The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc

If there’s any one anime, any one popular anime in particular, I could say is feasibly written by an AI scrolling the algorithm, it would be The Irregular at Magic High School. Why so? Because the show does not have a spec of human emotion in it. Ignorance is the word of the day here folks. It was fairly apparent in the first season of Mahouka, and somehow even moreso here. Every aspect in this season, from the narrative, to the soundtrack, to the characterization, to the tension, to the worldbuilding is divorced from what’s commonly viewed as respectable. It’s not quite as insultingly awful as Season1, but it does repeat a lot of similar failures, and even amplifies other parts. It saddens me that out of every show in the mostly dead genre of magic high school power fantasies (except perhaps the Index franchise), THIS ONE was the breakout hit that came to spread holiday depression by amplifying all its worst traits. To say this season has a “plot” would be massively overselling it. Things “happen”, but little lasts to any degree. An American secret agent girl named Angelina Shields drops in to stop “vampires” from draining magic from faceless NPCs in a world we’re given no reason to care about. She uses a disguise, and the show tries to build intrigue of what’ll happen to her and her rivalry with Tatsuya and Miyuki. Which might’ve been something………….unless of course you watched the film, which came out three years before this season, immediately giving away what happens to her. Oops. Oh, and then the last two episodes try very badly to make some point about discrimination with the worst racism allegory since RWBY’s White Fang. Many fundamental problems with the core premises of Mahouka return this season (except the magic system issues that’s just ignored), and they tend to affect the new elements when it wants to branch out a bit. The new element they want to highlight the most is Angelina. A top ranked American superspy with a secret identity, the show actually tries to give her feelings, and a goal she wants to accomplish, something seemingly foreign to Mahouka. But what’s the show’s reaction? Treat her like an absolute joke. Most of the “comedy” revolves around her constant incompetence in her job, mostly the lazy chibi comedy that feels bafflingly out of place for how solemnly serious it wants to be. The show can’t go one episode without having Tatsuya, the All-Knowing Übermensch, snip out that she’s sus, yet the camera still focuses on her devious smirk. By Episode 4, she duels Miyuki, and is on the verge of handily losing, Miyuki seemingly portrayed like a villain. Then, for the rest of the arc, Tatsuya and Miyuki effectively do her job for her, rather than giving her the chance to actually grow or change with any renewed confidence. A show with thought or effort put into it might’ve made her seem more like a competent rival, or at least have compelling payoff for running into Tatsuya and Miyuki, but no! Can’t let anyone get anything out of Tatsuya and Miyuki, the incesty power couple of modern anime. No one wins here. Fans of her character don’t get to see her actually prove her competence or get meaningful development, and fans of Tatsuya and Miyuki don’t have some sort of rival that can in any way enhance their growth. And it makes America look stupid for having someone like her headline their team. Not that Tatsuya and Miyuki look any better. Oh, the show tries to FOOL you into thinking there’s character development, but it’s a lie that means nothing. Miyuki is still one of anime’s most poorly written characters, with no personality besides loving her brother and being jealous of anyone else who gets near him. This could work if she was an antagonistic figure that stretched her love for her brother through drastic actions, but no, deuteragonist keeping the status quo. The show will claim there’s an arc of her losing attachment to her brother by having her monologue about it, which bears no fruit, and is partially demonstrated by the camera ogling her. After all, the chart says that fanservice sells, why not show more of the female and none of the character?! Mahouka: We're a super serious science conspiracy anime about secret agents, political drama and magic parasites! Also Mahouka: Let's have two separate scenes of women undressing for the camera, once for goofy comedy and once for drama with no foundation or worth that's really just fanservice anyway. Also let's give him a tagalong girl no personality whatsoever besides being another tsundere for Tatsuya with inexplicably magic hair beads. Aniplex: Perfect! Get it into production immediately! The ignorance never ends. Tatsuya smiles more, but he’s only slightly more tolerable than the previous season. In Episode 5, there’s a plot involving a rogue parasite that the show tries to act like has tension, but the cast has the answer to every hitch there could be. Tatsuya admits he could've solved the problem for good, but didn't, thus prolonging the runtime. Genius. Another episode tries to act like he missed some detail about Angelina, but he gets the info he wants almost instantaneously just by phoning a few people. It’s lip service to the