Some of Taruruto's plans and behavior may lead one to ask if he is truly an Inept Mage with the excuse of not knowing better as a child or if he's trying to be a Trickster Mentor who purposefully sabotages some of his magic and Honmaru's plans just to teach him a lesson.
Why is Jabao a bully? Is it because he's taking out all of his anger and frustration from his mother's abuse, or is he trying to make himself look good to prove that he's not a coward underneath all of that weight?
As the November 1991 issue of Animedia puts it, is Iyona's kind behavior really out of love for herself, or is it just natural excessive love?
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Harako becomes inexplicably taller than normal during Neizo's introduction. This is surprisingly not an animation error as he has to lower his head to get into the classroom, something he's never had to do before. He or no one else ever comments on this.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Rui Ijigawa somehow has a massive following within the fanbase, for her appearance and her occasionally fanservice scenes, her mean-spirited personality, her quick-wit, and just overall being the series' resident Tsundere.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Some fans would have preferred Honmaru ending up with Ijigawa, as not only has she liked him since they were younger, but she also seems to have more chemistry with Honmaru than Iyona does, having a more outgoing and overall interesting personality.
Friendly Fandoms: To no one's surprise given the original author, chances are that if you're a fan of this series, you'll probably be a fan of Golden Boy or already were.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Harako wouldn't be the last character named Tsutomu to appear on the exact same channel and timeslot. He's followed by Rokutanda and Yamaguchi. Likewise, Rui Ijigawa would be followed by Rui Hanazawa.
Moe: Taru and Mimora, it helps that they're the youngest characters and were designed to be smaller and cuter than the other characters. Out of all of the others, Iyona fits this trope to a T.
Nightmare Fuel: The end result of Jabao's face after taking a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Neizo. It leaves his face, lips and all, completely swollen. The initial detailed closeup and the Lightning Reveal are what really help make this look creepy, and he looks so bad that even his classmates are either terrified or nausated.
Seasonal Rot: The middle of both the anime and the manga, specifically the arc that starts to put Neizo Zakenja on the forefront, is noted to be where the series took a turn for the worse. Made as a response to the battle-shonen craze that exploded thanks to Dragon Ball, or more specfically Dragon Ball Z's popularity, the series started becoming this and started distancing itself from its Gag Series roots.
Signature Scene: If there's a scene that can be considered the most iconic, it would definitely have to be when Taru is first summoned by Honmaru (or the first two times if you're going by the manga).
Fanservice plays a major part in the story earlier on, and the tritagonist Iyona and her friend Ijigawa are no strangers to this trope, which is a problem considering that they're both 10 years old. The way Iyona particularly can be treated sometimes can make people today feel extremely uncomfortable.
By the time this series debuted, spanking children in the classroom had long been outlawed in multiple countries, despite Ms. Oaya doing this to a few of her students. Don't expect a joke like this to make it in a work in the present day.
Viewer Name Confusion: Do to the lack of exposure in the west, specfically English-speaking countries, many of the characters often suffer from Inconsistent Spelling, leading to the Rs in certain character names becomeing Ls, and the lack of macrons in certain vowels leading to doubled-vowels or only one basic vowel character in its place. The most well-known example of this is Taruruto (also spelled as Taruruuto or Tarurūto) being spelled as Taluluto in most works associated with Toei Animation.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Oh boy... Given that this was created by the man who later gave us Golden Boy, it's unsurprising how lewd this series can get. What's still shocking is how such a series aimed at children and with such a cute title character can have such unashamedly perverted and overall uncomfortable moments that not even The Simpsons would have even dared to try in its prime. Taru appears naked a few times, including the anime's opening, lacking Barbie Doll Anatomy, and is shown several times in the series being breastfed. Honmaru, despite being a fifth-grader, is a massive pervert who frequently takes advantage of his crush, and she and many of the other female characters, children and adults, are frequently subjected to Fanservice. With this bizarre combination, there's no surprise as to why the anime has never made it to America. In fact, the English Manga Planet release labels it as both a shonen (its original demographic), and a seinen series.
