Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei

It has been a century since “true magic”—initially thought to be merely folklore and legend—had become commonplace technology worldwide. First National Magic University Affiliated High School (First High), one of the nine magic academies in Japan, admits two skilled siblings—Miyuki and Tatsuya Shiba—into the academy. First High splits its students into two groups, Course 1 and Course 2, based on entrance exam scores. This causes an apparent disdain for the Course 2 students, as they are labeled “Weeds” by Course 1 students, who alternatively call themselves “Blooms.”
Tatsuya is admitted to Course 2, while his sister Miyuki joins Course 1 as an honor student. Miyuki wishes to show First High that, despite her brother being labeled as inept, he is among the best magicians in the whole world.
Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei retells the story of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei from the point of view of Miyuki and the other female characters.

Well here we are. Another anime completed, every episode has been talked about. Now it’s time for me to share my closing thoughts on the anime that was Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei.

In many ways, Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei was doomed from the start. When you’re a spin-off to what is an extremely popular anime in Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. The only thing that will come to mind is, expectations. Which is unfair in a lot of ways to the spin-off, that I will admit. I was one of those people who loved Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, it’s one of my favourite anime. So going into this spin-off I did have fairly high expectations, bottom line. I wanted to enjoy this anime as much as I did the original series.

However, upon watching the trailer and saw that everything about the spin-off was drastically different than the original series. A grew a little bit less enthusiastic because I’m stubborn. I don’t like change! However, what it did do was lower my expectations just a little bit more, but unfortunately I didn’t lower them far enough.

There were many things wrong about the series that I disliked. For obvious reasons the character design was one of the bigger issues I had with the anime because like I’ve already mentioned in other past blogs, I’m someone who loves continuity. Having that continuity especially when we speak about character design is extremely important. Having enjoyed the character design of the original series, having to watch something that felt completely different was extremely off-putting. While I understand that this is yes, a spin-off, it’s not meant to be the same. There have been times when this has been the case, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya is a prime example.

However the biggest difference between Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei and Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya is that Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is operating under the basis that it retells the events of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei from the eyes Miyuki and the other female characters. Once you indicate that this spin-off is a retelling of events, then in my mind that means everything same except for the point of view. In my opinion, it honestly felt like each episode was mismanaged. Yes, the intention of this series was to retell events but through a different point of view, but when the events you’re retelling are shown as mere slideshows, or something briefly mentioned before being quickly whisked away was… disappointing. It kind of defeats the purpose of the show, if you’re simply glossing over the ‘retelling’ part. Like, we’re getting a new perspective on the events that happened in the original series, sure, but everything about it felt like an afterthought. Almost as if everything was just a dream or as though none of the events really had any significance or influence on the spin-off itself.

Furthermore, we were introduced to a new set of characters from Third High. Isshiki Airi, Kanou and company. Characters that had every intention being a someone of equal status to the main protagonist, this would have mimicked Ichijou and Tatsuya. But the biggest difference between the pairs was that, Airi felt extremely underdevelopment and very underwhelming. Again, this can be a result of a number of things. I hold the episode count accountable for such because, thirteen episodes cannot tell the same story as a twenty-six episode show. It is disappointing though, as someone who loves character development the fact that we got none of that throughout this series was extremely disappointing and was definitely one of the major reasons why I did not like this anime.

If you were to take Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei for face value. There isn’t much there, I’ll be honest. I didn’t find there to be anything interesting, at best, the show was barely entertaining. If I wanted to, I could provide a list of what could have been improved, but at the end of the day what’s the point? I’m disappointed for sure, but that’s because of the expectations I had. So if you do want to give Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei a try, then I suggest you go into it not expecting much if anything at all.