Manga 34127 Mahouka Koukou No Rettousei

I started off watching the first season of The Irregular at Magic High School and was absolutely blown away. Alternate universe? "Scientific magic"? Political themes dealing with the military and espionage? Unstoppable main character? The show had everything I wanted, and I craved for more.

I'm happy to tell others that enjoyed the series as much as I did that the light novel series is even better. This was my first entry into the world of light novels, and it was great.

Story:
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the series, Irregular does a great job at portraying the vast relationships in a world that takes place ... decades after a hypothetical World War 3, in which powerful magic technology was used.

Where Irregular shines particularly is in its worldbuilding. For those interested in modern conflicts, the series will certainly interest you. From dealings with the mafia and JSDF, to combating a new Soviet Union and China, the series tackles many different sides of the world.

In this world lies our two siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki. Do you like overpowered characters? These are some of the most overpowered characters you'll get. With power comes great responsibility, and we'll be seeing how various challenges present themselves to them. As a reader, we are confident that they can overcome anything that gets thrown at them; the enjoyment comes from seeing how they do that. At the same time, we journey alongside them as they explore not only a hostile world, but also their own "sibling" relationship.

There are a few faults, however. One of the most glaring ones is the dragging out of plot lines. While the beginning was more quick and fast paced, it faltered out particularly towards the final volumes. It is obvious that Tsutomu Satou, the light novel's author, is inexperienced in his writing. There is also a generous amount of "technobabble". There are complex explanations given for different magic theories and spells that can take up pages of text. I didn't mind it too much, but others may be dissuaded by it.

The series has been accused of being a hotbed of Japanese right-wing nationalism. While I won't go in depth to that, I will say that the setting takes place in an incredibly hostile world with a human population that's less than half the population in our real world. It is no surprise that nationalism would be present in this series.

That being said, I was still entertained and engulfed in the world he created.

Art:
Kana Ishida did a good job with the art. It got the job done and portrayed key events in each volume well. Reading volume by volume, you will also see how Ishida's art improves and evolves. By the time we get to Volume 32, her art is miles better than the art from Volume 1. It was quite pleasant to see this advancement.

Character:
The Irregular mentioned in the title, Tatsuya Shiba, also nicknamed Godsuya. He is by far the most overpowered character in the series. He is not only physically strong but also extremely intelligent. His emotional growth is stunted due to circumstances explained in the novel, but we see him progress as a character through the series.

The second one of the siblings is Miyuki Shiba. She is, in short, a "brocon". Her own character centers around Tatsuya, so I do feel like her character growth is diminished in some ways, but she can certainly stand on her own as well.

The relationships between the siblings are a topic of contention in the series as well as the fanbase. I won't give spoilers, but I personally really enjoyed seeing how their relationship grew throughout the series.

Don't expect fleshed out side characters however. While they do get attention, some more than others, the main focus is centered on the pair of siblings.

Overall Enjoyment:
The Irregular at Magic High School proves itself to be a classic in the light novel medium. From its engaging storyline to its action packed fight scenes, the series never fails to keep you entertained. There is just "badassery" all around.

All hail Godsuya.

This is my first review and english is not my first language, so it will be filled with grammatical errors and I really don't care, improving my english is one of the main reasons I'm on this site.

As someone who has read the Light Novel AND watched the anime of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, or simply Mahouka, I couldn't help but notice the enormous disparity in quality between the two...

You see, this IS a good story, the characters ARE interesting and most of their aspects and reasons are properly explained... at least when talking about the light novel (LN), because almost nothing that makes ... the LN good was brought to the animation.

People's main complaints about this show:

- "THE MC IS TOO OP"

Yes he is... So? I don't see series like OPM getting the same hate and the reason is simple: Having an overpowered main character is not a problem in itself, it depends on how it's handled.
In the LN, his power, lack of emotions and great attachment to his sister are explained pretty well, which unfortunately wasn't done in the animation...

- "THERE IS INCEST"

Not exactly, it's pretty freaking obvious that his sister (Miyuki) loves him as member of the opposite sex, but it's never goes beyond this. But in all sincerity, who the fuck cares? There is absolutely no reason to hate this taboo. A bigger issue for me would be the fact her entire character is defined by obsession with her brother or her otherworldly beauty (even though she looks as beautiful as any of the other girls in the show)

- "THEY ARE HIGH SCHOOLERS BUT ARE STRONGER THAN THE ADULTS"

In Mahouka's world, magicians aren't just people capable of wielding power (like other crappy shows) they are pretty much like nobility, almost all of them are descendants of families which are given special privilegies in exchange for defending their country against external threats (the japanese at least). In other words, they aren't just your average animu teenagers getting involved in trouble for no good reason, they have responsibilities, they are supposed to grow up faster than normal people. Also, most of their foes were non-magicians so it is understandable.

