Mahouka: General

[dime_side]

i have a question... is it ok for me to read vol 6 without reading vol 5 first?
is there any connection between vol 5 and 6?
i'm scared that if i read vol 6 without vol 5, i will get confused..
i've finished until vol 4, but vol 5 translation haven't completed yet..
so is it ok for me to read vol 6?

[Haxton Fale]

Read whatever chapters have been fully translated, and then move on. They mostly aren't immediately relevant, except for presidential election.

[nr42]

One typical example is Azusa and Silver. From the "Device Otaku", that's quite weird. Even if she wants to respect the secrecy, why wouldn't she talk a lot about it to Tatsuya, at least once?

She didn't even think about it when Tatsuya happened to have a flying device lying around.
He just happened to have an test model lying around, since FLT doesn't mind him giving brand new equipment away, even though he's just a beta-tester.

My guess is that the author forgot Azusa had that thought during the NSC.

[abbad0n]

One typical example is Azusa and Silver. From the "Device Otaku", that's quite weird. Even if she wants to respect the secrecy, why wouldn't she talk a lot about it to Tatsuya, at least once?

She didn't even think about it when Tatsuya happened to have a flying device lying around.
He just happened to have an test model lying around, since FLT doesn't mind him giving brand new equipment away, even though he's just a beta-tester.

My guess is that the author forgot Azusa had that thought during the NSC.

But remember that Azusa is also scared spitless by Tatsuya. Until she somehow gets around that she's not going to dig too deep.

[Zuruumi]

Yeah, well while him having the device is strange it isn´t impossible (and at least not so eye catching). It was already anounced and Siler series do not have the habit of licensing the things for themselves. Also if my friend who I know works for a computer company brought some cutting edge, not yet sold computer for a competition I would be surprised, of course, but I wouldn´t suspect him of being the company´s genius developer. And she also thinks about this a bit later after she cools her head down a bit.

Well for her it is hard to aproach Tatsuya, firstly he is constantly with Miyuki, in which presence it is hard to speak about this and she would also hinder such a conversation. Secondly as mentioned Azusa fears him a bit and also has problems in dealing with him. Thirdly Silver is a bit of Half-God to her, therefore it is even harder to breach this. And lastly and most importantly, while she thinks it is most likely so she is by no means certain of that and has no proof, which makes it almost completely impossible to start speaking about this with him (well it might be a different matter if it was Erika or Mayumi, though they might be considerate and not ask too) especially considering her rather meek and not exactly sociable personality.

[maqhusson]

I'm sure you can find reasons for why some of these people act as if nothing happened, but it still feels off. I find it hard to think that none of them would act even slightly differently towards Tatsuya and Miyuki. I still love the rest of the novel nonetheless, so I guess it's okay.

[nr42]

I think we've all known for a while that serious character interaction and emotional development aren't the author's strong suite. We love it for other reasons. (at least I think I'm not the only one)

[maqhusson]

I know and I've come to terms with it somewhat, but it still irks me whenever it happens for a little while because it makes it seem slightly less realistic. I liked his explanation of magic that is grounded in modern science; it makes it a bit more realistic for me because the author isn't really pulling these concepts out of nowhere. In contrast to this, the interactions seem to be grounded in the 'Mahouka Laws of Human Interactions' It's just slightly annoying. Still love the series a lot though.

[Mahesvara]

A question for all of you: Out of Erika, Leo, Mizuki, and Mikihiko, who do you think is going to stand by Tatsuya when the shit hits the fan and his secrets come out?

I personally believe it's only going to be Erika, she already knows his connection to the Yotsuba, witch I would argue is the secret that would most likely turn someone away, and is still around.

[Imladir]

Erika as you said, no doubt.
Leo wouldn't care and is close to Erika, so he'll stick around.
Mizuki would probably feel uncomfortable, but she'll probably come around quickly: Erika is her friend, she "knows" Tastuya so I don't think we'll see anything drastic here.
As for Mikihiko, maybe he'll get a bit of pressure with his familiy, but I don't see him leaving.

Of all the people "close" to the siblings, I think only the Saegusa and Shizuku would have problems, but most probably only due to their families.

[maqhusson]

I agree with Imladir, I think that all of them will stay with Tatsuya.

My main reason is that they already know what kind of person Tatsuya is; despite being calculating and intimidating, he still has a side to him that treats his friends nicely. Since they're good friends now, I feel that they'd care for his character more than his heritage, and as such stay with him. Leo just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd care all too much about familial ties, along with Erika. Mikihiko and Mizuki might be frightened in my opinion, but they'd eventually get over it because they know Tatsuya well enough.

[Mahesvara]

I see your points and I do agree with them. Still I think that Leo, Mizuki, and Mikihiko will be apprehensive about the whole thing and will need a "He's our friend!" speech from Erika. Though I think after learning he's killed thousands Mizuki might steer clear a bit.

[Imladir]

Though I think after learning he's killed thousands Mizuki might steer clear a bit.

I'm not so sure about that, she was in Yokohama after all, and even if she didn't kill anybody obviously, she didn't react badly.

[Mahesvara]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Mizuki pretty scetched out when Tatsuya, Erika, and Miki delt with the GAA soldiers outside the competition site? I think she would be terrified of him if she knew he killed so many.

[Zuruumi]

No, as is often quoted death of one is a tragedy, death of hundreds is just a statistic. In the first place the real number should be so high, that all sense of reality should be gone if she hears it, not even speaking about the fact, that seeing somebody kill a person right before your eyes is much more shocking than hearing he killed several people in the past. Not even speaking about the fact, that Tatsuya was intentionatelly killing them in a gruesome way, which has greatly shaken even the morale of the soldiers, it was only natural for Mizuko to feel a bit... well after she saw this and was capable of accepting it, the difference between him killing 100 (that is the number that she must be sure he at least killed considering all what she saw etc.) or 10k (that is more close to the truth ) is nothing so important.