Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei

I loved Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, I gave it an 8/10! But this show, Yuutousei, does not live up to its predecessor whatsoever. The premise of this show is that it takes the exact same events from Rettousei, dumbs them down, and adds more incest. The best part about Yuutousei, in my opinion, is the sound design, not really a great compliment in perspective of my other ratings since this is a TV series and not a CD. The art is good, but the characters seem flat and one dimensional. This show is a hollow shell of Rettousei with all the goodie scooped out. Yuutousei ... feels like it exists solely to pander to your nostalgia of Rettousei and has barely any story of its own. I would only recommend you watch Yuutousei if you REALLY like the original Rettousei story and want another perspective, although not a very engaging one.

First of all, let me foreword by saying that I'm one of those people who loved the main series, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. In spite of it, I can't say the same for the spin-off, Mahouka Koukou no Yuutosei. It may take the same general events from the original series, but it tells them in a way that disappoints me. Many important scenes are shortened down, and a lot of details aren't fully explained, leaving viewers who didn't watch the original confused. A good alternate perspective story shouldn't have to rely on the main series to do most of the world building for it, that's ... downright lazy. Even if it were to do that, it should then not dwell on scenes that are already demonstrated in the original with some sort of impact. Take for example (SOMEWHAT MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD) the speech Saegusa senpai gives regarding the discrimination between weeds and blooms. It goes from a full 10 minute speech, more or less, to a 4 minute summary with only a single key point. (END OF SPOILERS) The show, being an alternate perspective, should emphasize on the other character's thoughts and views, which was actually done pretty well in one episode, just the one.

All in all, Yuutosei lacks a lot of traits required of an alternate perspective and I wouldn't recommend to people new to the series. For people who've seen Rettousei, though, I may ask you to consider giving it a watch. I've yet to see most of the show and it seems based on the opening that the main highlight is meant to be the Nine Schools Competition arc. I'll update my review accordingly once I've seen it.

Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei (2021)

First off, if you have not seen the first season of the parent show then do not watch this until you have done so unless you are open-minded. Going into this various people jumped on the 'its a new season then slated the show for being confusing since the story is already well established. This is because it is a spin-off, not the parent story. It does a marvellous job of filling in masses of gaps in the main show to bring us to the end of the first season and slightly beyond.

The art of the show is a slightly ... more... romantic style than the first main season in that it is more user friendly and less serious in a way. It is supposed to show the cuter side because it is from Miyuki's point of view is that she is less stern and proper mostly.

The soundtrack is good but nothing too amazing. It holds the same sound as before but just feels a bit recycled with the SFX. At the same time, it fits perfectly since it is filling gaps in something that already happened.

The characters are ALL established, they have all been covered before and thus development does happen but not from scratch since we know everyone already. Well, we know the ones we care about.

For me the show is a great addition overall, I did wonder if it was really needed rather than continuing the story since most stories are not usually told in 100% detail. It feels slightly like a rehash of the show before. I would say Miyuki as a character is amazing. You also get some real information, you can actually understand the organisation Blanche with how scary those with magic doing as they please must seem to normal people.

Overall, it is a very good show, but I honestly would have preferred the show to have just continued than have this.

8/10. Mayumi is the best girl still.

Generally the show is truly a "spin-off" of the first season. Light hearted and focused more towards Miyuki's thoughts and her group of friends.

This is an underrated anime. You MUST watch the first season first or at least read the Yuutousei manga before watching as it is not a standalone anime. It is not part of the main timeline series.

Spinoff Definition: a spin-off (or spinoff) is a radio program, television program, film, video game or any narrative work, derived from already existing works that focus on more details and different aspects from the original work (e.g. particular topics, characters or events)

I'm not the biggest fan of the mahouka, and to be blunt, I enjoyed this less than the parent story. It definitely wasn't the worse thing in the world, but it isn't good.

The story goes through the enrolment arc and the 9 schools competition arc, mainly through the perspectives of characters such as Miyuki, Honoka, Shizuku and new characters from third highschool. However we barley got to see any other characters, no erika, leo or mizuki. But this is a spin-off thats specifically not about those guys, so i'll let it slide.

These new characters; for example Airi, were basically all the same character. Over confident ... and sure they wouldn't loose. I assume you know what happens when they go against chadsuya's sister.

