Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei | Episode 12 Review

---

If I were to sum up episode twelve in one word it’ll be, unfulfilling. Which is a share to be quite honest. If you’ve been following this series along with me, then you too may have also been severally let down by the anime as a whole; I certainly have. But that’s the problem with having high expectations, in my mind episode twelve no better than the previous eleven episodes, mediocre at best.

I also didn’t like how the episode ended the way it did. While we all know the outcome to Mirage Bat event, I would have liked it if they had animated what would have happened regardless. I would have liked this because since Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is all about the female side of things, it would have been great to re-experience the finals through their eyes as well. I mean, the whole purpose of Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei was to provide a different perspective to the events we already know the outcome to. Which as I’ve mentioned before is all well and good. However, what bothered me about episode twelve was that we saw the majority of the events played out during the Nine Schools Competition Arc (POIs that are relevant to the spin-off). But they decided to skip over the main event?

• 

• 

The allocation of the episode was mismanaged at best. The reason why I think this is the case was because they (the studio) decided to animate the No Head Dragon group but did the opposite with the finals (as previously mention). I have a problem with this in particular because in this spin-off while the ‘No Head Dragons’ do play a large role in sabotaging the female events, their impact isn’t as significant as it is in the original series and therefore I thought it shouldn’t have been given as much screen time as it was given. Not to mention, I also thought that the reaction of Miyuki to finding out that Tatsuya had rolled one of the competition officials for tampering was kind of meh. I’m equally disappointed with the fact that we didn’t get to see Miyuki’s reaction to finding out that Tatsuya had exterminated the ‘No Head Dragons’. If they had animated something with regards to that, I think it would have added another dimension to the series.

Let’s be real here, who wouldn’t LOVE to see Connect re-animate Tatsuya outright destroying the ‘No Head Dragons’ from afar. I wish that we were able to see that scene again because of how epic it is. But then again, it wouldn’t have made much sense in this spin-off because it isn’t about Tatsuya. But the aftermath of such events would have been beneficial to the series. Another approach that could have been taken would have been having Shizuku, Honoka, and Eimi investigate the recent sabotages at the Nine School’s Competition. I found it pointless that we only saw them sort of investigate the Blanche stuff, why not the Nine School’s Competition as well? I mean it’s a spin-off afterall might as well.

Anyway, overall episode twelve was an okay episode. Nothing about it really knocked my socks off, which is to be expected since Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is basically a retelling of events. I do think that episode twelve and how it played out could have been a lot better than what was provided to us. An unsatisfying end, to an unsatisfying anime.