Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou

Akari Taiyou is an apprentice fortune teller living with her aunt, uncle, and their daughter Fuyuna. Having lost her mother at a young age, the only thing Akari has left of her is a deck of tarot cards and a dream to follow in her footsteps as a fortune teller.

One night, Akari has a dream of being attacked by a plant monster and witnesses a stronger version of herself defeat it. When she awakens, she discovers to her horror that the monster was actually Fuyuna. But mysteriously, Akari and her relatives soon forget Fuyuna ever existed. After another close encounter with a similar monster, she is rescued by three magical girls: Ginka Shirokane, Seira Hoshikawa, and Luna Tsukuyomi. They explain that they are from the Sefiro Fiore organization, which uses Elemental Tarot power to fight the evil creatures known as "Daemonia."

Akari discovers she too is a magical girl and has inherited her mother's power of The Sun card. However, she comes to realize Daemonia are actually people who have been possessed, and she must decide whether to try to save what is left of their humanity or to wipe them from existence. As Akari comes to terms with her grim duty of protecting the world from Daemonia, the bonds of the organization and that of their team will soon be strained when they deal with grave threats from the outside and from within.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hoshikawa, Seira Main

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Taiyou, Akari Main

Kadowaki, Mai Japanese

Tsukuyomi, Luna Main

Tokui, Sora Japanese

Shirokane, Ginka Main

Tatsumi, Yuiko Japanese

Cerebrum Supporting

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Shinzaki, Fuyuna Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Visconti, Etia Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Twilight, Priscilla Supporting

Aoki, Ruriko Japanese

Melvis, Meltina Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Okakura, Kiyone Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Matsumoto, Miho Assistant Producer

Kusakawa, Keizou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Kosaka, Harume Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director

Reviews

May 25, 2021

shovelkun_

Recommended

Being a fan of Madoka Magica, I was looking for another dark mahou shoujo anime to get into. When I came across Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou it was described as a very dark mahou shoujo that hit hard and had no reservations. I was a little skeptical that it might just be an attempt to jump on the hype of Madoka Magica but I gave it a try. What I didn't expect was for the first episode to hit me like a semi truck with the grim nature of the magical girls and their fight against the Daemonia. As I watched, I was drawn in ... by the unabashed chuun, the unique tarot card based approach to magical girls' abilities, and the unusual characterization of some members of the cast and their families, including the main heroine Akari Taiyou. Some other characters were not as original but were strong enough to support the narrative and undergo interesting character development themselves.
I like Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou because it goes all out to create a dark and chuuni mahou shoujo story and I believe it holds up on its own. It pulls no punches in its grim story and bloody battles, and the characters' development is both natural and important to their growth. The end goal is in my opinion the weakest point, being somewhat rushed at the end of the show's running, and is more shallow than most other conflicts throughout. Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou did a good job of making me despise the antagonist, as they acted purely evil for the sake of evil, but gave very little in the way of revealing their humanity or motivation like they did for random Daemonia.

Overall I give Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou 8/10 for its unique approach to magical girls, unapologetic chuun, and its very fun dark and brutal battles.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 29, 2020

PROTOTYPEE

Mixed Feelings

I think it is an alright show. I can see why people said it is heavily influenced by Madoka but I also find the two shows being quite different.

The plot is fine. It is basically about girls having magical powers and they have to defeat monsters that can take control of people with "bad" emotions such as envy, hatred. The fights are pretty repetitive. The main character always tries to chat with the monsters first, then just kill it because the monsters always want to die. The ending is a bit rush IMO.

The art style probably will take time to get used to. The characters' ... appearances are more on the cute side and all of them looks very skinny. I don't mind it too much after a few eps.

I quite like the characters. They are unique and have quite interesting backstories, even the main villain.

Overall I found this show enjoyable while not liking the story that much.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 4, 2019

mouthpiece

Not Recommended

Ah, another one of those dark mahou shoujo that try to cash in from the fad Madoka Magica created with its hype and financial success. Although it does a fine job at having polarized imagery of happy moeblobs on one hand and creepy murderous monsters on the other, it still fails to accomplish the thing that actually made Madoka Magica such a hit. Which one is that you may wonder? Could it be the deep characterization? The elaborate storytelling? The amazing analysis of its various themes? HELL NO, that show sucked in all that.
… It was the production values, ok?

AIC is no SHAFT. They can’t ... throw a mountain of money at it, nor do they have overrated anime creators in their disposal to hype the damn thing six months before it even begins to air. And this is why despite all the good efforts the artwork of Gen’ei doesn’t look very good and the soundtrack is just ok at best. The character designs are practically laughable and the motions during battles are very crude. The action bits that SHOULD feel epic for the build-up they get, end up being nothing but a random line of magic attacks with no real strategy and an excuse for the heroine to use the power of friendship.

Anyways, as a stand-alone show it is not bad but sure becomes sort of repetitive in its plot very soon. Some person is lured to the dark side, turns to monster, does bad things, and the girls are sent to kill it. The theme of how you are willing to do murder in order to fulfill your deepest desires can be interesting but not when it is done in an episodic manner. Every episode is essentially 15 minutes of fuzzy slice of life, followed by 5 minutes of photo-epileptic battles full of gore and death around people we will never see again. It is hard to get attached to any of the characters since every conflict is resolved in the very episode it is created. Also, they resort to that stupid amnesia gimmick where the monsters and the victims of the monsters are erased from everybody’s memories. Their deaths are treated as accidents, which is a cheap way to maintain the status quo but also removes the drama from the setting. And sure, the main characters, the mahou shoujo themselves, remember everything but even they seem to get over it by the next episode.

Once again the main heroine ends up being the most basic and dull of them all, constantly trying to reason with the monsters and save everybody with the power of love and all that crap. It doesn’t work to the most part (thank God) but it still makes you wonder why they even have her in the demon busting team. She constantly refuses to fight, which results to many lives being endangered, hers included. I mean I would understand if they kept her in the sidelines until she gains experience; but moving her from JUST GOT SUPERPOWERS straight to FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE is overkill and helps nobody in the longrun.

I am also not fond of themes that are rubbed in your face, something which all dark mahou shojo do. They end up having depressing stuff along with cute moeblobs in order to manipulate emotions in the most obvious and lazy of methods. In case you have watched Blood C, Black Rock Shooter, or Symphogear, you will recognize that unsettling feeling of the uncanny valley. Now it’s cute. WHAM. Now it’s gory. WHAM. Now it’s loli fan service. And yes, that is too an issue in case you don’t take pleasure in watching naked moeblobs with squirrel voices for a few minutes before blood starts splattering all over the screen.

What I do like a lot though is the attention they gave to slowly explain what is going on. The monsters have motivations, and the magic comes from an explained source, something which beats having no real reason than being evil and having magic. It is also not trolling you to think it is a fluffy show for 3 episodes before it throws in someone important dying. In those departments, it blows Madoka Magica out of the water. The problem still remains though; the drama and conflicts are piss poor and rushed, always resolved with brute force and mind control. Nothing matters past the episode it takes place in.

The show is not bad in overall but lacks tremendously in tension. Despite being dark and violent, you just can’t get into it when they throw lolicon fan service amongst silly drawn characters and expect you to gasp at the tragedies they face before they forget them in 5 minutes. So in the long run it fails to be something actually memorable and poignant. Hell, I can even throw in the fact that Madoka also worked because most had never seen a deconstruction of the genre before, so they were taken by surprise. The same trick will never work with any show that tries to pull the same rabbit out of the same hat so soon. And boy, does this hat look ugly by now.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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