Mahouka: General

General discussion related to Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

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How did you find reading Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei ?

It was good! Please do more!
7654
99%
It was interesting.
80
1%
Not as good as I thought.
8
0%
Boring. Not touching it again.
6
0%
 
Total votes: 7748

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Mahouka: General

Post by Darklor »

This is the feed back thread for Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei at http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index ... _Rettousei
Please tell us what you think of it.
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

This series seems like it's going to last for another 3-5 more years based on my estimate. The author, who's working on the "year 2 arc" now expects it to have 20 to 25 volumes, which will conclude after they graduate in year 3.
http://twitter.com/dengeki_mahouka/stat ... 4787234819

巻数でいえば20~25巻程度ではないでしょうか。最後まで書かせて頂ければですが(^^; #mahouka
How it's divided:

Web Chapters Grouping(year) / Published on web / School Year / Bunko Volume
01(2008) / Y / 1 / 1,2
02(2009) / Y / 1 / 3,4
03(09/10) / Y / 1 / ?
04(2010) / Y / 1 / ?
05(2010) / Y / 1 / ?
06(10/11) / Y / 1 / ?
07(????) / N / 2 / ?
08(????) / N / 2 / ?
09(????) / N / 2 / ?
10(????) / N / 2 / ?
11(????) / N / 2 / ?
12(????) / N / 3 / ?
13(????) / N / 3 / ?
14(????) / N / 3 / ?
15(????) / N / 3 / ?

Of course we shouldn't expect web chapter 7 and beyond to be published anymore.

Finally there's also a gaiden.

I looked through some of the future web chapters randomly and I know that I have to read this. *salivate*
And the bunko version has a little more details from what I've seen so far.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Darklor »

Btw. How much of chapter one is translated?
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

I'm too lazy to keep track; and it can be demoralizing for me.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Darklor »

Ah, k that I can understand. Have often the same problem ;) Thought only that it would be nice to know... ;)
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

I'm going to translate a kick-ass scene for more teaser... next week or month, I guess.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Doraneko »

巻数でいえば20~25巻程度ではないでしょうか。最後まで書かせて頂ければですが(^^; #mahouka
I had been planning to follow the series until the author said this... I am sure most of his fans are screaming in joy though.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

Doraneko wrote:
巻数でいえば20~25巻程度ではないでしょうか。最後まで書かせて頂ければですが(^^; #mahouka
I had been planning to follow the series until the author said this... I am sure most of his fans are screaming in joy though.
You know, when I read Wheel of Time, I waited even longer.

But so far, this is very Shounen and pretty mainstream. The charm lies in the protagonist. At least, it's not harem, ecchi, fan-service. And the bunko version is better, the sentence flow is improved and there are more details and explanations. I'm almost done with volume 1, took me some time to read this, since I need the dictionary for quite a number of words.

If you don't like Shounen battle or description heavy text, then you won't like this.
Spoiler about protag:
Spoiler! :
The protagonist is not weak and gets stronger kind of protagonist. He's already a kick-ass protagonist right at the start, though in an unconventional way with respect to magic. Maybe I can say he's a little bit of a cross between Touma(Index), Ryner (Denyuuden), and Luke (Sacred Blacksmith). Not that I've never seen it coming, just that it still gives off the exciting Shounen vibes.
More spoiler (from volume 1 - Enrollment Chapter Part 1):
Spoiler! :
He(Tatsuya) was assigned to Course 2 of the school (where Course 2 is considered to be the inferior course - the students are known as Weeds), thanks to his very crappy practical exam results, even while he topped all the paper exams. But yet, as a freshman, he was appointed by the Student Council President as the 'Public Morals Committee' member, whose job is to stop the students (of all grades) from using magic 'illegally' (such as fighting etc.). No one from Course 2 has ever been appointed as a Public Morals Committee executive member in the history of the High School, since the effectiveness is correlated to their skills. So how in the world would he be able to accomplish that? Even the Student Council President and Public Morals Committee President who supported his appointment were surprised.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Doraneko »

larethian wrote:You know, when I read Wheel of Time, I waited even longer.
I am concerning more about the long commitment and the pressure on my humbly little wallet involved in following a long series.

