Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

In the dawn of the 21st century, magic, long thought to be folklore and fairy tales, has become a systematized technology and is taught as a technical skill. In First High School, the institution for magicians, students are segregated into two groups based on their entrance exam scores: "Blooms," those who receive high scores, are assigned to the First Course, while "Weeds" are reserve students assigned to the Second Course.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei follows the siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba, who are enrolled in First High School. Upon taking the exam, the prodigious Miyuki is placed in the First Course, while Tatsuya is relegated to the Second Course. Though his practical test scores and status as a "Weed" show him to be magically inept, he possesses extraordinary technical knowledge, physical combat capabilities, and unique magic techniques—making Tatsuya the irregular at a magical high school.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shiba, Tatsuya Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Shiba, Miyuki Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Saegusa, Mayumi Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Chiba, Erika Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Kitayama, Shizuku Supporting

Tatsumi, Yuiko Japanese

Mitsui, Honoka Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Ichijou, Masaki Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Shibata, Mizuki Supporting

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Watanabe, Mari Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Yotsuba, Maya Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Kimura, Yasutaka Producer

Kashiwada, Shinichirou Producer

Reviews

Jul 15, 2025

MitsotakiShogun

Recommended

I should start with a disclaimer: I had rated this a 9 before, but rewatching it now I'm giving it an 8, which is still high. I don't think 8 would be an "objective" rating of the show, it's just what I'm rating it given my overall interests and given the fact that I can filter out what I don't care about.

What does it do well?
* OP MC: this is how you make one that isn't trash.
* Novelty: Relatively novel approach to established concepts ("magic as technology" is not new, but the way it's approached in the series is not exhausted either).
* Technicals: Animation is ... good-ish, sound is good-ish (I really like a few of the OPs/EDs), characters and designs are fine.
* Plot: it is good-ish, has interesting arcs that don't take too many or too few episodes, the progression makes sense to me, and keeps me interested enough so I can keep watching with ease.

What does it *not* do well?
* Exposition & dialogue. When 2 characters speak about something they both know, don't make them tell each other just so we can hear it! There are many other ways to do this! Simple? Introduce a third character and explain it to them. Simplest? Just straight up add a narrator. Leveraging the plot? If you have a tournament of some sort, have the referee / organizer introduce the rules before the start. Masterfully? Make it so obvious people can understand just from watching it.
* Harem: Clearly lots of characters appear, but they neither get shot down, nor get any spotlight or even remotely visible chance. I don't like harem themes anyway, but if you're going to be introducing so many characters like that in the first place for no apparent reason, why bother in the first place? Well, at least it's not too much or too annoying.
* Magic / technology: Badly explained or just bad.
* Technicals: Plenty of bad CGI, thankfully mostly for background, less-noticeable stuff. Some background music felt really out of place.
* Plot: Some *extremely convenient* stuff happen in the span of just 2-3 episodes, which wouldn't be completely terrible on its own, but the fact that the always-suspicious 500-IQ stupidly-OP MC doesn't even question the convenience of all these occurrences is criminal.
* Incest: Nothing happened yet (this isn't OreImo), and I have learned to filter out what I don't care about, but if these things bother you, you'll probably find this a bit off-putting. I don't remember if it gets better/worse in the next seasons.

I'd probably give this a 6-7 it I weren't a sucker for these types of stories, but I most certainly am, and if you're here you know what you are too, so yes, this is a recommended watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 16, 2025

RemanTheArchean

Mixed Feelings

ChatGPT told me I should love this show based on my past preferences (its reasoning is here: https://chatgpt.com/share/6897894e-9288-8006-9088-e25d6b2f9c63), and to its credit this show *does* have many things I typically enjoy: A non-whiny OP protagonist that hides his power level, a serial (non-episodic) structure with political machinations, cute girls fawning over the MC, and mystery elements. All of that is great in theory, but the execution is lacking somewhat.

