First we open with an explosive action scene of some sort of fire mage trying to escape the police on a train; next, we see the criminal captured, and being executed on the spot as he is tried for his crimes before an intimidating court of magical law enforcers. Then, we see a cute anime chick getting woken up by her frog familiar, and realizing she’s late for work… Wizard Barristers is a pretty mixed bag, being a fantasy action show about wizard defense lawyers, and for the most part it’s been working.
What has me hooked so far would probably be the setting itself, which has a lot of promise to it. It’s not often that you see an anime deal with the judiciary side of law enforcement (hell, for all I know that might not even be a thing outside of the Ace Attorney games,) and throwing in some magic promises a fun ride. I don’t really know much of anything about law, let alone Japanese law, so whether this show will portray a realistic procedure of law enforcement is beyond me—and since this is dealing with a ban on magic users they’re just making up laws anyways. But still, I’m intrigued to see where this show goes with this.
It’s interesting to note the varying ways which the members of the firm see Cecil’s choice to take the case. Some encourage it and see no problem, insisting that experience is the only way to learn, while others see it as her overstepping her bounds as a novice. She hasn’t yet had any opportunity to show her skill, so the veterans naturally doubt whether she can really handle such a case, even with the supervision of her elders.
It’s also funny how some of them take issue with Cecil’s casual wear and see it as unprofessional looking (which is true,) when quite a few other members of the firm are pretty flashy as well. Granted, some of them are paralegals so I’m assuming it doesn’t really matter what they wear, but the person accompanying Cecil to interview her client didn’t seem all that professional looking either. It’s like they’re just picking on the new kid.
Even funnier is how Cecil’s client actually doesn’t end up taking her seriously because of her attire making her look cute. That was sort of an awkward scene with how quickly the interview failed; you figure the guy would be more open to talking to the person who’s willing to help him with his case, even if it’s just a novice lawyer. In fact, it’s almost as if the interview failed just so there can be a bit of conflict in Cecil attaining information about the case.
My only one real problem with Wizard Barristers though is that the action is really out of place. The mugging at the end of the episode just came out of nowhere, and didn’t seem to serve any purpose except to introduce Cecil’s battle capabilities before the episode was over. I’m not sure if I can see this defense lawyer setting going well with some action scenes, although I would hope it does.
Anime Is (Not) Dead 
Cecil looks like Mikura from Mezzo Forte. Both of anime series produced by ARMS studio. How nostalgic….
It’s also by the same director who did Kite and Mezzo Forte, Yasuomi Umetsu. I haven’t seen either of those yet, but apparently Wizard Barristers is similar.
Mezzo Forte was a good action anime similar to Gunsmith Cats with bounty hunter in NY atmosphere, there a director’s cut version too.
Kite was a dark one…beware before watch it.