So, lately I've been thinking a lot about the Potterverse's inconsistent and poorly-defined magic system, and that got me to thinking about how well-designed the magic system in Slayers - a PARODY of sword-and-sorcery fantasy anime - is. In said system, magic is divided into three broad categories - black magic, white magic, and shamanism, the last of which is further divided into earth, fire, air, water, and astral shamanism. What defines these categories isn't intent or effect, but power source. For example, the shamanism spell Demona Crystal and the black magic spell Dynast Breath have the same basic effect of "freezing stuff", but Demona Crystal draws its power from the elemental spirits of water, while Dynast Breath draws its power from the demon lord Grausherra. But neither are considered evil, and are indeed both used by heroic (by Slayers standards, anyway ^_^) characters. Heck, protagonist Lina Inverse is a specialist in black magic, with her signature spell Dragon Slave basically being a tactical nuke powered by Shabranigdu, the Slayers world's equivalent to Satan, and, while she is undeniably greedy, vain, and short-tempered, she's basically a good person at heart. Thank you for listening to my rant. :)
