The current story arc gets wrapped up as Mash’s secret is brought into the light, some cream puffs are wasted in a shocking fashion, and another string of bad guys gets added into the mix.
This will be my last review of Mashle as I am definitely suffering from Mash Burneout at this stage of the series. It’s not been much of a secret that this story had exactly one joke and it’s not really doing much for me any more.
There are some good parts, definitely. The action is quite strong and there is a stellar two-page spread in this one. Despite the rather simple art, or, in fact, because of it, the series has always been good at delivering on that front.
The themes of the story are definitely on display here, about how society can, yes, be completely wrong to dunk on the underprivileged for the simple reason of how they were born. It’s certainly a message that resonates no less these days than it ever did.
Some of the jokes land. When they go back into wild Harry Potter parody (how’s that message about discriminating against people for how they were born holding up?), the story heads to the shopping district and I will not spoil the dart game they play, but it is the kind of insanity I wish the story had more of and I had a good howl at it.
The ‘how did we get here’ for Mash’s trial is a great gag too, as well as the weirdest foe yet and the most inappropriate (and hysterical) crown of thorns joke I’ve ever seen. If you have been in love with this series to this point, I doubt you will be disappointed.
For me, I was really just kind of bored waiting for the next joke. The sameness of the battle scenes, no doubt a plus to your average shonen reader, is not for me. This has never been my genre, I freely admit that, and diminishing returns just have me at the point where I’d rather skip this for something else.
3 stars - it’s not just you, it’s me; in fact, it’s both of us, Mashle. I will watch your anime, if they make one, and probably enjoy it, but I think we’ve had about as much fun together as we ever will.