stella" game in a contest. The highlight is a funny bit when a dialogue box addresses the heroines as a spirit-muse, in what is mostly a talky saga of teamwork and creative rivalries. The characterizations tilt towards the whiny side—even by the hand-wringing standards of the shōjo genre—but the overall approach here is uplifting, if also rather innocuous. Presenting all 12 episodes from 2016 in a Blu-ray edition, in Japanese with English subtitles, rated TV-14, this is a strong optional purchase. (C. Cassady)
Magic of Stella
(2016) 2 discs. 300 min. Blu-ray: $59.98. Sentai Filmworks (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 5
Magic of Stella
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: