Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei | Episode 1 Review

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Episode One Thoughts

Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is a spin-off from the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei series. So going into the first episode I thought I would get a similar sort of deal/vibe as the original series, but through Miyuki’s eyes and through the eyes of a new animation studio. Episode one was actually extremely hard to watch for me because it was so off-putting.

I didn’t think that the new art style would be so hard for me to watch. I think it’s because I associate anything and everything related Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei to have the same sort of character design as the first and second seasons. While the second season was not produced by Madhouse and you could tell that there were slight differences between the first and second seasons. This spin-off however, is definitely a spin-off. It doesn’t even feel like a product associated with the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei series. While yes, we have the same characters and the same voice actors everything feels so different.

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I didn’t like it. As many of you know, I consider Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (primarily the first season) to be one of my favourite anime and series. So to see something where it’s even more fantasy like, with our character not looking anywhere near to what they’re supposed to look like really turned me away. Furthermore, I felt like episode one exaggerated Miyuki’s feelings for her brother. Yes, we all know that she has a series brother complex and Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei takes advantage of that by making it more over the top. That was something I didn’t like at all.

Another I disliked about this first episode, is something I also disliked about the second season of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, and that was the fact that Tatsuya is displaying too much emotion. We all know that like his sister, Tatsuya also has a sister complex even though his is a lot more tuned back. However, if we were to keep with the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei shenanigans, then Tatsuya shouldn’t really be feeling any emotion other than anger because of how he was forced to become. In the first episode of Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei, we see Tatsuya display more emotion within this one episode than he has in the entirety of first season of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. I want my badass Tatsuya back.

Finally, the last gripe I have with the first episode is that it’s timeline puts the anime right at the start of the first season, when both Tatsuya and Miyuki first enroll at their high school. While Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is a spin-off the fact that it feels so different and takes place around the same time as the first season of the original series isn’t something I enjoyed. If I do not treat this as something not associated to an anime I love then I know that this anime is doomed to fail in my eyes. Which is a shame.

Overall, episode one wasn’t great. I hope for better things that’s for certain. Hopefully I can make that disconnect happen quickly because I want to give this anime a fair chance; holding a spin-off to the same standards I have for the original series won’t do the spin-off any justice.