*Nitsuj takes a deep breath*
Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Today’s review is gonna be a tough one. Not because the anime is awful but because it’s. . .complicated. The anime I’m reviewing this week is Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. Also called The Irregular at Magic High School when translated, the anime is based off a light novel under the same name. The series was written Tsutomu Satō in 2011 and still continues to this day with it being well received by fans. It was marketed as a marriage between fantasy and science fiction with a mix of action and badass characters to go along with it. Sounds cool right? Well it is and it gained such popularity that Madhouse (Hellsing Ultimate, H.O.T.D, One Punch Man S1, and Devil May Cry) took the series in 2014 and turned it into an anime. This was one of the most hyped animes to come out that year and when it was all said and done the reaction was. . .complicated. The anime was met with mixed reviews from everyone. Some people liked it while others didn’t and even critics are split down the middle with this anime with some praising it for its unique setting, story, and characters while others called it bland, forgetful, and just characters talking exposition. Was this a cool anime or was it a bland mess? It’s complicated, and that’s why I’m here to give my thoughts on the series with no outside influence whatsoever. Seeing if it was a gem of an anime or just an overhyped failure. This is my review of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei.
Opening and Ending Theme
The first opening for this series is “Rising Hope” by LiSA. It’s a good song as LiSA always seems to deliver good songs that match up perfectly with these action series. The song is intense, exciting, and I really like the instrumental in the background. The guitar and drums are really on point throughout the song. Even LiSA’s rapping part matching up well with the flow of the song.
The first ending “Millenario” is sung by Elisa. At first I didn’t really care for this song but it started to grow on me as the series progressed. There’s this sense of peace and triumph in the song that just puts your mind at ease whenever you listen to it.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime starts off by giving us a brief history of the world. At the start of the 21st century magic was discovered (I knew it, the government has been holding out on us), in the year 2030 global warming began and food supplies began to dwindle escalating to WWIII in 2045 and lasting for 20 years (so who started it? The Russians, the Chinese, the Mexicans . . . dare I say the Canadians?). It’s now the beginning of the 22nd century and all the countries in the world are racing to see who can advance the most in magic technology for he who controls magic shall control the world. We then cut to a high school in Japan where our main character Tatsuya voiced by Yūichi Nakamura (Ikuto from Shugo Chara and Gray from Fairy Tail) is having a disagreement with his sister Miyuki voiced by Saori Hayami (Haqua from TWGOK). She’s upset because her brother is in the Weed class while she’s in the Bloom class even though he got high scores on his entrance test. He explains to her that even though he did good on the written test he did horrible on the practical test but he tells her not to worry about it and enjoy her school life telling her he’ll be watching over her and I’m not gonna lie you will pick up some romantic tension between these two siblings. I mean it’s safe and cute now but this show is hinting that these two might go down the incest route. With this she calms down and goes off to the freshmen orientation where she’s the key speaker because she’s the representative of the freshmen class (smart girl. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Rf677rnZgcA). As we enter the school Tatsuya tells us a little more about First High School (weird name for a school), it turns out this is an elite school where only the best of the best and those magically gifted can enter. We see that the students are split into two groups here at the school. The first are the Blooms which are the elite students the cream of crop and considered to be the future of the nation. The other group are the Weeds the common students the students who are just average. Because of these two groups the Blooms think they’re better than the Weeds so they treat them like shit at every possible moment and this results in a number of fights within the school (the solution to this problem is simple. Get rid of Bloom and Weed titles. The school is basically encouraging discrimination between students). As Tatsuya walks through the school he runs into the beautiful student council president Mayumi (scene here: https://youtu.be/eYTuL6WsKIA). Once school begins Tatsuya quickly befriends a few of classmates some being Erika a tomboyish girl with lots of energy who speaks her mind and Mizuki a girl who wears glasses which is seen as odd in the world since vision correction technology is widespread (maybe she likes the librarian/secretary look. Hey some boys like that look) and she also has the ability to see spirit particles emissions (basically she can see a person’s aura/magic. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/QS9rB0w0PuY and https://youtu.be/awhDc0tgM8E). Leo another classmate of Tatsuya who is the first guy to speak to Tatsuya and even Mayumi takes a particular interest in Tatsuya because he has the ability to read the activation sequences of others. After school both Tatsuya and Miyuki return home where we see they live alone (parents are either dead or away on a business trip. In other words, author didn’t feel like writing them into the story yet) and we see that Tatsuya isn’t really liked by his family all that much as everyone seems to call and congratulate Miyuki for getting into First High School (still a weird school name) but they don’t congratulate Tatsuya or even mention him (cold. Scene here: https://youtu.be/j4PS8xZpFeU). The next morning Tatsuya goes to a shrine to train in martial arts where we see he’s quite good at it and his sensei is a straight up pervert (there’s always one in these kinds of animes. Scene here: https://youtu.be/ZjnpVPADgVs). After his morning training they go to school where a few students from the Bloom class confront Tatsuya and tell him to stop hanging around Miyuki since he’s a Weed (they are brother and sister you have no right to tell him who he can and can’t hangout with assholes). Erika, Mizuki, and Leo come in to backup Tatsuya and Miyuki where a fight breaks out and it’s stopped by the Mayumi and Mari captain of the discipline committee and we end with Tatsuya trying to cover up the fight (scene here: https://youtu.be/pV2oaGe8uB8).
