Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - The Anime

[Psion]

tbh i am a little cautious about the second half of this season...

I have this inescapable fear that they will suddenly focus a great deal on the monolith code fights and it will turn into just another action anime with some techy stuff thrown in around the edges.

[Zuruumi]

Or rather without it, as they completely disregard any technical info (and if they say something it is in a style that no non-reader can understand it). Well, it si a truth that it is better than Mahou Sensou.
BTW: I watched about half that series, butt I still don´t know what the "Libereta" means. Could anybody explain it to me (as nobody from the animation studio cared about explaining properly).

[Psion]

Its like Mayumi's crowd ball... the most important part of that entire scene is how tatsuya interacts with Mayumi with relation to her own engineering skills (i.e. how he examines her with regards to something other than her looks or her sheer magical ability), of all the things to have cut out of that scene...

Then there is the speed shooting.... anyone who saw the anime only would have no idea that Shizuku's magic was fundamentally different than before... or that... BAH. there are too many instances to go through them all.

I just hope that they dont go too far down the action route.

[Zuruumi]

By the way, in the speed shooting there was supposed to be a new target aproximatelly every 3 seconds, in the anime it was quite an insane speed of aproximatelly one target per 0,1 second or so. And also, there was the fact, that it seemed the point is to take down 100 targets sooner than your oponent and not that you have to take the most of them down in set time, not even speaking about the fact that there were still targets flying after the end...

[nr42]

I had a whole rant prepared in my mind, but it's just not worth it. Did the production company look at the light novel and think:

"Yeah, we want that and we know why people love it: the emotions, so let's nullify all the action and the intricacies of the magic and replace them by whining character interaction ."

The reason we indulged the weak animation of the first 2 volumes was in the hope they were just getting those out of the way to make space for the NSC.

[Psion]

The new OP and ED shed quite a bit of light on the likely content and tone of the remaining half of the season; It seems to be covering up to about vol 7 (Yokohama Disturbance), most significant focus on action, secondary focus on relationships, other content is nearly incidental. Then I guess vol 8 might take the form of an OVA or two. And second season would begin at Vol 9

[Tenzai]

The new OP and ED shed quite a bit of light on the likely content and tone of the remaining half of the season; It seems to be covering up to about vol 7 (Yokohama Disturbance), most significant focus on action, secondary focus on relationships, other content is nearly incidental. Then I guess vol 8 might take the form of an OVA or two. And second season would begin at Vol 9

which is sad =S i wish they took/take more time doing more of the important details/inside narration characters have to create more depth in the series rather then just speed ahead and go way to far without covering the important points. the pacing gets all wrong and results in a bad anime =( i think ending s1 with building up yokohama would be perfect, actually ending with vol 5 the filler would be fine aswell imo

[Zuruumi]

I get reather the feeling they are more wasting time than that they are allocating too little time per volume. Well it is a truth that this LN has quite an incredible page count (compared to other LNs) though. They should have ignored the less important scenes, which get incredible time and increased the more subtle details - for example the interaction with Masaki was completely owerblown and Shizuku crying was meaningless as long as they cut the reconcilation later, not even speaking about their completelly ruining the effects of photon maser (it should have just started to melt Miyuki´s icycle not blow it to bits, which causes incomprehension as to why Shizuku was crying when she got one point at least, neither using Nifhem makes so much sense there).

Well I could continue forever, but, well it is not worth it. As this is my favourite arc I was expecting much more from ti.

[nr42]

Agreed, the experience of watching, for me, is an endless repetition of yelling at the screen: "Get on with it, whiny b*tch/Itsuki" and "Hey, how can that be done already!".

[Himeko Inaba]

I thought the same thing about the anime's pacing. Also read the first novel and thought it was boring. The translator did a good job though.

I dropped this review for episodes 1-13 on myanimelist:

Instead of a number score, I'd like to give this show a rating of 'lol'

The first episode impressed me. The voice actors and Madhouse managed to create an impression of a vast, intricate world with careful writing, cinematography, and decent voice work that immediately set up some interesting personality conflicts while the 'weed' characters, who did not really trust each other, separately realize they'd need to work together to succeed as 'irregulars' at the magic high school...because the students with better grades are shooting civilian-grade combat magic at them for no reason. All the while, Tatsuya and Miyuki both want each other to themselves. They pull off some awkward social maneuvers to gain a few minutes of alone time and soon everybody knows that Miyuki is deeply in lust with her big brother. The situation got fucked up, so fast, and on so many levels, that I could not wait for the next episode - and yet, the colors were soothing, the voices were serene, the backgrounds were pretty, the outfits were tasteful. This first episode was so efficiently structured carefully well-drawn, it was actually relaxing.

Setting up. Implying. Hinting. Beginning. After that, Tatsuya steamrolls through every fight and social interaction, knocking his opponents the poke out before they could use (computer-assisted!) magic incantations, and fully comprehending the psychology of every near-stranger he meets despite having no real friends. Anyone who tries to argue with Tatsuya will quickly falls to his knees, either swearing fealty to him or blubbering unintelligibly because he correctly guessed their thoughts. That would be awesome if it made any sense, but it doesn't and why should it.

There were some conflicts that didn't involve Tatsuya, like the kendo team girl who wants to beat the magic swordfighting club with just her wooden stick. These were interesting, but Tatsuya always solved them by pulling some advice out of his ass despite having no prior involvement in the situation.

