Mysteria Friends (Season One)

Anne is heir to a powerful empire and was born with extraordinary magical powers. She enrolled in Mysteria Academy to prepare herself to rule the human world. There, she befriends Grea, a half-dragon princess.

Mysteria Friends (Season One)

What did you watch?

I’m a pretty big fan of Princess Connect! Re: Dive. I loved the anime, played the global game for it’s entire lifetime, and have moved to the Japanese version since it closed. Basically, it’s pretty much been a part of my life since April 2020. Some of the characters from Mysteria Friends appeared in the Princess Connect game, so I had to come and learn a little more about Anne and Grea, two of my favourite in-game characters, to see if their story is as interesting. I also learnt that this takes place in the same world as Rage of Bahamut: Genesis which I saw back in 2018. The plot thickens… or does it?

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What happened?

Anne is a very powerful mage. Possibly the most powerful in existence. She’s also air to the throne of the human kingdom. To better prepare herself, she decided to attend Mysteria Academy so that she could learn to use her powers to protect her lands. Since she’s a princess, everyone is incredibly nice to her, although they remain distant. As such, Anne is pretty lonely, but there is one person that seems to treat her like an equal.

Grea is a princess from the dragon kingdom, although she is half-human. She is treated differently from most due to her horns, wings and tail. She may look mostly human, but that’s enough to make people give her a bit of room. As such, the two princesses have forged an unlikely friendship as tensions between the three kingdoms are always flaring up. As they navigate the school year, their friendship grows and grows. Anne is determined to move things forward, but Grea is a little more cautious.

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What did you think?

I absolutely loved this series. Slice of Life is not my preferred type of story, although this was set in a fantasy world and had some yuri undertones so that probably made up for it. Much like Princess Connect and BOFURI, this series is just a joy to watch because of how low the stakes are. Admittedly, Mysteria Friends took it to a new level, but that just seemed to make it that much more enjoyable. This is a series that you can relax with. The amount of chill and good vibes that come from it is incredible. I mentioned earlier that I liked Anne and Grea, well this series just doubled whatever feelings I had for them. Also, the episodes are only fifteen minutes long and there are only ten of them, so it’s a super easy series to fit in.

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What was your favourite moment?

This is a really hard one to quantify because everything about it was so magical. I loved the way Anne and her bodyguard, Owen went on a quest into the forbidden area of the library that was like wandering through several magical worlds to find some information about Dragon-kin because of Grea’s apparent illness. It was a wonderful montage of stunning scenery and vistas. This series really is magical.

Then, there was the episode where Grea took Anne to a secluded beach so that she could teach her to swim. You could feel the chemistry between the two characters growing and there were some incredibly sweet moments. Talking of sweet moments, what about when Anne got frustrated because she couldn’t find Grea in the library when they were playing hide ‘n’ seek? This series is stunning from start to finish. It’s a real love story to animation. I can’t help but feel like CygamesPictures were flexing their muscles big time here.

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What was your least favourite moment?

I can’t really come up with anything here, but if I have to I’m going to mention the episode where the academy was under attack and for some reason, Anne had been confined to the tower. We assume it’s because of her status as the princess and heir to the throne, but eventually, we learn that the entire thing was a drill and she was asked to sit out because she was too powerful and no one would learn anything. Plus, she tends to go too far and destroys things, which she did when she finally jumped in to save Grea.

My only grumble here, and it’s a small one, was that Anne even decided to jump in. She knew it was a simulation and none of the demons was real, but even then, she couldn’t sit back and watch Grea get hurt. It’s not much of a complaint, so take that as you will.

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Who was your favourite character?

Now, obviously, I’m a huge fan of Anne and Grea and that would make for a difficult situation. If I had to pick between the two, I would have to go with Grea. However, I’m actually going to go with a completely different character for this section. I’m talking about Owen, Anne’s faithful bodyguard. This guy was the true hero of the series. He was a royal guard that had been assigned to protect Anne at Mysteria Academy, where he was also enrolled.

At no point, did he get in her way. He was diligently watching her at all times, often hiding so as not to interfere with Anne and Grea’s blossoming friendship. He knew what was going on and made himself scarce, but not scarce enough that he couldn’t act at a moment’s notice. He was the perfect background character.

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Who was your least favourite character?

Only a small thing to note here and that was the Student President, Hanna. She was a nice character, but I found the way she continually doubted herself and put herself down got a little frustrating. Otherwise, she was fine. She just needed to have a little more belief in herself.

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Would you like some more?

This season covered their first year at Mysteria Academy and by the end of the season, Anne had convinced Grea to agree to share a room in the second year. They had even done the paperwork and were on their way back to the school. So, yeah, I kind of need a second season although that sadly seems unlikely as this was released in 2019 after a big delay from 2016. You can see why it was delayed with the care and attention every single shot has been given. This is a beautiful series with stunning animation and a cute-as-hell love story. Like some more? Nah, I need some more!

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What have you learnt?

This is what I would call a passion project. The delays in release certainly point to them wanting to make sure that everything was done right. Now, there could be other reasons, but you can tell in every episode that they put their heart and soul into animating this series. Everything about it is top class, but that takes time and no doubt won’t be as popular as something geared towards certain audiences. This series was a tie-in to the Rage of Bahamut game. I’ve never even seen a screenshot of the game, so I can’t talk about how successful it was, but I am aware of Cygames because of Princess Connect and now Mysteria Friends. They may not make many anime shows, but they always look incredible when they do.

So, what have I learnt from this show? Well, the obvious thing here is that it’s all right to focus on a story that you want to tell. I think it’ll come across as more genuine anyhow, even if it may not be targeted to the latest trends and demographics. It’s also important to allow yourself the time to get things right. Of course, that’s a double-edged sword because there will need to come a time when you have to let it go. If you don’t, you’ll keep working on the same story forever.

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Other posts in the series

• Anime
  • Season One
• Lists
  • Five Beautiful Moments

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