The video games
Anti-Climax Boss: Rivar is the final boss of both the first Game Boy game and the Mega Drive game, but he's just as small as Taru in both, and he can be easily defeated with a timed set of patterns.
Awesome Art: The Mega Drive game was released months before Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Streets of Rage 2, yet it looks like a game that was released in 1994. The game's huge, detailed sprites, especially Taru's and many of the enemy characters', look like they were made for the anime. The stage backgrounds are vivid and colorful and frequently take advantage of the console's parallax scrolling.
The fight with the Great King Dowaha in the Mega Drive game, which could easily be mistaken for the final boss.
Even if it is absurdly hard, Honmaru's fight with Neizo in Mahou Daibouken definitely deserves a mention.
Awesome Music: The entirety of the first Game Boy game's soundtrack.
Cheese Strategy: A pretty hilarious one with Jabao, the Mega Drive game's first boss, which involves catching the soccer balls he misses waiting to throw it when grabs another one, and catching the ball that you make him drop afterward. Rinse and repeat.
Contested Sequel: Mahou Daibouken when comparing it to Fantastic World!!. The former game is praised for having improved graphics, including Honmaru and Mimora as fully playable characters alongside Taru, and putting Honmaru at the forefront of the story, which almost accurately follows the anime's last two major arcs. However, the game also includes a level-up system that initially makes your characters feel unsatisfying to play, combined with an insufficient explanation of magic abilities, the time it takes to unlock all of them, level terrain that is often reused, and extremely brutal bosses, it becomes a lot more overwhelming compared to its predecessor.
Game-Breaker: A couple of the items found in Fantastic World!!, especially scratch-off exclusives such as the wings and the tele-potato can easily remove the challenge of most stages by being able to avoid most hazards and enemies outside of boss stages. Heaven forbid if you play on an emulator with savestates, where you can easily rack up on these items.
The snail enemies in Fantastic World!!, which appears as early as the first stage. Once they begin to swiftly roll towards Taru with their shells, they cannot be defeated unless you manage to become invincible. Along with being fast, impervious, and able to return even when they're far away from the screen, many of them can spawn at once and require swift precision to avoid a cheap death.
Armadillos replace them in Mahou Daibouken, where they will try to run up to the player character at a high speed before pausing. They'll sometimes form groups with more armadillos or other enemies and potentially trap the player.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: Mahou Daibouken is a lot more difficult than Fantastic World!! as a result of the newly implemented level-up system. Fantastic World!!'s movement speed and jump height, while nothing to write home about, were still relatively decent and could be boosted with magical items. Mahou Daibouken, your initial jump height is lower than before, and your initial movement speed is even slower than in the previous game, and can only be improved upon leveling up and maxing out your character to level six, which can be a slow process. Taru's reach on his tongue is a bit shorter and not as fast as it was in the previous game. Honmaru is also now the main focus of Mahou Daibouken and his initial stats compared to Taru in both games and even to himself in the Game Boy game are completely laughable. With all of this in mind, if you don't level up properly, bosses can be almost impossible to beat.
Fantastic World!! has the infamous easter egg of Iyona being shown in her thin bikini.
In the first Game Boy game, there's the first helicopter boss battle with the Kaiju.
That One Level: The first auto-scrolling section found in the third stage of the Mega Drive game is a steep Difficulty Spike, especially for those new to the game. You have to jump on several clouds, which seems simple until you're greeted by giraffe-like creatures that require precise timing no matter how you deal with them. By not reacting fast enough, they can keep you towards the left of the screen and cost you a life. They can be used as platforms, but can also swiftly pull you down as soon as you land on them. And there are monkeys that not only throw apples at you but also reach the bottom of the screen to attack Taru.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Jabao is also the first boss of Fantastic World!!, and unlike his appearance in the Mega Drive game, he can be pretty tough to deal with. His movement is unpredictable compared to later bosses, but he's always able to outrun Taru. There aren't any ledges that Taru can hop on so he can't camp out anywhere, any openings that Jabao has don't last too long, and after a hit, all bosses become invincible for about four seconds, meaning you still having to avoid him without trapping yourself.
