This is one of those shows that I would like to write my opinion and review on, mostly because I really wanted to like the show and its premise, and I do enjoy seeing Gary Stu-type characters more than Mary Sue-type characters because of one reason: Gary Stus have a goal. And in the first season, one could argue Tatsuya's goal was to make the world a better place by the integration of magic into non-military affairs. In the second season... well, the second season is a drop in terms of quality, music and plot, all of the things that made the first season somewhat
...
decent to me.
Story: It's about a bunch of parasites that somehow made their way over to Japan and were created by an experiment gone awry, as well as a young agent of the USNA's Stars special forces who is completely incapable of doing any spycraft and whose pseudonym is too on-the-nose for it to be an actual cover for a high school girl with strategic-class magic. It was really nonsensical and steered so far away from the first season that, if this season were named anything other than The Irregular at Magic High School, it'd fall through a black hole itself without the previous season's charm. They do attempt to explain their magic system somewhat, like where energy comes from, so that's at least a point up.
The "discrimination" parts seemed about as shoehorned into this show as they were in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Magic was shown to be an overall net positive for humanity, especially given the first season's introduction and the entire Yokohama arc that featured using magic for nuclear fusion. Thusly, the whole "anti-magic" story bits were forced in to perform some kind of virtue signalling when there was no room for it in the topic it tried to signal in.
Art: good and at least somewhat appealing, which is mostly thanks to the established lore of the first season. I noticed there were a few odd animation style switches here and there which is a pretty bad mistake to make.
Sound: the memorable and catchy tracks from the first season are completely gone. I don't remember a single track they used during the episodes themselves. It felt like they tried too hard to mix rap with electronic music, the result of which was absolute horror. At least the few tracks that had rap music were used smarter in the first season, with only their best parts included which truly made for some memorable scenes. Oh, and voiceovers and ability sounds were good, just that the overall score, in my opinion, suffers because of the lack of memorable music.
Characters: Oh boy. Oh, dear Lord I hated so many characters in this. Miyuki is the same annoying brat who thinks incest is a good thing and she just needs to stop breathing, right now. I hated her from the very beginning of the series, and I hate her even more now. Even more so now that for some reason she also has locked powers. And Miyuki is even more irrational and irresponsible in this than in the previous season as she dumps Honoka at one point when there was a real danger in the school, one which Honoka has nothing to protect herself against. Every single time there was an incestuous scene between Tatsuya and Miyuki, I had to skip it. I can't take it. I'm not going to sit here, watch this show and pretend as if it's "fun and wholesome" when it's nothing more than an actively abusive relationship where Miyuki seems to hold a Stockholm syndrome-affected Tatsuya to herself.
Honoka felt like she was shoehorned in to provide some "competition" for Miyuki, but anyone with half a brain knows that the writers would not dare strip Miyuki away from Tatsuya for even a few scenes that involve other characters.
Erika was more or less the same tease as before, so that was fine by me. I lamented how little there was of Tatsuya and Leo teaming up together, especially because I liked Leo as a character, what little there was of him, in the previous season. Mikihiko seemed to receive an upgrade in his powers and Mizuki also saw her ability to see things others can't used more, so that was a plus.
Mayumi Saegusa was my favorite pick for Tatsuya's sidekick / love interest. She was shown to be very powerful, possibly on par with Miyuki, she showed genuine interest in him, she was kind enough to him and even cooperated on a lot of things with him. The fact that the show, during the first season, even suggested Tatsuya should marry with Mayumi was a positive for me. Alas, that's me lamenting how the second season is so much worse than anything because here, Mayumi is downgraded into an envious, hate-filled airhead who seems really unstable and bipolar, going so far as to actively wanting to cause as much dissatisfaction towards Tatsuya as possible, which is a huge disconnect for her character between season 1 and the standalone 2017 movie.
And then there's Tatsuya itself. Oh boy, how they downgraded my boy in terms of strategy, intellect and initiative. The biggest plot hole by far is Tatsuya just not using Gram Demolition every two seconds to solve his problems, and given that Gram Demolition is one of his signature moves, alongside Regrowth, Flash Cast and Material Burst, that meant that every fight scene was too tacky to even enjoy due to the plot downgrading the star Gary Stu of the show, except the two times he actually took on Angelina Shields. Unlike in the first season where he actively was able to team up with others, this season forced Tatsuya to say no with everyone just so we could see more abusive incest between him and Miyuki.
Enjoyment: I was forced to skip a whole lot more scenes in this than in the previous season. I can't stand cringe, incestuous, nonsensical or poor plot moments and that's saying something when a season that's half the length of the previous one forces me to skip four to five times more. I hated every eye candy scene, they made no sense and, in my eyes, served purely to distract viewers from the poor writing. I was quite possibly mentally suffering by the end of this season, it was just that bad.
Overall: Spare yourselves the agony. Watch the first season, skip incest scenes, and don't watch the second season whatsoever. You'll find greater enjoyment there than you would here.
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May 4, 2021
This is one of those shows that I would like to write my opinion and review on, mostly because I really wanted to like the show and its premise, and I do enjoy seeing Gary Stu-type characters more than Mary Sue-type characters because of one reason: Gary Stus have a goal. And in the first season, one could argue Tatsuya's goal was to make the world a better place by the integration of magic into non-military affairs. In the second season... well, the second season is a drop in terms of quality, music and plot, all of the things that made the first season somewhat
...
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