Episode 2 picks up where episode 1 left off. Mayumi and Mari believe Tatsuaya’s story (even though they know he’s lying. But hey when you got the voice of Yūichi Nakamura anything that comes out of your mouth is the truth). After things settle down we see a girl named Honoka thanks Tatsuya for covering for her and asks him to walk her and her friend Shizuku to the station (scene here: https://youtu.be/VcHFIzC4qbc, the second follower of Tatsuya has shown herself. The first one being Miyuki). So Tatsuya and the others walk to the station where they realize nobody in their school is normal (scene here: https://youtu.be/VcHFIzC4qbc, nobody in any school is normal). After that not much happens in the episode. Mayumi appoints Miyuki as the new secretary for the student council as well as the freshman representative (geez she’s just getting all types of titles isn’t she). Mari also reaches out to Tatsuya to join the discipline committee and be their representative for the student council because she knows he can read magic sequences and believes that having him on the committee will bridge the gap between weed and bloom students (haha you poor delusional girl that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/ivA1hFeIQkA and https://youtu.be/ivA1hFeIQkA). At first Tatsuya has no interest in joining the committee even though his sister says he be good for the job (Miyuki: Just like I’m sure he be good at doing me) but when the vice president Hanzo comes in claiming that he’s against a weed being in the committee and tells Miyuki to get her head out of the clouds (dude her brother is right in front of you and he will destroy you) Tatsuya challenges him to a magic duel (scene here: https://youtu.be/oW1hWpM220g). They go to a room where we see Tatsuya’s weapon of choice are guns (oh my God it’s not a sword. Thank you anime) where he pwns Hanzo so quick that we don’t even get a chance to see all the pwnage (scene here: https://youtu.be/edYmZN_veJ4. Now that is flawless, http://youtu.be/FfvTXACPv30?t=4s).
In episode 3 we start with exposition explaining how Tatsuya took down Hanzo (scenes here: https://youtu.be/q2i_6JEaedQ and https://youtu.be/cAEKAI2qXKs). Tatsuya joins the disciplinary squad where we see a majority of them don’t judge him for being a Weed and respect his skills (scenes here: https://youtu.be/X5FrPRgBVuI and https://youtu.be/X5FrPRgBVuI). We get some more incest between Tatsuya and Miyuki where she wants Tatsuya to calibrate her CAD (the device that allows her to use magic). In order to calibrate he has to get a reading on Miyuki which means she has to strip down to her underwear and get her body scanned by him (she wanted this). Thankfully Tatsuya maintains a cool demeanor through all of this but Miyuki decides to go on the offensive (scene here: https://youtu.be/vuGBXMhk884, I knew she had an incest crush on her brother. You dirty little girl). The next day the disciplinary squad gets ready for club day where Tatsuya goes to see the female kendo club where their captain, Mibu, gets into a fight with the kenjetsu captain, Kirihara, and they have an exhibition match where the match ends in a draw but Mibu struck a more vital point on the body so if this was a real-life sword fight she would have won (that girl knows how to handle long swords). Pissed about losing Kirihara uses his magic to turn his bamboo stick into a real sword (bet he wish he could do that to whatever that tiny thing between his legs) and tries to slice Mibu but Tatsuya comes in and takes him down with ease. The rest of the kenjetsu club tries to attack him but Tatsuya keeps dodging all of their attacks (can’t touch this) and we end with the captain of the kendo club seeing Tatsuya fight and being impressed with what he sees (he’s not alone. Scene here: https://youtu.be/FYimRGL3CHc).
