Maburaho

"I'm Shikimori Kazuki, a seventeen-year-old attending Aoi Gakuen. Really, I'm such a worthless guy that girls won't even look at me. Then, all of a sudden, three beautiful girls appeared in my life out of nowhere! But, what they were after wasn't really me... it was my genes!" -- Shikimori Kazuki, Maburaho intro

The intro sets nearly every expectation for this series as a run-of-the-mill harem comedy with a little magic thrown in... Which it is, as far as that goes. The real hook is that every person in the world has a set number of uses of magic that they're born with, be that a handful, to a few hundreds, or well beyond. Once a person uses their last magic, their body turns to ash and they die. Aoi Gakuen is a school which prides itself on the fact that the average number of uses of magic of its students ranges well into the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, Kazuki's grand total is... Eight. However, because of a coincidence of powerful mages in his family tree, each of his eight spells is more powerful than anything any other mage in the world is capable of.

So, Kazuki has three girls fighting over him, and his whole class mad at him, since no one can figure out any good reason why any of the (arguably) three most beautiful girls in the school are suddenly hanging all over him. Beyond that, he's such a happy-go-lucky fellow that he burns one of his eight uses of magic to save a girl's bentou (box lunch) from falling on the ground, and thinks nothing of doing it.

The supporting cast is arguably more humorous than the main characters most of the time, with the antics of the school doctor, Akai-sensei, particularly not to be missed.

Not to be confused with Mahoraba, or the town in Kannazuki no Miko, Mahoroba.

For those in the US, the series can legally be watched at Crunchyroll.

This show provides examples of:

"Kazuki: Stop, or I will scream!
 * Accidental Pervert: Kazuki, in one hilarious incident, he accidentally walks into a room where Yuna is changing. While he quickly steps out, he realizes shortly afterwards that she was changing in his room.
 * Apologizes a Lot: Kuriko tells Kazuki he does this too much in one episode, and his response is to apologize.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Balanced Harem: For the most part. None of them have a significant lead over the other girls.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Most noticeable in episode 9, when they visit the hot springs.
 * Battle Aura
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Yuna becomes this due to Flanderization
 * Particularly hilarious at the end of the series.
 * The Collector: Shino seems to be a bit too obsessed at trying to
 * Contrived Coincidence: In episode 9, Yuna, Rin, and Elizabeth are taking a taxi to the hot springs hotel where Kazuki and Kuriko are (to increase his spell count). Their vehicle dies in the middle of nowhere, and the driver says he can't get it fixed right away. They wonder what to do next. Cue their gaming teacher, who JUST happens to be driving that way (to pick up a game), and gives them a ride to where Kazuki is.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Rin.
 * Cute Ghost Girl: Elizabeth
 * Delinquents: (Kazuki's whole class, pretty much)
 * Double Standard Rape Female On Male (lampshaded)

Kuriko: That's a girl's line."

"Yuna: Tom has a girlfriend, her name is Nancy...
 * Evil Twin: A magic-generated polar opposite
 * Expressive Hair
 * Fan Service: Tons of it
 * Flanderization (though, the character was so bland at the beginning that it actually helped)
 * Gamer Chick Kazuki's teacher, Iba
 * Ghost Shipping has a harem despite being dead.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Yuna seems to display these from time to time.
 * Gratuitous English: In episode 9, while Kazuki is away on a hot springs trip with Kuriko, Yuna reads a variety of books in an attempt to distract herself. Then she reads an English book, and has an Imagine Spot where she thinks they're doing naughty things.

Yuna: (gets angry) Kazuki-san has a girlfriend, her name is Kuriko-san."


 * Hand Behind Head
 * Heroic Sacrifice
 * Idiot Hair (Yuuna)
 * Innocent Innuendo (A newlywed couple should go home to do This and That.)
 * Landlord
 * Jerkass: Pretty much the entirety of Class B with the exception of Kazuki and Yuuna.
 * Jerkass Facade: Shino Akai. Doubles as a Broken Bird.
 * Kansai Regional Accent (an odd usage, for the two episodes of the class trip to Kyoto, the episode previews are in Kyoto-ben)
 * Which for some reason in the R1 English dub is rendered as a cliche US Deep Southern accent - complete with a "ya see" tag for each spoken line.
 * Last Episode New Character: Maiho shows up right before the anime series ends, declaring to be Kazuki's bride. Yuna is not pleased about that.
 * Little Miss Badass: Elizabeth
 * Lover Tug of War: (Poor Kazuki)
 * Magical Girlfriend: All of the main girls fit this trope.
 * Measuring Day: The first episode.
 * Ms. Fanservice (Kuriko)
 * Non Fatal Explosions (sans the char effect, explosions can take out walls of buildings but not characters)
 * Of Corsets Sexy Kuriko again.
 * Ojou (Kamishirou Rin, Japanese-type and Kazetsubaki Kuriko, western-type)
 * Old School Building: Shino lures Kazuki here when she first attempts to capture him. Yuna destroys it in a fit of jealousy.
 * Ordinary High School Student (Kazuki)
 * Our Hero Is Dead
 * Outrun the Fireball
 * Prehensile Hair: Yuna and Kuriko engage in a spot of Ahoge wrestling. Yuna's also functions as a Kazuki radar.
 * Replacement Goldfish (Inversion of the normal usage, the ghost "child" Elizabeth takes Kuriko as a replacement mother)
 * The Rival (Rin, Kuriko, and Yuuna, though they outgrow it to an extent)
 * School Festival: episode 7.
 * Side Story Bonus Art/Eyecatch (Beach Episode pictures for the commercial breaks)
 * Skinship Grope
 * Stalker With a Test Tube (Initially all 3 girls, although Yuna loved him since childhood and the other two come around eventually.)
 * Tall Dark and Bishoujo (Kuriko)
 * Tenchi Solution: Implied at the end of the series
 * This and That: Yuna mentions this a lot with Kazuki.
 * Two Teacher School
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend
 * This is debatable,
 * The Unwanted Harem
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: Depending on your POV,
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend: Yuna, after learning that Nakamaru had less than pure motives for checking up on Kazuki in the nurse's office, beats him up a little bit when he's caught spying on Kazuki again.
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: Subverted, Yamase is introduced in one episode, then seems to be promptly forgotten. She shows up again in later episodes, and she gets much more screen time and character development.
 * Wham Episode (Episode 12. Kazuki )
 * Wizarding School: Pretty much the whole point of the school. Everyone there has a vast pool of magic aside from Kazuki.
 * Zettai Ryouiki (Kuriko, as seen in this page's picture)