These new characters, while new to the story, really did not add much to the story. It basically just became a 13 episode recap. It also became repetitive seeing the same characterisation occurring throughout the last half of the season, where a character looses and we see their pain.

The art style and animation as expected of a spin-off would be of lower quality, however it wasn't bad. It was acceptable and wasn't problematic.

While it may sound harsh, I wouldn't say I got bored while watching the show. It's just that I couldn't care less what happened.

*Spoiler warning!*

Story/Plot 7/10 - In the 4 episodes I've seen, the plot is pretty well-paced. Compared to the manga it adapts around half of one volume per episode, and it doesn't really leave out any important parts. (It does alter some parts though, so that might bother some people.) While Miyuki is the main character in this anime, the 2 most recent episodes have seemed to focus more on Shizuku and Honoka. We also get to see many new scenes that weren't in the Irregular at Magic high school. (Because this is Miyuki's pov obviously.) This is actually pretty enjoyable for a spin-off anime, but ... I did get second-hand embarrassment having to watch the first and seconds episodes. (Cause they had to become friends with everyone again and stuff.)

Art/Animation 6/10 - The art isn't bad per say. It's just new and very different from the Irregular at Magic high school. I get this is a shoujo and all, and there isn't AS much fighting, but it's still taking some getting used to. I don't hate it, but it's not as good as the other art style. (In my opinion!)

Characters/Personalities 7/10 - Their personalities haven't really changed sense the other anime, because it takes place during the same time and all. But, I feel like we get more reflection on Miyuki's feelings. We see her kind of compare herself to other people, it's very different from how we see her in Tatsuya's perspective, but I feel like it makes her character more interesting. (It makes sense though, Miyuki openly tries to hide stuff like that from Tatsuya, she probably doesn't want him to worry about stuff like that. Which, it totally understandable because it's Miyuki.)

Enjoyment/Overall 7/10 - While I still enjoyed the original series more, this is definitely still super enjoyable! I feel like anyone that enjoyed the original series will enjoy this, especially if you like seeing certain side-characters more, and want to see Miyuki even more than in the original anime! :3

There isn't much that needs to be said here. As a stand alone anime, if the second episode is an indication of how the story is going to be structured then I cannot recommend this to anyone other than diehard fans of the original.

The first season of Mahouka is REQUIRED to understand the events and resolutions in the second episode, but if you have seen the original then all this does is give a bit more context to what some of the minor characters were thinking and doing while the plot played out.

Because of this, the story and characters take major hits, but Studio ... Connect is doing a fantastic job catching the aesthetics that Madhouse brought in the animation department. I honestly didn't even realize the studio was different, so art and sound pull this up higher than it deserves to be.

Sadly the third and fourth episodes do little to alleviate this. While they do focus more on events pertaining to this series, the key inciting incident that the story revolves around currently was never shown and only talked about.

That's also not to mention how the opening portrays a much different story than what is actually being covered. The opening shows a whole host of extra-curricular activities unique to the setting and the main cast in their chosen sport competing against friend and rival, a bunch of which are not even in the show yet. So, at one third through the runtime for the season, I don't see how the pacing for these new characters' introductions and development will be done in a satisfying manner.

If you're unsure about wanting to watch this, or want to get into the Mahouka franchise, turn back now. IF you love everything Mahouka, or just want to watch girls walking around in school uniforms so magical they are perpetually conforming perfectly to the girls' butts, I wish you well.

this "Season" is HUGE SHAME on the series that i wish i did not know about, and here is why;

The art is just so bad to the point i want to look away, they even forget to draw some details and even if they do it looked bad.

The animation is HORRIFIC to the point it cased my eyes to bleed, some scenes are animated with like 3 badly dawn frames.

story was so poor and filled with boring clichés, (the "good girl" gets ahead then the "bad girl" catches up but then we get a flashback about the "good girl" which makes her ... stronger and then dominate to win).

The only good thing is the OSTs which is the only thing they actually took from the original series, and the only (higher than 5) rate that i'm gonna give this "Anime"

i really wish i didnt know about this bs

This is a very poor quality retelling of the first arc of the main series as experienced by some of the side characters. It is incomplete and is most likely confusing to any who have not seen the original. The dialogue is inane and there are a lot of extra cringy incestual moments thrown in for some kind of measure.....