idea of conflict. The blatant author worship continues; a parasite powering a robot by someone’s love for him clung to him like they’re trapped in a spiderweb. Nearly everyone wants to get a Valentines gift specifically for him. Miyuki and Tatsuya spend the series feeding off everything else; ironically for a plot about stopping possessive parasites, that’s exactly what the leads are, the algorithm too ignorant to admit it. Less than two minutes after Tatsuya loses his arm, he instantly gets it back. We can’t have TWO MINUTES of tension in this show. And don’t worry about the vampire plot; it’s solved instantaneously when the utterly unmemorable leader shows his face and can easily be put on hold for a Valentines’ Day episode, which is the only time the show has a pulse of life in it. As if the cherry on this shit cake wasn’t placed yet, you get the last two episodes. Radical magicians forming in response to discriminatory boycotts from the ordinary humans who claim (race) superiority enact terrorist attacks against magician slavery……something never seen and of no value since all the main characters are magicians. Of course, none of them have any actual point that causes the main characters to question anything, or have the charisma of say, the villains in Die Hard. This would be like if The Hunger Games was from the perspective of the capitalists on top……………do I even need to say what’s wrong with that? Everything else? Well, Erika’s the only returning side character allowed to have half a personality but it doesn’t matter any, and no one else even gets that much. There's a girl who looks like a China Doll that.....exists I guess? The animation is decent; nothing exceptional but without a single memorable action scene, but it fixed the first season’s color grading issue while maintaining a clean look, and the soundtrack is poorly mixed. Most of it is unmemorable dubstep techno, but Episode 9 tries to have a rap go along with it that’s super drowned out by the dialogue and action sfx. There’s so little to attach yourself to in this series. Mahouka confuses me, it really really does. I’ve seen bad anime aplenty that set clear goals for themselves and fail at them, but I’ve hardly seen an anime be so antithetical to everything about basic storytelling. Even series like SAO can pass off as fantasy adventure stories with kernels of depth, some icky scenes and the occasional bit of earned emotion. Mahouka can’t even do THAT. It’s a bevy of mismanaged priorities and “things people like” stuck in perpetually constant status quo with protagonists that have such a foothold over everything else that they’d be perfect villains in another work. I try to imagine the visions of the creators when watching anime, and there’s nothing here. A super serious science anime with botched attempts at political drama, that’s also stuck with incest pandering, fanservice, and childish comedy. It wants to be everything at once throughout its the 4 and a half hours, and accomplishes nothing. Appeal exists in media, even bad media, but Mahouka stands as a narratively backwards empty shell only notable for its failings.

Finally, the long anticipated return of one of the best LN franchises of all time to the anime medium. Mahouka does not disappoint at all in its second season and if anything, 8bit have taken the series to new heights. I’ve spoken for weeks about how Mahouka is clear of any other anime this season. I stand by that statement with this review as well. It was by far my favourite show of the season and if you enjoyed the first season, you will love this. When Mahouka switched from Madhouse to 8bit, I was a bit skeptical about how they would handle adapting the series.The visitor arc is a fan favourite of the series and sets up a lot of important things for the rest of the series. Luckily, 8bit didn’t miss a beat, and even surpassed Madhouse in many respects. Adaptation wise, I think 8bit were pretty faithful to the LN’s. With Mahouka, one of the things that makes it so adored is its highly detailed magic system and world. It’s not a series for people who just want to see fights and cool animation. This is really for people who are looking to sink their teeth into some complex ideas. The visitor arc itself deals with some really complex issues that 8bit did a really good job of explaining adequately in a way that Light Novel readers and first time viewers could appreciate. I think the pacing and direction in general were top notch and felt that all the key details were left in. While Mahouka does focus on a lot of politics, magic systems and other character interaction type things, it does have fights. And when those fights happen, they are really well choreographed by 8bit in this season. I thought the animation was really solid during several of the big fight scenes this season. I also think the OST is even better than season 1 this time around. In conclusion, if you are at all a fan of the series or enjoyed the first season, you will love Mahouka season 2. It takes everything in season 1 and makes it even better. If you did not like Mahouka season 1, have issues with the “incest” vibes, etc. Just save your time, you know this isn’t for you. Mahouka season 2 gets 10 out of 10.