One of my biggest issues was that I had a difficult time understanding WTF was going on. I could understand the basic gist well enough: for each arc the show starts in a school setting, but ... something isn't right. Terrorists are plotting something! Eventually there's a direct clash which the good guys inevitably win.

But beyond that surface-level understanding, it was quite hard for me to tell why things were unfolding they way they were. I think this was due to a number of factors:
1. The story starts in medias res with minimal explanation of what happened previously.
2. The show is partially a mystery-thriller that wants to keep its cards close to its chest.
3. This was sourced from an LN, which probably means they're racing through details at a breakneck speed.
4. I found it very hard to keep the characters straight, since they mostly have the same darkish hair and are wearing similar school uniforms. Also, there's simply too many of them.
5. The show is just bad at explaining things.

I was desperate for a few scenes that would explain some things like the motivations of the villains (beyond simply "they want our awesome tech). Instead, the show devoted lengthy sequences to exposition dumps about the minutiae of fictional technology of this world. Something like this is always going to be a tough sell, but it could be worthwhile if those details are plot-relevant to an interesting meta-mystery. However, it didn't seem like that's the case, rather it seems that the writer wanted to gush about this stuff since they thought this world's lore was interesting in it's own right. It... really wasn't.

With its mediocre execution, I was done with this show after 1 season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 12, 2025

TryingT0L1ve

Not Recommended

Alright, let’s be honest: this anime has absolutely nothing unique about it. There’s really no reason for anyone to watch it, unless it’s literally your first anime ever—then maybe you’ll enjoy it.

Let’s start with the general idea: the anime is about a protagonist who’s basically the strongest at everything. He never loses, and it all feels extremely forced, like a child writing the plot. It’s basically: “Hmm, let me create an insanely overpowered character who got misjudged during evaluations, haha, I’m a genius.” Even the whole discrimination theme feels incredibly forced and illogical—it makes no sense most of the time.

The only somewhat decent aspect is ... the futuristic setting, with things like a third world war having happened. But even that is nothing that any person couldn’t come up with.

Now, about the characters: they are painfully cliché. You don’t really feel any unique or memorable personality from any of them. It’s either extremely predictable and shallow or just a generic copy of characters you’ve already seen a hundred times before.

As for the soundtrack—it didn’t impress me at all. Usually, I don’t even care much about soundtracks; either it’s amazing, or I just ignore it. In this case, I simply ignored it.

The animation? Completely standard. I don’t put much weight into animation quality because I focus more on the story itself. But still, it’s nothing new or impressive—it’s just the usual, generic anime style.

Now, the pacing and progression: this is one of the anime’s biggest issues. NOTHING RELEVANT EVER HAPPENS. It’s so fixated on the “I’m the strongest” thing that there’s no real story. Nothing progresses. It’s honestly bizarre how bad it is. You might expect that because the anime is fairly short, it would dive deeper into the story or character development—but no. I promise you, almost nothing actually happens. Since the protagonist doesn’t evolve at all, every “difference” is just him explaining what he did, showing it again in slow motion, or someone finally noticing. But none of that shows any real progression. You could easily fit the entire anime into one episode.

Also, it’s worth mentioning the uncomfortable "forced romance" between the protagonist and his sister. It gets slightly less creepy later on, but since it’s never properly explained, it’s just disturbing to watch.

In the end: this anime has a plot that’s, let’s say, “decent” at best, but still feels extremely childish—like something a 7-year-old could come up with. The entire show is so silly that a child could explain the full plot in five minutes. I know I might sound a bit harsh, but imagine I told you there’s an anime that fails at absolutely everything it tries to do—where literally ANY OTHER ANIME you pick will have something better. An anime that no one will ever list as their favorite. And yet, you’re still sitting there watching it. There’s simply no reason in the world to waste time on this anime. Honestly, I’d even say that Dragon Ball Evolution offers more fun or relatable moments than this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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