The animation varies greatly from frame to frame and while the character designs are mostly the same from the original the only change that happens is some extreme degradation of quality in motion. Janky running animations and odd stretch effects during pivots of characters are just ... the beginning of the bad.

It is not the worst show I've seen but it is close....

I cannot talk about this series without mentioning the original Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei because there is no connective plot to events that happen. This is basically a behind the scenes look at a few side characters. It doesn't explain what is going on, or why and jumps between scenes like you should know what is already happening while adding a bit of an alternate perspective and leaving out the main plot.

That is one of it's biggest flaws in that by showing other characters doing things outside of Tatsuya's umbrella, the story is changed. You can't watch this spin off if you haven't seen ... the original, and yet watching it is unsatisfying because they altered the story you've come to know in whatever way lets the character you are following do something. Characters just know things that had to be discovered before and instead of explaining that knowledge, throw it out as one liners.

They also change the way characters behave while changing the plot. Tatsuya is barely present, so when seeing him through the lens this show provides, it makes him much less likeable. Miyuki on the other hand does something other than get jealous and cling to her brother and becomes a better character with agency. Their dynamic feels very different though. Before he felt almost like a parent in charge who she needed to ask permission from to do anything (needless to say I didn't like her before). Now she feels more like an equal but fails in the bodyguarding, protective relationship with Tatsuya. This makes her a more realistic person and yet he feels superfluous. She seems perfectly capable of dealing with her own problems, and spends very little time with her brother in this version. And yet for some reason she is still obsessed with him and wants to be subservient to him... I think this is a cultural thing because I don't get it.

Honoka, Shizuku and Eimi (who didn't exist before the nine schools competition or after it) turn into more central characters. They become what is supposed to be friends/admirers of Miyuki and through her Tatsuya. Though narratively the distance from Tatsuya makes every female's obsession with him just weird and not understandable. So they've talked once and now feel the need to bring about justice for him by stalking bad guys? I'm sorry what? The group of course 2 students don't exist and aren't friends with any of them. When Tatsuya was the focus it felt like both groups blended into one large friend group instead of him being the only link between the two. like they don't know the others exist.

They have also added some completely new characters that didn't exist before to Third High at the Nine Schools competition. It gives the girls some rivalry as well so Tatsuya and Ichijou aren't the only ones with competition. Though they feel like generic, I'm better than you snobs because my family name is _____.

Overall I would say I'm happy they realized they gave the female characters nothing in the original and want to change that, but I wish they had realized it sooner and strung it into the main series or told a full story with this one. At least the pacing is fast (because they cut out the main plot). It is disappointing to watch how disjointed this feels as a complete show. I'll probably keep watching to see if anything worthwhile is added to the story, but from what I've seen so far, this wasn't needed. Even if you liked Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, you don't need to bother, you aren't missing anything.

Ok so this anime is eh. Lemme explain, imma just make this short.

So this anime is basically a recap, all they did was add characters and add to the character development. It's fundamentally flawed, we know exactly what's gonna happen, and unlike other prequel/spinoff anime, that give more exposition or backstory, this doesn't do that.

Sure it gives us new characters, but you can't really root for them, because in the original story, they were nobodies. Slap some overdramatic characters with a op character (that we know will lose), you get this show.

The only redeeming quality is the growth of existing characters and how ... their relationships were built. Also fanservice ;) They did a good job in the pacing, action and music, but like I said, it's just hard to enjoy this show.

Not sure why all the hate.

I just binge watched Season 1 and Season 2, the movie, and now am up to finishing episode 10 of this series.

So far, yes it's a lighter tone in general, the focus is on different characters. I did notice watching the original 2 seasons that it felt like some of the "bloom" characters were a bit out of the blue. Honoka got more fleshed out in season 2, but some of the others just seemed to be "there" with little to no introduction. This season gives us that introduction. The focus is often more on events ... happening parallel to the main story. Also showing the matches that weren't shown in the original, with people having like 1 qualifying match and then a final, instead of quarter and semi finals etc. This shows those out, along with the female opponents instead of just the 2 male ones, and shows that the other 8 schools aren't just super pale imitations of First High. Also a few matches were dug into further in depth and/or the thought perspective watching it was different.

My man complaint is that they seem to be trying to shoe-horn in shots of the sister in bra and panties into long scanning shots in every episode .. at LEAST once an episode. It's to the point where it's become cringey.

