Recap: The group of thieves finds out that Sinbad is staying at the hotel where Alibaba is being “held hostage” and lead a proactive strike to free Alibaba and defeat Sinbad. Once they find Alibaba Sinbad shows up, and promptly beats them all without even needing his magical equipment.

During the assault Sinbad tests Abilbaba. He wants to know if Alibaba will abandon his friends under pressure or not. After making quick work of Alibaba who decided to stick up for his old pals instead of run away Sinbad changes sides. With Sinbad by his side Alibaba visits the king and requests that he help save the people of this county. The king declines, and credits roll as the two other evil looking magi we have seen in past episodes finally make their debut.

There is some Nanoha level befriending going on here.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: I continue to love how no nonsense this anime is. Sinbad and his two men are easily the strongest thing we have seen in the Magi world so far, and even without his seven djinn Sinbad is an incredibly powerful guy. With these bad magi showing up it will be interesting to see how Alibaba and Sinbad deal with them. On that note I can’t wait to see Sinbad at full power.

Kassim seems to have a least one more trick up his sleeve, and I can’t help but expect him to betray Alibaba again. I assume there will be some sort of showdown with Morgiana, and that somehow Sinbad will somehow recover his equipment and save the day. That said, even if this upcoming episode plays out exactly like I would expect from a shonen I am totally okay with that because of how much fun this anime has been. Next week we get some time spent on these black magi, don’t miss it!

Only scary sometimes, like when he tries to murder someone.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: This was another solid episode of Magi which continues to cement its status as the best show currently airing. It did feel like the foot had been taken off of the pedal a little, but this is clearly a transition episode between two pretty major plot related ones, so that can be forgive a bit.

We get the end of Alibaba’s flashback here, and it’s a pretty interesting one too. The idea that the fog troupe is using him as a puppet leader to gain legitimacy is an interesting and unusually complex (for shonen anime at least idea), and tying it into Alibaba’a lingering guilt over having abandoned his station makes his decision to side with somebody who betrayed him plausible rather than a ridiculous plot contrivance. The dead little sister is an unnecessary cliche, but at least they don’t dwell on it.

Flash Step > The 40 thieves.

With Alibaba tied up in the political wranglings, it’s up to Sinbad to provide out asskicking quotient  and he and his men give an impressive display of their power here. Masrur tears the Fog Troop up and Jafar gets to show off his dangerous side, but it’s Sindbad who’s the real star here, effortlessly defeating Kaseem and Alibaba and proving even without his Millenium Items Dungeon Tools he’s a powerful magician and a force to be reckoned with. His subsequent sort-of-defection is an interesting plot twist, and it helps highlight the genuine moral ambiguity of the situation (as opposed to many ‘moral ambiguities’ in anime where the correct path is reasonably obvious).

It’s indicative of the intelligencce of the show as well that there’s at least an attempt to talk things out. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong, the King is a jerk and there’s going to be a fight anyway, but the effort is appreciated. As it is, this is a pretty excellent cliffhanger. Morgiana’s ex-master’s mysterious ‘teacher’ makes a reappearance, as does his partner in crime, the dark Magi who is presumably the titular Judal of the next episode. It’s a good bet that they’ll provide a random element to the imminent battle.