Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

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Name: The Irregular at Magic High School 魔法科高校の劣等生 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Status: Completed
Episode: 26
Release Date (for eng subs): Every Sunday


Summary:

At the National Magic University First Affiliate High School, A.K.A Magic High School, students are divided into two distinct groups according to their academic performances. The "Bloom," who demonstrate the highest grades and are enrolled in the "First Course," and the "Weed," who have a poor academic record and are enrolled in the "Second Course."

(Summary Source: Aniplex USA)

This story follows the path of a male student being enrolled into the second course, despite having good practical skills. Though being a weed, his skills were admired by many, though the first course students show more hatred towards him. It seems like he is hiding a very large secret about himself.

Personal Ratings: 3

I'm guessing that this was quite an anticipated anime, judging that many actually liked the manga. I'm not sure about the manga, but I think that they actually separated the manga into two, where one is from the brother's point of view and one is from the sister's point of view. I would say that it was a good call that they decided to just put everything together into one anime. I think it flows better this way, and a lot less confusing. 

When I watched the first episode, I just kind of shook my head the whole way. I really didn't like the idea that the younger sister actually liked her brother. And I don't know if this was the subber's mistake, but there is some confusion between the brother's birthday and the sister's birthday. Since she calls him "older brother" he should be older. But it seems like his birthday is after hers. So I'm a little confused. 

I didn't think that the first episode did any justice to the anime. It was kind of like a hot mess, with nothing that is pulling the viewers in. Though that's the case, I still encourage people to try and continue watching this show. From time to time, they do pull you into the anime by adding more interesting scenes; mainly showing off the main character's ability. 
They really made use of the sequence of the anime to bring out the coolness of the action scenes. They would first show you the flaws and the weak side, which will make you wonder how he is going to fight with his weakness. So when you actually watch the actual action scene itself, it has that surprising factor and it gets you really hyped up. I think they also know when to reveal more about the main character's ability. The timings were all really good; like just when I'm about to find the anime  a little to boring, an awesome action scene comes along, making me remember how nice this anime can be. But since their all really short, I don't think I'm getting enough action scenes from the anime. 

For this anime, they don't really have the main story line that flows through the anime from the start to the end. This anime strictly goes by arcs, for the first two arcs I thought that they really lack that proper development. They were wasting half their time on making the character look cool and all the harem on Tatsuya and Miyuki. So without that development in the front part of the arc, it seems like only the last part is important.  
The whole thing about Tatsuya and Miyuki is just not right. Half the time I find myself skipping those scenes with only Miyuki and Tatsuya, because half the time that their talking about privately is just a waste of time, because half the time it's just cause Miyuki is jealous. 

I think that they should give a good explanation on the different basic magic categories. As the story goes on, I still couldn't really grasp what type of magic there is, thus is was actually quite hard to understand when they were explaining about the magic activation process. But since there seems to be so many types of magic, I'm thinking they should just give us a brief idea about the main types of magic there are. This way, I'm thinking that it would probably make it easier for the viewers to understand when they are explaining about magic and also to show the viewers as to how uniquely they can use the magic. But seeing as to how detailed their explanation can get, I can tell that they really thought it out thoroughly. 

They should also give us the fundamental gauge on the different ranks of magic, so that we would understand, to a certain extend just how powerful that magician is just by the rank of the magic they are using. I think To Aru Kagaku no Railgun really makes full use of this.  

One huge flaw that I just can't over look is the whole thing about Tatsuya trying to keep this identity a secret. Throughout the whole anime it just seems like he keeps using his extraordinary knowledge of magic in front of people, and doesn't seem to be actually trying to keep his powers a secret. 
The intervention of Miyuki every time Tatsuya tried to get out of situations where by he has to show his power is just not logical. I belief that she should have already understood the importance of keeping his identity a secret. But instead of helping him, she pushes him into stations whereby he can no longer decline and is practically forced into it. So her actions and intentions are quite questionable. 

Some weird scenes where they seem to over emphasis on the surprise, sad or angry moments (especially when it comes to Tatsuya, I just didn't get the part where he actually killed people because he was angry about what they did to Miyuki even though she didn't even get hurt.) because in the end it really isn't much of a big deal to render such overly expressed emotions.

Didn't think that they actually place much importance on the supporting characters. Felt that they didn't really use the perspective from the supporting character's view even though it would probably get us a better perspective of things. 
Even though that actually tried to make certain scene look more cool and also bring out more emotions into the anime by using the supporting characters, they just all somehow end up being too exaggerated. Not efficiently used. 

I'm thinking; longer action scenes and shorter long winded talks. I'm not sure if it bothers you, but it bothers me a lot when the character talks a lot in excess, especially when it's not needed. In this case, I think that because of the stiffness of the main character, they try to make him speak as formally and as neutral as possible, but that all somehow ends up making his conversations really wordy. I wouldn't mind if it was because he was explaining something about magic (which he always does), but it really bothers me when it comes to normal conversations. 

If you what this anime as a whole, I'm not sure if you will feel it but, I keep feeling like the episodes don't really flow smoothly. So it kind of bothers me a little.

Yokohama arc was good; I could see the improvement of the whole story line, as compared to the first 2 arcs (maybe it has something to do with it being not very long). Though I thought that there could have been some more improvements in terms of fragmentation and emotions. Overlapping certain scenes to make the whole thing stick together and also bring out more emotions at the same times would have been better. 

All in all, I'm hoping that there would be a 2nd season because I felt that this anime was a little incomplete because they still have yet to tell us what actually happened within Tatsuya's family in the past

Art Ratings: 2.5

Stiff characters with very angled lines. The school uniform makes the males look really stiff. And the whole time in which they were talking or not moving, I just cannot help but notice just how stiff they look.  I don't really like the way they draw the guys. It seems like their drawn exceptional bigger than the girls. 

The girls are drawn a little better, but I don't really like the uniform design for the girls. Like that canopy like thingy that is attached to their jacket, I wonder if there is any meaning behind it...

Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG-13