Moving on to episode 4 all we get is a bunch of talking. First off a mysterious student tries to attack Tatsuya while he’s on patrol (does the guy have a death wish or something). Tatsuya doesn’t see his face but he got a good look at a red, white, and blue bracelet around his wrist (scene here: https://youtu.be/lEixY0vKYkI). After that Mibu wants to talk with Tatsuya and ask for his help (help in controlling her booty). We see that Mibu is a Weed just like Tatsuya and wants his help in helping to get rid of the discrimination between Weed and Bloom students once and for all (scene here: https://youtu.be/imCyGHGMlxY, I keep telling you people abolish the system and all the problems should be solved). Tatsuya doesn’t give an immediate answer yet because he believes she’s being manipulated by a group known as Blanche an anti-magic political organization that want to end the political system that treats magicians like superior beings but they use terrorist attacks and in truth use magic themselves (hypocrites). Tatsuya believes that they have student agents who have infiltrated the school and are using Mibu to start a revolution. Other than that Tatsuya is asked by the busty and provocative school nurse Ono (http://youtu.be/r0ZP12jneFE) to participate in a program where the school studies the psychological tendencies of their students (my psychological tendency is telling me you want to get inside Tatsuya’s pants) and he agrees to do it (scene here: https://youtu.be/pdifWjVai8o, once Miyuki sees the nurse she’s going to kill Tatsuya). Also, apparently Tatsuya is working on a new magic spell that can jam castings (scene here: https://youtu.be/L3q1v7UEakA) and we get a few funny scenes of a jealous Miyuki freezing things up (scene here: https://youtu.be/Faeg54lalrc). We also get to meet Juumonji the leader of the punishment committee (scene here: https://youtu.be/FYimRGL3CHc).
Episodes 5-8
Most of episode 5 is pretty meh. Nothing really happens until the last 2 minutes of the episode. The students a part of Blanche hijack the broadcasting room demanding equal rights and advantages over the Bloom students (sure, fight suppression with suppression that always worked in the end). These Blanche students have no idea what they want and even the things they think they want such as fair treatment, club favoritism, and disgruntle students are all dismissed by Tatsuya’s questioning. The student council manages to get inside the broadcast room thanks to Tatsuya talking to Mibu via cellphone (are we sure this wasn’t a booty call? Scene here: https://youtu.be/dzo5oIaWCDc) the sides agree to a forum talk in a student assembly (scene here: https://youtu.be/2iHe7wkUts8, bad idea it’ll just be trolls and people fighting back with forum weapons not discussing the topic at hand). At the assembly Mayumi crushes the arguments of the Blanche students and tells them that when it’s time for the next student council election she plans on abolishing the rule that states the president must be a Bloom student (https://youtu.be/JW68goC4_es). This wins over the crowd and gets them on her side (like I said the Blanche students have nothing to fight with. NOTHING) but the Blanche group shows up and starts attacking the school from the outside setting off explosives (where is school security?) and firing guns (uh question. Why are you attacking the school? This isn’t going to help your fight, it’s just going to make you look like a group of radicals who in truth don’t want fair treatment but instead want to rule over others). Blanche attacks the auditorium where the forum talk is being held but members of the student council take care of the situation and apprehend the students associated with Blanche. We end the episode with Tatsuya and Miyuki going to investigate where the explosion took place (scenes here: https://youtu.be/LuXjLoS31mc and https://youtu.be/iGevL3-HyMA).