It's not a "super awesome" show, but it's a good addition to the original and a bit of a nicer light hearted watch after the seriousness of the original.

Curb your expectations

Bad animation? Check
Cringey characters? Check
Inconsistent plot? Check
EXTRA brocon? Check

I'm kinda pissed. I was looking forward to some more Mahouka. But this ain't 8-bit and it CERTAINLY ain't Madhouse. The faces being wrong wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't get them right half the time, oftentimes in the same shot.

The real problem I have with this is it covers events that happened in season 1, but with added cringe. Like, imagine a high school anime where all of the characters actually act like high schoolers. *shudders* The events not only happen not the way they actually happened, but the extra events happen ... completely out of character. I feel like I'm missing something here. Is this someone's dream of the way events went?

I won't tell anyone not to watch it. If you planned to watch it, you're going to at least try it. But set the bar LOW, and maybe you won't find yourself as disappointed of the beginning as I am. Lots of fast forward got me through episodes 2 & 3. Episode 4 ACTAULLY covered unseen events, and the last half had a scene that I hoped the entire anime would be like. Still, even if the rest of the anime covers unique events, diehard fans may find it difficult to suffer through the first few episodes.

You can take this as a something similar to a "What if" route.

(Alt) Story circled around sub characters instead of the main Tatsuya with a little more focus onto Miyuki. Sub character taking on a role of "What if", eg: "What if Honoka was charmed by Miyuki first?"

Also, You can expect HUGE contents of fan service from them. By reviewing their previous project they took on.

--- I strongly recommended this series to those who enjoy re-watching the whole series but wanted some supplementary or a side dish. Yuutousei as a spin-off anime will do great. ---

First of all, it was mainly processed by a different ... sub studio for story(alternate), drawings, animations and such. But, I really hope they will just put a stop there, what I meant is refrain from putting them in charge of the parent story. However, I think sub studio has done very well for making a comedy circumstances of the series. It was a great practice done by this sub studio.

Overall, 6/10. The reason of not a whole redraw animation itself I can give 5 pts. Same event and background are totally fine for a "What if" route. Additionally of extra 1pt gone to a reason that you need to watch the PARENT STORY to understand the sudden intensive seduction from Mayumi.

Lastly, the whole event occurs at the different timeline with same setting and environment. Again, I strongly recommended this series to those who enjoy re-watching the whole series but wanted some supplementary or a side dish. As a spin off anime will do great.

I'm a huge fan of the mahouka series and loved each installment.....until yuutousei.All I gotta say is that I couldn't even finish the first episode because I cringed every time I saw how the butchered tatsuya.They made him so fucking ugly.He looks a dead frog the fucking thing!I had to cough every time I looked at his face.His charm is fucking gone,man.Looking at him felt like passing a kidneystone the size of an elephant.It was absolutely painful.Sure,miyuki looked much more appealing,but what's the point of watching this if the reason I started the series is reduced to nothing but a shadow of his former self.If ... this artstyle persists in future installments, I'm dropping the series.

The Honor Student at Magic High School is a surprisingly alright anime. It is supposed to retell the story of The Irregular at Magic High Schoool but does a great job at not repeating the exact same thing and actually manages to add quite a bit to the story.

The story is the exact same as in The Irregular at Magic High School and you need to watch that anime before watching this one since otherwise nothing that is happening will make much sense. Especially in the first five episodes, the anime suffers from awful pacing jumping from event to event and skipping anything already ... discussed in Irregular at Magic High School. From episode six onwards however this anime starts being solely about the nine schools competition. It introduces a cast of characters from 3rd high school and starts retelling the nine schools competition with more detail and interesting opponents. There is a bit of fanservice as well but it's clearly not the main focus of the anime.

The characters are all female characters of significance of the Irregular at Magic High School minus Erika and Mizuki. Along with Miyuki characters that receive way more attention this time are Shizuku, Honoka and Eimi. Four characters from Third high school are also introduced and play a supporting role in the anime. They are all interesting enough and have personality. Ichijou's personality is changed to serve as comedic relief but he rarely shows up so it doesn't impact the story a lot.

The animation and voice acting are both good. The sound was surprisingly good and the music adds to the anime and makes it more enjoyable to watch.

