Jul 25, 2016
tl;dr version/summary in the last paragraph.
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is an anime adaptation by studio Madhouse of a highly acclaimed light novel series of the same name. In honor of the upcoming movie and the fairly recent start of the publishing of official English translations of the light novels, I decided to write this review so that I might raise some awareness and maybe help someone discover this series that I greatly enjoyed.
However, before I start with the review, there is one thing I must adress. There are plenty of people out there, that despise this show for a variety of reasons. If you despise
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incestuous undertones, you should probably leave now, because they're very apparent in Mahouka. If you have an irrational hate of overpowered protagonists, this show is probably not for you either. That said, I think most people who hate this show for that reason have a serious case of hypocrisy, as the same people seem to love One Punch Man. If however, those things don't bother you, I urge you to read on as I explain just why I like Mahouka so much.
The story starts in year 2095. The world has been ravaged by famine and war, and the population of Earth is only a small portion of what it used to be. The only reason a nuclear apocalypse was avoided was due to discovery of the magic at the dawn of the millenium, and the solidarity of the world's magicians in eradicating nuclear weapons. After several decades of relative peace, our two main protagonists - siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki - are about to enter one of the prestigious magic high schools in Japan and trigger a course of events that will change the people, society and the world around them.
I personally find the universe of Mahouka to be absolutely fascinating. The amount of thought and detail the original author has put into it blows my mind. While the anime does not let us fully appreciate all the detail, the visualization and the beautiful art by Madhouse is truly a fine replacement. Everythings from clothes (for the record, Mahouka has the coolest looking school uniforms ever period) to everyday utilities to buildings and infastructure looks absolutely amazing.
Mahouka's cast of characters is also very well done. The character designs are interesting, all the characters have plenty of backstory to them and they all have their unique way of being badass. Not to mention I absolutely love the character dynamics, and there's an abundance of potential ships for all the shippers out there. Despite having a massive cast of side characters, it handles them admirably.
On a side note - the Oreimo-Mahouka crossover memes are hilarious.
Saying that the soundtrack of the anime is "different" from most anime is an understatement. The OST has music from a multitude of genres, and the music itself ranges from emotional to light hearted to epic. While I definitely enjoy the OST, and it definitely fits in, I feel that the composer tried too many different things, which makes it feel like something of a jumbled mess. Both of the two openings of the show get you hyped up, whilst the two serene endings let you peacefully lay in your chair while you think back to the episode. And although I might be somewhat biased on this matter since the show has a good deal of my favourite seiyuus (voice actors), I think the voice acting and casting is overall very well done.
The story itself isn't anything that special. It's formatting is fairly generic for novels, where enemy "X" is trying to interfere with event "Y" and the protagonists must stop them by solving a mystery involved. But the sheer amount of content and depth put into it does fill the void somewhat.
Now for the biggest downfall of Mahouka's anime adaptation: exposition. Since it's based on an extremely exposition heavy light novel series, it can be difficult job to translate all that into the dialogue. Without the existence of a proper narrator, plenty of things will be left unexplained. I found it particularly ridiculous how the anime failed the explain the abbreviation "CAD" (casting assistance device) which is probably the most single used item and second most used word (after "Onii-sama", which you will hear approximately every 3 minutes). If English is not your first language, you will probably struggle understanding what on earth is going on, when the characters start speaking in mostly scientific vocabulary.
During my first time watching Mahouka, there were several times where it had to rewind the video, pause, carefully read a line and ponder it's meaning before I fully understood it. It's kind of like science class, except with magic. If you've read the light novels first and already know what's going on, this won't be a problem to you, since you're already familiar with the terminology and can focus on the beautiful visuals. But obviously, reading the novels shouldn't be a requirement for understanding the anime, and that's something the anime adaptation fails horribly at.
As everyone who knows anything about Madhouse can attest, they're really good at at making action scenes. Mahouka is most certainly not an exception to that. I can with full honestly say that it has some of the most stunning and badass fight scenes ever made. I distinctly recall the pain of my jaw dropping to the floor several times while watching this.
To summarise, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is a sci-fi, magic, action show based on a light novel series of the same name. The main character is a badass and completely overpowered. His sister is a massive brocon. The visuals are stunning and the fight scenes will make your jaw drop. The exposition is overall poorly done, and will leave you confused unless you've read the novels or are willing to rewind multiple times. There's a large and interesting cast of fleshed out characters with interesting pasts and numerous ideals. The character dynamics are awesome. The OST is a weird mix of numerous genres, but it does it's job well enough. Overall, I feel it's done very well, and every episode gave me an irresistible urge to watch the next one (I binge-watched the whole thing). I rate Mahouka as a solid 9/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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