In the first half of episode 6 we get nothing but great action (alright it took 6 episodes to get here but the wait finally paid off). Riots begin occurring all throughout the school with students fighting back and holding their own against the Blanche agents. Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Erika reach the library where we see that Blanche’s real goal this whole time has been to hack into the school’s database and steal files on the country’s magic research (scene here: https://youtu.be/KQr7jWcMXVM). Erika takes on the guards standing by while Tatsuya and Miyuki take on the hackers (scene here: https://youtu.be/0kHf5RPHCfI). Tatsuya destroys their flash drive (which is huge by the way. Good God how much memory does that thing hold?) and takes down the hackers with the help of Miyuki (scene here: https://youtu.be/Th5D9kHRstE) but they let Mibu get away where she gets into a swordfight with Erika who it turns out actually comes from a family of swordsman who are actually responsible for training Mari. Erika beats her and manages to break her wrist (alright Erika you my favorite girl so far) and she faints from the pain (scene here: https://youtu.be/L17mW8C8oXA). The school rounds up all the members of Blanche including the ring leader responsible for this attacked who turned out to be the captain of the kendo club (scene here: https://youtu.be/IaYjvAU39rY, I knew there was something bad about him. He had the eyes of a madman). After Mibu wakes up in the nurse’s office we find out that the reason she joined Blanche in the first place was through a stupid misunderstanding between her and Mari (how stupid could it be?). Mibu asked Mari if she could be her student but Mari said no because she believes that Mibu’s skills are better than hers. Mibu misinterpret this as Mari looking down on her because she was a Weed and wanted nothing to with her and that resulted in the mess we saw these last two episodes (scene here: https://youtu.be/rEgmNw0A_kk. Okay, yeah, this was very stupid). Tatsuya wants to know where the headquarters of Blanche is because he plans on destroying them once and for all and a few of the other students want in on this action as well (you guys won’t be needed Tatsuya can beat them all himself). Mibu says she doesn’t know but Tatsuya knows someone who does know and that someone is the school nurse Ono (why is it always the busty girl hiding something from the group). They find out the Blanche is hiding out in an abandoned factory and they all prepare to take them head on with even Kirihara asking to join them to avenge Mibu and get back at the organization for tainting her sword (scenes here: https://youtu.be/OfFdyYfRKJQ and https://youtu.be/Fr3dlTyJIxI, new respect for Kirihara right here folks).
In the first part of episode 7 the gang breaks into Blanche’s headquarters in Japan with Tatsuya and Miyuki confronting their leader who turns out used hypnosis to mess up Mibu’s mind and is a straight up coward. I mean it, he tries to hypnotize Tatsuya but Tatsuya sees through his trick, nullifies his magic, and destroys all the guns being pointed at him by the other Blanche members (and he does all of this when he steps into the room). After Tatsuya does all of this the leader tries to run away with Tatsuya right on his tail and the other members in the room are too afraid to fight Tatsuya (cowards! All of you. Where are your balls) except for one guy who tries to take him out but gets stopped by Miyuki (finally. Sure he lost but give him credit he at least had the balls to fight). Miyuki takes care of the Blanche members in the room by freezing them all up literally (http://youtu.be/nC8zz95rm8s. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/PuI8-gUGz50 and https://youtu.be/yWnpkq8BOMM). Tatsuya reaches the leader again who is surrounded by guards with guns and they use magic-jamming magic believing that will stop Tatsuya (you stupid little man). Tatsuya just fires his gun at all the guards in the room taking them out and leaving their leader standing alone (you cannot stop what is badass). Kirihara comes and slices an arm off the leader as payment for what he’s done to Mibu (scene here: https://youtu.be/Bm8MHtOBT8Q, he should of gave up when he had the chance). So that anticlimactic fight scene ends with all the members of Blanche getting arrested and this incident being put under wraps because the school doesn’t want to look bad. In the second half we pretty much just focus on Mibu getting released from the hospital and whining up in a relationship with Kirihara.
