Delusional Monthly Magazine’s Quirky Premise Is Wasted on an Unlikeable Cast

OLM Team Yoshioka

I’ve been writing for Twin Cities Geek since 2019, and I’ve enjoyed writing every single article I’ve ever put out. If I hadn’t become a contributor, I might never have discovered some of my favorite anime or been able to describe how and why I love them.

So, when I saw OLM Team Yoshioka’s Delusional Monthly Magazine pop up on my CrunchyRoll feed, I was excited to see characters that were writers just like me. I wanted to see their process in finding the subjects of their articles, how they work with their editors to create the best possible story and maybe even get to read a couple short excerpts from the final product.

Never before have I been so let down by an anime.

The story goes that the young scientist Goro Sato approaches the writers of Monthly Moso Science—a struggling pseudoscience magazine that focuses on supernatural goings-on—with a proposition to publish his findings on the mysterious Mo Continent and its inhabitants. Goro has been laughed at by his fellow scientists, but he hopes to restore his credibility by publishing his research. After he joins the team, they go on a hunt to collect the ancient relics known as MOParts, which are said to be the only remaining evidence of the Motarians’ existence. At the same time, they must match wits with the mysterious White Pegasus Company, who seek to use the MOParts for their nefarious schemes.

This sounded like an exciting premise that weaves the inner workings of the publishing industry into an action-adventure comedy. What I ended up getting, however, was a test of patience that was mediocre at best and frustrating at worst.

First off, with a title like Delusional Monthly Magazine, I had hoped the anime would be more tied to the workings of magazine publishing, but that’s not the case. A typical episode consists of the gang learning about the potential whereabouts of a new MOPart, investigating, being confronted by the antagonists, winning, and then bam! The article about it is published the next day. There is no show of the writing or publishing process whatsoever. Heck, it’s not even clear who actually wrote the piece. The plot is more focused on the recovery of the MOParts and the mysteries that surround the Motarians, which I found highly misleading.

The biggest issue that stuck out to me, though, was the characters. Now, I want to make something clear: having one or two unlikable characters in a piece of media doesn’t automatically make it bad, just like having an entire cast of likable characters doesn’t automatically make it good. But nearly the entire cast of Delusional Monthly Magazine are either incompetent, annoying, shallow, mean, or some combination of the four. You’ve got the slacker Taro, whose only goal is to get married so that he doesn’t have to work; Jiro, his snarky 10-year-old assistant, who thinks he’s more mature than he actually is; and Goro, a scientist who somehow manages to make his dedication to the Motarian civilization seem annoying.

Even this wouldn’t normally be a total deal-breaker for me; a group of bumbling protagonists can make for some very entertaining slapstick comedy, and I love to root for a group on underdogs who are wildly in over their heads. Unfortunately, the bad guys, the White Pegasus Company, are just as inept as the so-called “heroes.” The company’s two main goons, Perch and Noin, are so brainless that they can’t even be bothered to be stealthy when pursuing the main trio. In episode 4, for example, when Sato, Jiro and Goro set out to follow their next lead, Perch and Noin are just sitting in their car across the street (still in their White Pegasus Company uniforms, might I add), burying their faces in a couple of newspapers. It would have been funnier if they had chosen bad disguises that wouldn’t fool anyone but the three protagonists, like Team Rocket from Pokémon. Sure, they actually know how to use the MOParts to gain the upper hand, but they almost always end up losing anyway by sheer dumb luck, which only adds to the frustration.

On a similar note, I found the character designs ugly and even misleading. Yes, I’m aware that in an anime, wild clothes and hair are commonplace, but none of the people look like the things they’re supposed to be. Goro dresses like a leprechaun instead of a scientist. Perch and Noin look more like circus acrobats than thugs. Even stranger, according to the anime’s official Japanese website, these two are supposedly identical twins. The website specifically uses the term “identical,” not “fraternal,” despite the fact that they look nothing alike. To be fair, though, Sato’s slovenly appearance does perfectly convey his lazy and oafish nature. However you look at it, the entire cast is a complete eyesore.

If I have to give Delusional Monthly Magazine the slightest bit of praise, the quirky premise was what interested me in the first place. If I’ve learned anything from writing anime reviews for five years, though, it’s that an exciting-sounding premise isn’t enough to make an anime enjoyable or good. If the characters aren’t written well enough to make me want to follow their journey, you’ve lost me.

Overall, Delusional Monthly Magazine is the epitome of wasted potential, and I would suggest looking elsewhere for a quirky action-adventure comedy.