English Dub Review: Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation “Sniff, Sniff, Sniff”

Overview

Based on the Japanese mobile game created by Nitroplus. Developed by NextNinja and published by Good Smile Company, And later adaptated into a Manga by Masaki Hattori, The story takes place in the heart of the Ashram boarding magic school and follows the apprenticeship of five young women nicknamed the “Pentagrams”, who seek to become “true ladies worthy of the name”. In a very friendly atmosphere, they study the art of magic and etiquette on a daily basis and develop their general culture. Arsnotoria, Mell, Little Alberta, Picatrix, and Abramelin, the five students in question, follow classes together, participate in common activities and even have tea after class, in a mysterious room… In such an establishment, no day is like another and the fun is bound to be there!

Our Take

For a weird show like this, I thought it was simply about magic school girls getting ready for their afternoon tea party and enjoying said tea party while talking about stuff we have no idea about as well as trivial things like which goes on scones first for 19 minutes with a lot of their conversation went from reminding each other that they’re students to shrieking about wanting to go to tourist attractions for fun. They at least try attempt to give us something in a couple of sentences which are basically exposition dumps during their introductions.

Most of this happens at least until the final scene when the end of the episode is a cutaway to something abrupt and violent out of nowhere. The last couple of minutes made me check to see that I was still watching the same show and to put it mildly, the complete tonal shift at the end was jarring, to say the least…

Overall, this was probably one of the best-looking shows so far on a visual level. However for a first episode that’s meant to help you get to know these characters, their interactions kind of felt empty with small hints of a plot. I guess it’s because We don’t know them well enough to care about any of them so far. As for the “hook-ending”, I don’t know what was happening at the end of this episode, but that also feels like an attempt to try and hook people into watching more as its selling point that there will be something bigger and darker going on in its proceedings…