Cherry Magic Makes History With Wedding

Season aired: Winter 2024

Number of episodes: 12

Watched on: Crunchyroll

Translated by: ?

Genres: Romance, Comedy

Thoughts: Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! sounds like a silly title, but it cannot be overstated how the story has impacted its audience. With its initial adaptation as a critically acclaimed Japanese drama that won various awards and jumpstarted the acting career of its lead actor, this gay love story was so beloved and popular that it was further adapted into other dramas — the most famous one being from outside of Japan in Thailand. Now, this story has been adapted into an anime, and like its previous adaptations, the series made sure to bring something new to the story.

In Cherry Magic, Adachi is an office worker with no romantic prospects. After passing his 30th birthday as a virgin, he wakes up to discover he has magic powers. By touching other people, he can read their thoughts. Through this power he never wanted, Adachi learns that Kurosawa — the most popular, handsome, and successful coworker at his office — has the biggest crush on him. Suddenly, life isn’t as simple and lonely.

I’m an incredibly devoted fan. As in, I’ve watched every version of Cherry Magic that’s been adapted, and while I still think the original Japanese live action drama reigns supreme, that isn’t to say the anime lacks strengths. For one, I actually like the supporting couple more in the anime than I do in the live action. Focusing on Adachi’s best friend, who despite being a successful romance author also becomes a wizard with mind reading powers at 30 years a virgin, Tsuge and his relationship with Minato feels more organic and less melodramatic. I didn’t mind at all that they took up airtime, versus in other stories where I’d rather have the story be completely focused on the supporting ship or wish for the story to completely disregard it.

Despite being the main couple and taking most of the spotlight, Adachi and Kurosawa’s relationship falters at the beginning. There’s an internalized heterosexuality bit that anime insists on having whenever the show features a gay couple. The excuses remain consistent such as  Adachi has always been into girls, he supposedly has a “type” of girl, and he doesn’t feel for Kurosawa. In short, he’s just getting swept up because he’s lonely and “needs” a girl. As always, there’s also never any mention of bisexuality either. These excuses aren’t present in the live action adaptations, but they are used heavily as unnecessary conflict in the beginning. 

It does a disservice to the love that blooms between them because the episode where Adachi reciprocates Kurosawa’s feelings is incredibly organic. After being apart for a couple of days, Adachi realized all he could think about was missing Kurosawa’s presence, and any time he felt down, he thought back to Kurosawa’s endearing moments. All the prior “I can’t be attracted to a man” thoughts only serve to drag the heartfelt love epiphany down. Luckily, once he’s made clear his feelings towards Kurosawa, the anime really starts to come into its own.

The series makes some creative choices in utilizing Adachi’s powers. During their first date, the episode temporarily shifts into a musical episode when Adachi accidentally reads Kurosawa’s mind, revealing the lovesickness the other man feels for Adachi through an entire song and dance number. Words overcrowd the screen when Kurosawa’s unable to handle his fanboying nature towards his boyfriend, and in the intimate moments, we don’t hear Kurosawa’s thoughts at all. Instead, Adachi explains what it feels like to hear Kurosawa’s love go through his body, preserving the intimacy between those two and sharing only the joy with the audience.

As unfortunately commonplace as it is now, Cherry Magic falls into the trap of mediocre production values. The opening theme song sequence provides more direction, colors, and animation than the actual series itself, which is often grayscale and muddy with a lack of light and barely passable movements. The soundtrack also doesn’t stand out in any scenes, to the point where I wouldn’t even recognize a track if it played outside of the anime.

It might not be the treatment you wished to see on such a game-changing story, but a decade ago, to see it at all would’ve been a dream. Cherry Magic’s romance isn’t perfect, and its anime likely won’t be everlasting the way its drama counterpart will be due to its production values and earlier story beats, but it does make history. Officially, Kurosawa and Adachi wed in the last episode — with a kiss to seal the union. And despite the national Japanese government still not legalizing gay marriage, the anime commits to the ending, making Cherry Magic one of the first anime to show a gay couple officially getting married in Japan.

Rating

Plot: 7 (Multiplier 3)

Characters: 7 (Multiplier 3)

Art/Animation: 6 (Multiplier 2)

Voice acting: 7

Soundtrack: 6

FINAL SCORE: 67