Recap: Confronting his inferiority complex, Alibaba decides to take the necessary steps towards bringing Balbadd to justice.

Iro’s Thoughts:
So remember how last week’s episode was mostly a whole lot of talking about how the current regime of Balbadd is run by a bunch of evil fuckers, the Kou Empire is the real bad guy, and that Alibaba feels inferior? Yeah, it’s pretty much more of that this week, juuuust in case you didn’t quite get it when it was rubbed in your face last time. It’s especially noticeable as a very filler episode, even moreso since Magi‘s pacing has been pretty darn good so far.

Everyone’s kind of in a slump after the big fight, Alibaba especially – as I iterated last week, he feels like he’s useless, especially when put next to Sinbad. Even so, Morgiana believes in Alibaba, and tells Sinbad as much. He can see our hero’s hidden potential as well, and figures that Alibaba has to accept his responsibilities.Alibaba goes out into the slums to sort out his head, but Cassim drags him back to his hideout for a meeting. Cassim wants to just incite a giant rebellion and tear down the government entirely – a poor solution that won’t solve the root problems affecting Balbadd, one that’ll only lead to more death. And, as is par for the course with shonen protagonists, Alibaba refuses to join his childhood friend, saying they should reform Balbadd from the inside.

This proves to be just the push Alibaba needs to swallow his pride and ask Sinbad for a training montage in using Djinn and Metal Vessels, where Sinbad explains what we’ve all managed to piece together from the fights so far. Dungeon Clearers can use the Djinn contained in their Metal Vessels for combat in various methods, the most useful/powerful being the magical girl transformation we’ve seen both Kou princesses use so far. It also gives us perhaps the most anime shot we’ve seen during this entire anime, with Alibaba standing in his aura of flames and screaming out loud for no other reason than because this is an anime and we needed a screaming battle aura eventually.

At any rate, still unprepared but out of time, Alibaba’s finally grows a pair and reveals himself at the castle gates, demanding an audience with the king. Hopefully we’ll actually get back to the action next episode.