Recap: A group from the Kou Empire appears to save Judal in the nick of time. Later, Alibaba struggles with his own feelings of inadequacy.

Iro’s Thoughts:
Since it seems both Lifesong and Dragonzigg are preoccupied with what may or may not be Persona 4 Golden related reasons (review coming soon!), I was appointed to run this week’s Magi recap.

As things start off, we see the tail end of Ugo’s rampage – if you recall, last week he beat the everloving shit out of Judal, aka Mr. LOOK AT ME I AM A VILLAIN. As Robin Williams goes for the finishing blow, a couple of dudes with Metal Vessels show up. They’re from the Kou Empire, which you may remember being mentioned several times over the course of the series. Aladdin’s vignette from a bit ago involved dealings with one of their princesses, but apparently they have quite a few. Or to put it another way, someone put some China at its most malicious and imperialist stage into our Arabian Nights setting. And, if the Kou haven’t yet raised the “WE ARE THE BAD GUYS” flag high enough yet, the woman who seems to be the leader powers up her vessel and blows a hole straight through our djinn buddy, apparently permanently removing him from Aladdin’s flute. Wellp.

This is, of course, a basic shonen tactic: show off how strong the villains are so that we know what we’re up against. Most egregiously, a trio of beastmen literally fight for about 5 seconds each just to show off how powerful the Kou Empire must be – each one clashes with a known badass among the heroic group and then practically vanishes from the area as everyone does their talking. They probably could have taken out most of the heroes right then and there, but Sinbad gets the Kou princess to retreat by making her chronic anime-tsundere-itis flare up. Five bucks says she’ll make a heel face turn eventually.

The entire second half of the episode consists of Alibaba being continually guilt tripped into thinking that he’s inadequate and useless, which is more or less true at this point. Clearing a dungeon and getting a Metal Vessel hasn’t come close to solving his problems or clearing his past, and it doesn’t help that Sinbad is hanging around to take all the credit and act with dignity. Alibaba might be a prince, a candidate to become king, but he still has a long way to go to be deserving of that title. Even Alibaba’s brother, a coward who shakes at the very thought of contact with other human beings, has done more than he ever did to help the country.

We also get a peek into some of the politics of the world, again mostly painting the Kou Empire as the main bad guy here, through the devilish power of basic economics. By lending tons of money to Balbadd, charging interest, and creating massive inflation, the Kou Empire got the other country wrapped around its finger practically overnight. By now, Balbadd is so deep in debt and its bureaucracy is so corrupt that Ahbmad intends on turning the entire country into a slave-making machine. As you may expect, nobody is happy with this, and especially not Morgiana. The question is, does Alibaba have the strength of will to carry through with deposing the government? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT!