Recap:  Judal invades Sindria and confronts Sinbad. Meanwhile, Alibaba and company press on deeper into Zagan (hurr hurr). 

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts:  It’s an episode of two halves this week, both of them good for entirely different reasons. While Judal’s appearance in Sindria gives us some nice character moments and delivers some interesting exposition, Alibaba’s party deliver some great action and a healthy ass-whopping, mostly courtesy of Morgiana, whose badassery seems to know no ends, though she pays a hefty price this time. Lets spend some time with Sinbad first though, because while his segment is overshadowed, it’s arguably the more important of the two. Judal’s return to the stage was teased at the end of the last episode, but it’s far more spectacular than I was anticipating, and his impressive destruction of Yamuraiha’s barrier is a worthy reminder of his power. It’s worth pointing out though that despite the fact he trashes Jafar in a single move he does seem at least slightly cowed by the appearance of Sinbad and the other generals – no matter how strong he is, it seems he’s not yet at the point of invincibility.

Crucially, the showdown between the two also confirms that Judal is a direct agent of Al-Thamen, something that hasn’t been explicit (at least to me) up until this point.  it does raise the question of why there seemed to be no co-ordination between him, the Masked Man and the Banker in Blabadd, but maybe they were just all pursuing their own agendas.  Judal’s fake breakdown is also a terrific character moment, a demonstration of how few fucks he gives as well as a good subversion of the whole ‘remembering things will make me a good person’ trope.  Perhaps most fascinating is his ‘as you know’ speech to Sinbad that reveals they both know of the other two Magi, though they aren’t named here.  It’s the first suggestion that Aladdin is even more special than a ‘normal’ Magi would be. I’d expected the other Magi to crop up organically in the story, but it does make sense that they’d at least be known figures to powerful characters like Judal and Sinbad.  This little sequence ends on the promise of an all out war between Al-Thamen and Sindira, a tantalising prospect to say the least. Meanwhile now that Alibaba and Hakuryu are bestest best buds  (yeah, they snuffed that plotline out rather quickly) the party can continue forging their way through the dungeon, pausing only to satisfyingly beat the crap out of some wolf demon things.  When ‘Zagan’ reveals that he isn’t really the djinn it’s not a huge surprise, since all the djinns we’ve seen so far have tended not to be evil jackasses, but we do get an super awesome bit where Alibaba just straight up decapitates him. I think it’s important that we do get awesome moments from the party like this, demonstrating that even while the villains are growing stronger as we get along, they’re still badasses capable of taking down the small fry easily.

Of course, this is merely a warmup for Morgiana doing what Morgiana does best – that is, saving everybody and then beating the tar out of the villain.  This time she achieves it by basically becoming chain wielding Spider-Girl, in a sequence that should be beyond incredible but sadly is reduced to merely entertaining simply by the fact that the animation budget is clearly unable to meet the demands of a bunch of chains whipping about everywhere.  Nevertheless, it’s still a cool power that goes well with Morgiana’s fighting style and I’ve no doubt we’ll see it used in some creative ways as time goes on. In this case it’s used to spectacularly cook fake Zagan alive in a pretty sweet death scene, though Morgiana gets hit pretty hard in return. It makes a lot of sense really – she’s not trained in magic and hasn’t really shown much potential for it, so it figures she’d have less and weaker Magoi than those who are active magicians (especially Aladdin, whose entire power is based around the idea he’s a living source of Magoi).  The presentation is nicely gruesome too – the cut of happy bouncing imaginary Morgiana to her real world self grinning while blood pours from her eyes is an extremely effective one, and a striking image all round.  I’m assuming she’ll basically become a damsel in distress/living McGuffin for a few episodes now, but you can hardly say she hasn’t earned it.

Of course, there’s still one final kick in the teeth to be delivered, as it’s revealed that not only is the Masked Man now properly alive again, he’s infiltrated the Treasure Room along with his as yet unnamed associates. With the real Zagan nowhere to be seen and time running out for Morgiana, all the signs point to a battle royale to save the lives of three of our heroes. And with Al-Thamen and Judal hovering threateningly in the background, it seems Magi isn’t slowing down a jot as it barrels towards the end of the season.

Random Observations

•  Judal does not name the other two Magi, but indicates one is a woman in ‘Reim’ and the other is a wanderer who creates many of the dungeons in the first place.  The silhouettes confirm they are the two figures surrounding Aladdin in the final shot of the ED.
• ‘Oh hey, I know I’ve been battling you with indestructible avatars, but here’s my true form so you can kill me.’ Fake Zagan, you’re an idiot.
• How on earth did random generic girl end up here?
• No matter how much the show wants you to believe it, chains are not elastic.