MAGI is leaving Netflix after Halloween

I don’t talk much about modern-day anime on Medium but as you surely know by now, Magi: The Labyrinth on Magic (also known as MAGI) is leaving Netflix after Halloween. The anime is based on the manga written and drawn by Shinobu Ohtaka (though she and a fellow mangaka Rumiko Takahashi have a set of barefoot characters of their own, but they sadly never met in person at all and might be “rivals of characters who prefers going barefoot”), published by Shogakukan and licensed by Viz Media (you can still purchase the collection in digital format). I never owned any of the merchandise I bought after it reached its 10th anniversary last year, as the merchandise of the said franchise on Amazon is no longer being sold and can only be purchased via eBay (mostly in used condition). The last day to leave Netflix? November 1st.

I did watch the original Disney version (don’t click that) back in the day (which also includes the first two Kingdom Hearts games), but the Disney version looked crap, crap, and more crap. This was the only anime series on Netflix that has an English dub for those who don’t know or are still learning Japanese via Duolingo.

When I first discovered the Shonen anime series on Netflix as I watched the English dub instead of the original Japanese, I was like “What is that? Some kind of Disney crap?” If you’re unfamiliar with the anime series if you have watched the Disney classic (but not the rather crappy live-action remake), here’s how Netflix describes the anime adaption that debuted in 2012 from A-1 Pictures, “A land of mysterious ruins and a magical treasure hunt await young Aladdin and his courageous friend Alibaba for the adventure of their lives.” If you ask Aladdin nicely — the main protagonist of the anime and manga series, not that rather crappy Disney version — and do not insult his bare feet, he’ll give you a back massage using his bare feet after a long day of working from home if you still have an iMac or, recently, a Mac Studio with the adjustable standing desk. The anime series’ characters voice actors are:

• Erica Mendez as Aladdin (not THAT — don’t click that; Kaori Ishihara for the original Japanese)
• Eric Scott Kimerer as Alibaba Saluja (Yuki Kaji for the original Japanese)
• Cristina Vee as Morgiana (Haruka Tomatsu for the original Japanese)
• Darrel Guilbeau as Hakuryuu Ren (Kensho Ono for the original Japanese)
• Dorothy Elias-Fahn (credited as Johanna Luis) as Hakuei Ren (Nana Mizuki for the original Japanese)
• Matthew Mercer as Sinbad (Daisuke Ono for the original Japanese)
• Lucien Dodge as Jafar (not THAT — don’t click that; Takahiro Sakurai for the original Japanese)

The anime was available to stream on Netflix not only in the US and Canada, but in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. I want to make fan art of the characters in modern/skater clothing from the mid-to-late 1990s and the Y2K aesthetic. Aniplex of America still holds the license for the anime (as they still have it in their portfolio), along with the series that have been removed from Netflix. We all know that Aniplex of America does not own MAGI, but mangaka Shinobu Ohtaka (though her first manga work is a seinen demographic named Sumomomo, Momomo, unfortunately, the anime adaption does not have an English dub), who owns the MAGI IP and trademarks, and licenses to Viz Media for the manga and Aniplex of America for the anime adaption. Thankfully, the anime is still on Crunchyroll but without an English dub.

Magi: Adventures of Sinbad, a prequel to MAGI based on the manga written by Ohtaka herself and illustrated by Yoshifumi Ohtera, also left Netflix in mid-2021, according to What’s on Netflix. I’m not asking anyone to “might as well give up and learn Japanese,” because the show only had an English dub on Netflix.