We start episode 8 with Tatsuya and Miyuki training for the upcoming school festival going between the nine schools with their master Yakumo when Ono shows to reveal that she’s a student of Yakumo and is actually a secret agent of the police force (scene here: https://youtu.be/WrFzluM7pY0). The next day at school Tatsuya meets and befriends a new student named Mikihiko (scene here: https://youtu.be/EeIlu7V44OY) is asked by the student council to be an engineer for the upcoming school competition (who better? Scene here: https://youtu.be/dJZEwzHo3sg). The other engineers don’t think he’s up for task and mock his skills (why the hell would you mock this guy’s skills? Have you guys been asleep this whole anime the guy is straight up badass who has achieved godhood). Tatsuya shows them his skills by collaborating Kirihara’s CAD manually which is something nobody in that school can do (scene here: https://youtu.be/V2AqToWyv5s, do you still doubt his powers mortals?). Tatsuya also drops the hint that he’s this man known as Taurus Silver an engineering genius said to have catapulted CAD software forward by at least 10 years (scene here: https://youtu.be/XXjSkOe6kAs). Near the end of the episode we see that Tatsuya has developed a flying spell a spell that nobody in the world has been able to do and it works perfectly (scene here: https://youtu.be/dUGI37rviBs. OoO this guy can’t be human I swear).
Episodes 9-13
Not much happens in episode 9. Tatsuya and Miyuki arrive at Tatsuya’s organization where he shows his workers the flying spell that he created and they test it out on volunteers. The device works well and is a success (scenes here: https://youtu.be/UV-fTscLYVw and https://youtu.be/lY0DPpgQApk. A toast to Tatsuya’s genius *raises glass in the air*). As the two are leaving they run into Miyuki’s dad and his butler where the butler badmouths Tatsuya for being nothing but a bogus bodyguard (first time I’ve ever heard a butler use the word bogus) but Tatsuya owns him with witty remarks (scene here: https://youtu.be/j2Iqcg1xSE0). For the rest of the episode we see students getting prepared for the school competition (scenes here: https://youtu.be/xGJ0CTdMU9E, https://youtu.be/OHPvR2Krnt0, https://youtu.be/1mt-mh7OqZA, and https://youtu.be/pNzknisGY0M) and while on the bus traveling to the location of the competition a car flips over, catches fire, and is heading their way to end the episode on a cliffhanger (I fail to see what the big deal is it’s a burning car. They can all use magic this should not be a problem to them. If anything I’m actually surprise they still have car wrecks in the future. I guess there’s no magic to make humans smarter).
We start off episode 10 where episode 9 left off. The car is about to run into the bus and a bunch of students are about to activate their magic skills to stop it. This is bad because too many magic spells will cancel each other out so Tatsuya secretly dispels them all which allows Miyuki and Juumonji to stop the car (scene here: https://youtu.be/tQqKFt8n9Rk). They arrive at the hotel (which is owned by the military) where Erika and Mizuki are there to root the school on. How they get into the hotel? Erika’s connections (scene here: https://youtu.be/IoxQW1KamZs). At the hotel we meet Retsu, chairman of the Magic Association who gives all the students a test by unleashing a large scale spell on everyone in the room with only 5 people noticing the spell (everyone else would have been dead if he was a terrorist). He tells them that magic is a means and not an end, that they should never stop improving their skills to be creative, and efforts alone won’t be enough to win the competition (scene here: https://youtu.be/iAjx7uQddy8). After Miyuki and a few of the other girls take a dip in the hotsprings where Miyuki confesses that she has no romantic interest in her brother (scene here: https://youtu.be/PbvrweroHmo, bullshit! A damnable lie I say) where we than cut to Mikihiko practicing his magic outside where he senses intruders. At first he’s hesitant to face them but then he remembers Tatsuya taking down the kendo club single-handedly (still a badass moment) and gains the confidence to go face them (that’s the power of Tatsuya. Just remembering what he’s done is enough to make anybody stronger and confident). He finds the intruders and takes them down with the help of Tatsuya from the shadows (scenes here: https://youtu.be/MPs57NRTe7o and https://youtu.be/lPMkzAMlD20).