If I have to buy 20+ books, I would prefer to get a few shorter series and one-shots rather than one single long series. After all, long series tend to drag on in the middle anyway, and I get more value for the buck by being able to experience a couple of fantasies of different nature instead of just one long story.

It is not much different from how as an anime fan, I prefer spending the same amount of time to watch a couple of decent 1-cour series with compact plots and free of fillers, than committing myself to one single N-cour series like Dragonball or Naruto that seems to last longer than the universe.

The only exception is if the series concerned is proven to be of stellar quality and last well for repeated reads, such as Juuni Kokki, or when it is simply a compilation of independent short stories, such as Kino no Tabi.
larethian wrote:But so far, this is very Shounen and pretty mainstream. The charm lies in the protagonist. At least, it's not harem, ecchi, fan-service.
I have taken a brief look at the web version and it sounds interesting so far. I am just wondering if I should commit myself to it, since I only expected it to last for 4-5 volumes.
If you don't like Shounen battle or description heavy text, then you won't like this.
Well I dig for description-heavy text as long as they are beautifully written, so it isn't that much of a problem (If you take a look at the few teasers I have translated, they tend to focus more on descriptions than dialogues. :)) . But I wouldn't really regard this series as anywhere near the description-heavy terrain, since as a whole the author has made a good effort in keeping things simple to read and understand despite the complexity of the settings.

Classics like Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, or even Iriya no Sora (arguably "light" in itself) are IMO still much "heavier" than Rettousei; in the sense that they are never shy in showing walls of dry text just for keeping the readers' heads spinning.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

Ah ok, you just have to make more money.

As for descriptions, I read simpler novels you see and I was aiming that to the generic audience, not Doraneko-shishou lol. I'm just not used to seeing this kind of dialogue exchange:
[start of page x]:
A (speaking to B): blah blah blah blah
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
[end of page x]:
B (replying to A): bleh bleh bleh bleh

Sometimes I get lost, because I forgot what A said earlier lol.
And I find it somewhat relatively harder to translate to English than all the other 7 series I've worked on.

A quoted untranslated teaser on the bad-assed protagonist where it starts to get interesting:
Spoiler! :
「始め!」
 火蓋が切って落とされた。
服部の右手がCADの上を走る。
 単純に、三つのキーを叩くだけとはいえ、その動作には一切の淀みがない。
 彼が本来得意とする術式は、中距離以上の広範囲を攻撃する魔法。
 近距離、一対一の試合は、どちらかといえば苦手としている。
 だがそれも「どちらかといえば」であり、第一高校入学以来の過去一年間、負け知らずだ。
 個人戦・集団戦を問わない対人戦闘のスペシャリストとも言える摩利や、驚異的な高速・精密銃撃魔法を駆使する真由美、鉄壁の異名を取る部活連会頭の十文字、この三巨頭には一歩譲るかもしれないが、他の者には生徒ばかりか教師陣にも引けは取らないと自負している。
 それは必ずしも彼の思い込みではない。
 スピードを重視した単純な起動式は即座に展開を完了し、一瞬とも言える速度で服部は魔法の発動態勢に入った。
 その直後、彼は危うく、悲鳴を上げそうになった。
 対戦相手の、身の程を知らないウィードの一年生が、視界を覆い尽くす近距離に迫っていたのだ。
 慌てて座標を修正し、魔法を放とうとする。
 基礎単一系統の移動魔法。
 魔法式に捉えられた相手は、十メートル以上を吹き飛ばされ、その衝撃で戦闘不能となるはず、だった。
 が、魔法は、不発に終わった。
 起動式の処理に失敗したのではない。
 敵の姿が、消えたのだ。
 魔法式の座標はそれほど厳密性を要するものではないが、視界内の対象物が視界から、つまり認識から消失すれば、エラーの発生は避けられない。
 サイオン情報体が空中で霧散し、慌てて左右を見回す服部を側面から激しい「波」が揺さぶった。
 連続して三波。
 別々の波動が彼の体内で重なり合い、大きなうねりとなって、彼の意識を刈り取った。