I've no problem with characters who are stronger than everyone else. Their stories can be pretty awesome - check out Samson, Superman, or Fredrica from the recent Hitsugi no Chaika. The real problem is that all the minor conflicts are solved too easily and in completely ridiculous ways, with not even half the austere clarification of a Norse saga - "and Hjalmar drew his sword and stuck off all eleven of their heads!"

Despite the tenuous connection between events actually happening, there's endless erudition on things that don't matter in the least. A lot of this explains the magic system, which is plain embarrassing. When two magicians duel, their spells activate so slowly that a well-trained sprinter can run across the room and attack his opponent from behind while he's still poking around with his "fast-activation" spell! Of course, professional warriors will raise their barriers and support spells before approaching. These spells are strong enough to deflect assault rifle bullets, but magic terrorists are still subdued by high schoolers with swords. The strongest magicians were supposed to be walking nukes, but if you're fighting a 'pro soldier' you've got half a chance of winning with just a ripped body and a 800Y pipe.

The magic problem's worst problem is its complexity. For all the explanation, its effects are ordinary: the characters shoot light beams, project shields, and float around - once Tatsuya has made the genius innovation of having one process in his magic computer manage the others. He's the FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD to think of it - everyone else is retarded, even offscreen. Since the practical effects of magic are so basic, there was no sense in coming up with so much cow-poop to explain them! It serves no narrative purpose, so just shout some nonsense words like in all the other shows!

So, as I was watching this show implode on itself, the soothing effect vanished. I was pissed off instead. How did everything interesting get sucked into the black hole of Tatsuya's basic competence? Not even the brother-sister incest subplot was exempt. After all, it served is purpose in hooking the viewers.

Madhouse and the voice actors are obviously competent. They simply did the best they could with the first episode until they had to adapt more of the plot, which couldn't be saved no matter how good the sound and animation were. The shame falls on the LN author, ASCII Media Works, who printed it, and all 3.15 million people who bought it.

And that's what puzzles me. Why did they buy it?
Read more at http://myanimelist.net/anime/20785/Maho ... XqwPTjc.99

[nr42]

The reason you found it boring was because you saw the first 13 episodes of the anime first. Therefore you already knew the story of the first two novels and how OP Tatsuya is. While reading the LN without preexisting knowledge, I think this problem falls away. I do agree that it's not the most exiting volume. I think we can all agree that the action really starts from the NSC onward.

I myself stumbled upon this LN after reading the manga, which entails the same events of the first 13 episodes of the anime, but isn't boring at all.

The problem lies more with the production company of the anime. It should be quiet obvious that certain things are more suitable to print media and others to digital media, but apparently this is something the company hasn't heard of yet. The author can't help that the action scenes were hollowed out or that they spend their time on long dialog. Everyone who's ever read a novel and seen a decent adaptation knows that explanations have to be severely trimmed and dialog has to be shortened to make it snappy.

If you'd want something interesting you should have read a volume which wasn't portrayed by the anime yet. Which means volume 3 & 4 if you're fast, before the anime rapes them too.
We'll probably continue watching the anime, but that's because we've read the LN, know what it can be and will keep hoping it turns out ok.

[alpons]

i find watching the anime is not as interesting as reading the novel though i never left a single episode......
but yea... mostly i find the anime version can't pick up the baddassness or the coolness of the story line found in the original version...

i don't want to say this but when watching the anime, i can't help to find miyuki as annoying .. i want my imagination of cute miyuki's back!!!! WHY WHY??? TTATT

[Zuruumi]

Yeah, well compared to the Miyuki from the LN, the Miyuki in the anime is: just slightly above average talented, with weak personality and completely dependent on her brother, and she even gets quite a lot jealious. In the LN she is: Extremely talented, yet modest, with strong personality, however of her own decision she decided to never oppose, doubt or do anything other against her brother, and although she gets a bit jealisous it is to the extent of being rather cute and not causing troubles (at least outwardly).
I have to say in the anime she is a bit of immature brat, opposed to how she is portrayed in the LN as someone who is not only talented but also a bit more mature in some areas than her age would suggest. The one from the LN is much better (well I still prefer Mayumi, but that is only my preference )

[Tenzai]

Yeah, well compared to the Miyuki from the LN, the Miyuki in the anime is: just slightly above average talented, with weak personality and completely dependent on her brother, and she even gets quite a lot jealious. In the LN she is: Extremely talented, yet modest, with strong personality, however of her own decision she decided to never oppose, doubt or do anything other against her brother, and although she gets a bit jealisous it is to the extent of being rather cute and not causing troubles (at least outwardly).
I have to say in the anime she is a bit of immature brat, opposed to how she is portrayed in the LN as someone who is not only talented but also a bit more mature in some areas than her age would suggest. The one from the LN is much better (well I still prefer Mayumi, but that is only my preference )

agreed, the anime potrayal contrary to the LN Miyuki makes her look bad, but well i wasnt very fond of Miyuki from the LN either >.< im not good with overzealous, jealous, (you belong to me) hogging sisters who think they own their brother <-in this case). I root for Honoka go go =D Kitayama is a ok aswell ^_^ on another note, Mahouka Author has something going with all these names with either an "S" or an "M". shiba, shizuku, mizuki, shibata, mayumi, saegusa etc etc.

[nr42]

Blasphemy! How dare you oppose her Highness!!! May your mind freeze this very instant!
Snow Queen Miyuki will turn Honoka and Shizuku into popsicles should they ever try anything.