The Spring 2023 anime season has arrived, and one of the most notable new releases, alongside Oshi no Ko, is the comedy series Mashle: Magic and Muscles. Mashle is a wacky take on the Harry Potter franchise and a fun-loving parody of the entire shonen demographic, but there’s more to Mash Burnedead than his Saitama-level strength and love of cream puffs.
Mash’s worldview, which includes his own place in it, is actually his greatest strength. The other characters in Mashle’s story must learn from Mash’s acceptance of his non-magical status and his ability to see people for who they truly are rather than for their abilities as wizards. Mash is like the anti-chosen one; instead of trying to surpass everyone else, he brings them down to his modest level.
Burnedead meets the overrated “Chosen One” archetype
Many shonen anime series and plenty of Western franchises such as Harry Potter feature a “chosen one” who has in-universe reasons to be the world’s great hero and savior, and not just because they’re the protagonist. This can lead to some exciting and complex storylines where the hero gains incredible power and must learn to responsibly wield it, and they’re put on a collision course with the big bad villain for an exciting finale. That said, the “chosen one” archetype has built-in weaknesses and is often bad for the story if mishandled, which is easy to do.
One problem is that the “chosen one” archetype simply gives the hero their powers and their importance, which often makes those gifts feel unearned. Some shonen series even contradicted their own themes this way, such as Naruto. At first, Naruto Uzumaki was built up to be a self-made hero who defied the odds, but late in Naruto Shippuden, Naruto was revealed to be a “chosen one” alongside Sasuke Uchiha, and many fans didn’t like that. Even Izuku Midoriya of My Hero Academia fame went from a self-made hero with a dream to the “chosen one” because he has One For All, the Quirk that’s destined to defeat All For One and Tomura Shigaraki.
Meanwhile, the Mashle: Magic and Muscles anime will stay true to the self-made hero archetype and avoid the “chosen one” concept altogether. This partly subverts expectations for Harry Potter fans, who are used to Harry being the prophesied Boy Who Lived who must kill Voldemort, but there’s more to it. This approach in Mashle doesn’t just distance Mash from Harry Potter as a person — it also opens the doors to an exciting and gratifying character arc where Mash genuinely cannot rely on anything but his own power and his hard-won friendships to save the day.
There’s no prophecy or special power to keep him in the fight — he must earn his place as a Divine Visionary and earn his place in the world or die trying. This creates some palpable stakes and tension, and funnily enough, it took a wacky parody series like Mashle: Magic and Muscles to create a genuinely self-made shonen hero who can inspire viewers with his character arc as someone who earned everything he has.
What Mash Burnedead Can Teach the Wizards He Surrounds Himself With
Mash’s character arc can benefit a number of Mashle characters, not just himself. His Easton Academy magic school classmates can all use magical spells they know to get what they want, but even the most gifted wizard students can feel empty and unfulfilled at times. Some of them are dealing with serious issues, such as family drama or feelings of inadequacy, which no spell can cure. Instead, these adolescent wizards can learn from Mash and solve their problems through a winning combination of humility and hard work.
Mash is above all humble and lacks serious ambitions, which can be a virtue if handled correctly. Mash has a clear goal of becoming a Divine Visionary for survival, but his worldview is a stark contrast to the ambitious, self-absorbed, and stressed-out wizard students around him. Mash isn’t just an anti-chosen one for himself; he can gently teach his classmates to relax and appreciate their lives and magic for what they are, rather than focusing solely on future greatness.
Many Mashle characters carry such burdens, each seeing themselves as a “chosen one” in the making, but it always backfires on them. Mash can now bring true happiness to his classmates and free them from the self-imposed burden of trying to be the best because their magic compels them to do so. This is how Mash can make friends and help his classmates better understand themselves and their place in the world.
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