 勝敗は、一瞬で決した。
 秒殺、という表現があるが、今の試合には十秒もかかっていない。
 達也が向けるCADの銃口の先で、服部の身体が崩れ落ちる。
「……勝者、司波達也」
 勝ち名乗りは、寧ろ控え目だった。
 勝者の顔に、喜悦はない。
 ただ淡々と、為すべきことを為した顔だった。
 軽く一礼して、CADのケースを置いた机に向かう。
 ポーズではなく、自分の勝利に何の興味も持っていないことが明らかだった。
全然劣等じゃないけど!
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Doraneko »

larethian wrote:Ah ok, you just have to make more money.
This made a certain broke student sad. :cry: :cry: :cry:
If only there existed a light novel library somewhere in this doomed city.
larethian wrote:[start of page x]:
A (speaking to B): blah blah blah blah
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
describe describe describe
[end of page x]:
B (replying to A): bleh bleh bleh bleh
Somehow I found myself chuckling while reading this :lol: .

As for the action scene you quoted, it looks pretty good. It is simple and straightforward enough without dwelling on too many unnecessary details, while still being able to bring out an exciting atmosphere to hook the readers.

Just a question. For the bunko version, vol 1 and 2 are 入学編(上) and 入学編(下) respectively. Does one need to get both volumes and read the second book immediately after the first to make sense of the story? Or are the two books largely self-conclusive like most light novels?
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

Sorry, I forgot you are a student. Yes, I remember the days when I have to save money to buy Dragonball collectible cards!

I'm just not (yet) used to having a higher proportion of narration is to dialogue (ie. more than 1:1). Even for English novels, I tend to speed-read and gloss over detailed descriptions, and focus only on action scenes, dialogue and monologue. I try not to, but still end up doing so. Though for Japanese novels, I'll usually read them since I'm still learning the language.

Though those kind of text only occur when a speaker brings up something unknown, and the narrator proceeds to explain the terminology or a background story of that 'unknown' before the conversation continues. Seldom spans almost an entire page like the example I gave though :lol:
Just a question. For the bunko version, vol 1 and 2 are 入学編(上) and 入学編(下) respectively. Does one need to get both volumes and read the second book immediately after the first to make sense of the story? Or are the two books largely self-conclusive like most light novels?
I'm still left with about 30 over pages for volume 1, I'll let you know when I'm done. As much as I can tell, the entire 入学編 spans the whole chapter 1 for the web novel version (based on the top left header in the web pages), though the bunko version is superior after they edited and improved the ambiguous parts (at least that's the case when comparing the first few web chapters I've read), as well as added a number of details for clarification or more detailed scenery.

Speaking of that, there was someone on 2ch who recommended reading the Gaiden as it provides further details and explanations to magic and other setting-related stuff not in the main story.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by YoakeNoHikari »

I was hoping to see him grab his head and use some explosion magic Kusanagi style before walking away in a background of flames.

Shockwaves aren't bad, but one can always hope.
Even eternity can be encased in ice.
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by larethian »

YoakeNoHikari wrote:I was hoping to see him grab his head and use some explosion magic Kusanagi style before walking away in a background of flames.

Shockwaves aren't bad, but one can always hope.
Actually, it's not that simple, the explanation of what he did is only covered later (reading it does make my head spin a little, and I have to read it twice); it's in fact many more pages than the fight itself. He's a bit special (thus the official English title is "The Irregular At Magic High School"), and doesn't utilize magic in the same way as the rest, and there's a reason why his practical exam results were utter crap. Also, you must first understand how magic works, stuff like CAD (Casting Assistant Device), Psion, etc. etc.

The point of the teaser was to show that he can actually pawn the year 2 Vice President in under 10 seconds. :D
Besides, this is the first real fight in the series (at about page 170 or so).
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Re: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Post by Darklor »

Will you add Hazues teaser too?
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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