- " TATSUYA IS A SHALLOW CHARACTER, HE NEVER SHOWS ANY EMOTIONS, SO BORING"

Whenever I read stuff like that in the forums I would feel a bit embarassed... you see, Tatsuya is , in my opinion, one of the most interesting anime characters I have ever seen. There IS a reason for his eternal deadpan face , but the anime never explained it so... meh

"THE BAD GUYS ARE ALWAYS FOREIGNERS, THIS SHIT IS XENOPHOBIC"

You got me there, it's true, the author seems to be very nationalistic, the japanese are always portrayed as the good guys with superior technology and military power who are constantly being attacked by groups of foreigners (chinese) or having to take care of problems caused by others (americans)

All in all, Mahouka is not for everyone, if you hate watching OP protagonists because it makes everything predictable (even though stuff like shounen are also predictable as fuck and people don't complain as often about it) then it's not for you. If you hate incest (even if it never really goes any further than verbal exchange), it's not for you. If you detest the good and old high school stuff, then it's not for you.

However, if you like a strong protagonists with nerves of steel ( and ordinary looks) capable of turning his enemies into dust and recovering from fatal attacks in less than 1 second, while everything is explained detail by detail by a complex system behind all the magic stuff, making it seem more like sci fi than fantasy...
Then it's definitely for you

SPOILERS
One last thing: From my point of view, Mahouka is not about the fights nor is it about a silly fantasy setting with focus on wish fulfillment (magic), it's about political struggle and social turmoil... It's about a guy born and raised to be a human weapon. It's about a guy who was treated like shit his entire life and feared for being a monster with enough power to destroy the world.

It's not about "hey look how cool I am" and "getting all the girls" (most girls here have their own romantic interests), it's about being incapable of living a proper life and having to fight for a world where magic and magicians are not viewed as merely tools of war.
Tatsuya is the embodiment of everything magic represents in his world (even though he is the irregular) and has to bear all of it's consequences, both positive and negative.

This is just a fair warning for anyone who want to read this LN it will get into a full harem from 0 to 100 in a single volume at vol 10 which goes on for another 17 volumes.(27 volumes of lightnovels total atm)

It does have themes like incest, heavy female abuse on males and blunt xenophobia in it.

It was an okaaayish read until vol 10 where it suddenly went into a whole other direction. You can also ignore my chapters read, because I certainly will not took out the LN's and count them.

If the writer had a discussion with his editor and stuff(which I ... assume) after vol 8 it did went this way:

1. Hey, we don't sell as much as before, any ideas?
2. How about we include vampires, everyone likes them! And a Harem, everyone likes that too!
3. Yeah best idea ever! I'll write it into it somehow.
4. How about androids on top of it?
1. Nah they're boring!
2. How about an android which is infected by an alien parasite which makes them fall in love with the MC.
3. WoW I never thought about that I'll write them into.
1. I heard that this show called Fate/Zero prints money like mad, especially because of that Saber gal.
3. NP I'll write her into it.
2. But you need to make her fall for the MC instantly! And she needs to be op!
3. Already done!
1. And didn't we have that loli girl Honoko which had like 10 pages total in 8 novels?
2. Everyone loves lolis! Make her another harem member!
3. Totally included.
1,2,4 Profit!




Volume 1-7 is mostly about an overpowered MC(Tatsuya) which needs to hide his true powers because of certain circumstances in his family tree while at the same time protecting his sister(Miyuki).

Both those siblings are completing overpowered, they could even start a WW on their own and Miyuki has a huge crush on her brother since a certain event in the past which is only explained in Volume 8 of the LN.

Before that point neither the male MC nor the female MC had any charbuilding or backstory. In fact the 8 volume is the only time you'll ever get to know anything about both MC's in 27 novels.(ongoing)

The whole novel suffers a lot because of an female cast of over 30(midway~vol14) and way more(I did stop counting at some point while reading).

The (female)cast is just way too huge.
Even if you would cut it by 50% you wouldn't remember half of them because they only get a few pages per book. At the same time you have a male cast of 4(if you're generous and do count masaki in it 5) which are more or less for domestic abuse against males "jokes"(leo/erica) or just side characters noone cares about.

On top of it you have a female stalker(Honoka) which sexually haresses the male mc every few pages after volume 10 while she got already rejected. No one cares about that while a certain male sidecharacter(Leo) gets constantly kicked/punched unconscious by his female crush(Erica) if he only looks slighty at another female.




You ask why I still read it till vol 27? That's because the actual mainstory is not bad at all it just get drowned with all that harem nonsense later on.

If you remove the spell explansions which sometimes go on for 3-6 pages just to conclude that the spell is a black hole, counterspell etc. and the harem bs the whole mainstory of 27 volumes could be told in 3-4 volumes.