Ew. Honestly, I am surprised that I did not enjoy this. I love power fantasy anime and this is that. I also liked the first season but for reason I did not enjoy this. This did have nice animation, good voice acting and a banger opening but for some reason I did not enjoy at all. Story: Some ships were bombed by a mystery person who was like one of the main characters. Then Tatsuya did some epic things and fights happened. Then some mystery foe which I don't remember what it was but there was some fighting with them Characters: Mostly bland. Tatsuya is just your averagepower fantasy mc so he is cool, different than everyone else and strong as heck. Miyuki is still the same annoying piece of shit she always was with even more Brother complex. She needs to not exist. Angelina was cool tho. Others were the same as usual Ost: Ost was good and the opening nice. Would I recommend? No

*Knock on door* *Door opens* Random person 1: Yes? Shadowy figure 68: Good day sir/mam. We are the Believers of Godsuya. Could we have a moment to- *Door slams shut* . . . Ladies and gentlemen, He is BACK! Grab on to a clean pair of underwear, clench those buttcheeks, straps yourselves to your vests and glue your eyes to your screen because you won't wanna miss what's next. He Man Himself has, after YEARS of absence, once again graced us peasants with his presence. He goes by many names - The Man, The Legend, Godsuya, Mansuya, Bro, Ani-Sama, Chad, xXx_NoobSlayer_xXx, but here people call him the Irregular at Magic High School. Enoughdelaying, let's jump straight into his Holiness' perfection. Story: 4 Aliens.jpeg BUT they're from another dimension. And they are magical! And telepathical! And they don't use CADs! And they don't die when they are killed! And one of them has the hots for Mansuya (can't blame it tbh). And they want to destroy the world. But they made one grave miscalculation - they forgot about the existence of God himself in human form. This could and does end only one way for these unfortunate visitors. But apart from those slimy tentacle aliens, other groups, such as the USNA, the Sages, some terrorist groups, some Chinese mafia, as well as Japan's own military forces and backstage crime families decided to throw their hats into the fray. Sadly for them, they dared step foot into the domain of the Man himself and got rightfully clapped into submission. Art: 4 No visual effects conceived and created by human beings can even try to represent the immeasurable perfection that is the existence of Mansuya! Sound: 4 The only sounds worthy of being associated with His Holiness are the sounds he himself makes when he educates the unwashed masses, as well as the lamentation of his defeated foes. Characters: 4 There is only One character worth mentioning in this Anime and He is written in the very title. But being the humble and gracious Master that He is, He allows the the existence of additional humans in his presence. So let's go through some of the disposable meat sacks that tag along. We have the big breasted megane girl that can see things, the spiritual guy that uses spirits, the big breasted twintail girl who thirsts over our Chad, the short haired kuudere that also secretly, most likely thirsts after Him, the redhead tomboy with medium breasts, the tall, muscular but brainless punching bag jock, the plethora of irrelevant walking CO2 factories, the majority of who also thirst for Godsuya, some black-eyes grandpa, some big breasted, big haired aunt, some blue eyed blond twintailed big breasted american exchange student, and, of course, the big breasted little sister. They one and only purpose in this anime is to contrast the ideal image of the gracious and wonderful Mansuya with their imperfections and mortality. Enjoyment: 8 Do you enjoy seeing one character literally stomp the ever-living hell out of his adversaries. Do you enjoy seeing a justified harem? Do you enjoy seeing God himself descend upon humanity and repair a 2000+ meter high building in a split second WITH HIS MIND? Do you enjoy long, made-up science jibberish being shoved down your ungrateful throat? Then you have made the right choice by picking this anime! Overall: 5 If this anime consisted of Tatsuya and Tatsuya only, the score would have been a perfect 10/10. Unfortunately, he is forced to mingle with a contingent of mortal rabble on a daily basis, who's only redeeming quality is being a stepping stone for Him!