In episode 11 we spend a good chunk of the episode seeing the various competitions. We see surf board racing which is pretty cool (scene here: https://youtu.be/0rhXiXOLVFw), speed shooting (where Mayumi just destroys her opponent. Scene here: https://youtu.be/APYBR93gUV4), magic tennis where they replace the tennis rackets with magic guns (scene here: https://youtu.be/XD6zQpeIuzk, man the sports of the future are awesome. I wonder how they play basketball in this world), and we see ice pillar breaking where the goal is to use your magic to break all the ice pillars on your opponents side of the field (man, these guys even make destroying ice look awesome. What’s next, live action chess where the game takes place on a real battlefield, your chess pieces come to life, and you have to guide them to victory? Actually that be pretty cool, you could probably make a decent anime off of this concept). While the school does good in all their competitions and a commanding lead, in order to claim absolute victory they have to win 4 of the last 6 competitions (scene here: https://youtu.be/nJer3y7-avc, time for a room raid). We end the episode with Tatsuya receiving a toy he sent to made from the military and decides to let Leo try it out who’s more than happy to be Tatsuya’s guinea pig since he’s also interested in the weapon Tatsuya made.
At the beginning of episode 12 Leo tries out Tatsuya’s new weapon which is a short buster sword where half the blade separates from the sword, floats in midair and follows the commands of the one holding the sword turning the sword into an extra-long sword (scene here: https://youtu.be/AxpFQUFJlD8, interesting. This gives me an idea for a new sword for Isis). After that, we see the competition continues where Mari gets injured in the surfing board contest and is forced to drop out of the event. Tatsuya and Mayumi believe that Mari’s injured wasn’t an accident but instead sabotage from the competition’s committee (scenes here: https://youtu.be/eCz3ltA7uCo and https://youtu.be/iLG0YgAqdSo, bribery even after all these years). Because of Mari’s injury she can’t participate in mirage bat and thus Miyuki is called to take her spot for the competition (or we could put the badass brother into competition and let him do all the work for us). The next day and it’s time for the rookie events which feature the first year students. We see Tatsuya’s engineering skills at work as he’s the engineer for Shizuku who’s in the shooting competition and who’s family wants to hire Tatsuya as her personal engineer (for her equipment or for her body?). She advances in her competition with flying colors and soon Tatsuya’s fanbase begins to grow throughout the competition as more of the students are handing their personal CADs to Tatsuya to tinker with and make better (about time the guy started building a fanbase. Scene here: https://youtu.be/osO8phpcFZo).
Episode 13 is all about the three freshman girls Shizuku, Honoka, and Miyuki. First off Shizuku wins again in the shooting contest thanks to Tatsuya’s engineering skills (scene here: https://youtu.be/zlANLbqxqgo. After that competition she also takes part in the ice breaking competition where she wins again (scene here: https://youtu.be/usIvHZhGcnE, okay Shizuku has been on fire in this competition. (Shizuku): Did you ever doubt me? (Nitsuj): Not you. Are you gonna be making that joke throughout the review. (Shizuku): Maybe). We than go to Honoka who has a crush on Tatsuya (you and half the females in this anime. Just make sure Miyuki doesn’t find out, she’s very possessive of her brother who she secretly wants to bang even though she denies it) and is in the surfing competition. After getting some strategic advice from Tatsuya, she uses a light spell on the surface of the water blinding everyone and allowing her to win the race with not so much effort (scene here: https://youtu.be/49ynZpdb2zI, she made it look easy). As for Miyuki, she also enters the ice breaking competition where she just destroys her opponent with this powerful spell called Inferno a spell not too many people can pull off (so just like the brother is an overpowered badass, the sister is just as equally overpowered and badass). With the girls’ victory First High maintains a lead but because of the boys doing bad on their part the lead is little. At a party that night all the girls gather around Tatsuya and talk how great he is and how they wish he was their engineer (form a line ladies you’ll all get a chance to work his shaft). This of course pisses off Morisaki who can’t stand Tatsuya and is determined to prove once and for all that he is better than him (scene here: https://youtu.be/9VqmbisKzHA. You’re not kid, now move on with your life). Other interesting events in the episode are Third High school (again weird name for a school) figuring that First High have an amazing engineer on their team (scene here: https://youtu.be/9VqmbisKzHA) and we find out that the school competition is rigged by some group of corporate big shots called the No Head Dragons who don’t want First High to win for some reason (scene here: https://youtu.be/OXX–S_gojY).
Well we’re at the halfway point right now. What are your thoughts on the anime so far? Good, bad, or complicated? Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All videos, clips, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment in the comment section or send your comments, feedback, or request to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com
And follow me on twitter for updates and other stuff: https://twitter.com/ProjectNitsuj