Overall The Honor Student at Magic High School is a good retelling that avoids repeating the main anime and instead carves out its own story. Even though the first half suffers from poor pacing the anime makes up for it in the second half. It introduces interesting new characters and has good animation and great sound. Overall it's likely you'll enjoy this anime if you liked the Irregular at Magic High School, unless your reason for watching that was Tatsuya.

This anime is terrible by any means; though not good either. The story is watered down and is missing some key scenes for context, but there is some new scenes that help a bit with the original story and gives more character development to the main character of this anime. The sound the best part of this anime with the musical choice fits right in with the current action that's going on. The art is decent as well but it seems to have some blurriness with the picture quality (might just be me). The only problems I really have is that the upped the ... incest bits which I am not very fond of. This also feels very fanservicey (but if you like that good for you I guess) since the OP and ED reflect this sentiment. Speaking of the OP/ED they're pretty good music wise but as I stated earlier tend to feature the fanservice as the overall themes in them (especially the ending theme). Overall, don't watch this without watching the original.

The parent story is required to understand this anime, suffice to say with that said this is, by far the most pointless and inferior version of that story. So much recounting of the boring side of the story, with pointless information that isn't prevalent in the slightest. Miyuki is powerful and it could be interesting if they gave some kind of new insight into her family or things she did that were interesting behind the scenes; all this does is show the better story from side characters points of views and makes it almost unbearable to watch. The anime is undoubtedly beautiful and the story ... is good, but why not just get more seasons of the superior anime rather than this boring pointless drivel.
At the VERY least they could give us some insights into the fights that do occur and show off the abilities of some of the other classmates and give them some opportunities to show off their capabilities, but no. Boring recounting of a better story from a point of view that is SO boring I have to fast-forward to get through literally every single episode.

if you hate or uncomfortable with such things like bro-con/inc3st/sweet home Alabama or cringe fan service, don't watch this. Especially if you haven't watched the previous season.

it would've been okay if the female lead (Miyuki) only love her brother like a siblings type of love, but it's way more than that, on the first episode she had a thoughts of wanting to kiss and seduce her brother.

the character design and the whole art style is average, nothing special, just like one of those anime where the female lead (which in here is muyuki) is viewed as the most gorgeous-captivating-jaw dropping-very talented being and ... other students obsessed with her.

However, others might have enjoyed this anime if they're fine with the brocon & fs. Apart from those, this anime about magical school girl seems interesting to watch.

tl;dr: A spin-off that gives a deeper look at Miyuki and her friends part of the story, but doesn’t really add much to said story.

This is a spin off of The Irregular at Magic High School that focuses on Miyuki instead of Tatsuya. It covers the Enrollment and the Nine Schools Competition arcs, which is approximately the first 2/3s of the first season of the main series. While ultimately it covers the exact same story, the elements focused on are pretty different. Furthermore, it glosses over or skips significant portions of the original plot in favor of spending more time focusing on the new content. ... Understanding the original story is still necessary to understanding the new content however. Thus, this spin off should only be watched after already being familiar with the the first two arcs of the main series.

Also, while Miyuki is the main lead in this, she’s focused on a lot less compared to Tetsuya in the main series. Instead, it focuses quite a lot on her friends. This of course includes her friends Honoka and Shizuka, but Eimi as well. Eimi has essentially no presence in the main series but in this she seems to be as close a friend to Miyuki as Honoka and Shizuka, which is somewhat strange. Especially as it tries to write around why she isn’t present during certain story events in order to try to stay consistent with the main series. There’s also a pretty large focus on the girls that compete against them from Third High School in the Nine Schools Competition, who aren’t present at all in the main series as far as I remember.

There is an attempt at fleshing out and giving character development to everyone, but with the reoccurring characters it was pretty constrained by not really doing anything beyond the main series which didn’t really have them as a focus. As such it just takes the minor character beats that were already present in the main series and expands on them a bit. It works decently enough, especially if you’re already fans of the characters, but its nothing too major. The new characters were more interesting, mainly Airi and Shiori, which makes sense as the writing had more freedom to do whatever it wanted with them.

The Enrollment has a bit of substance, but not much. For the most part it just feels like a speed run of what is in the main series but with more CGDCT in it, which is enjoyable enough I suppose. But the real meat of this spin off is really in the Nine Schools Competition Arc. While the main series focuses on Tetsuya’s amazing capabilities as an engineer, this spin off focuses much more on the girls actually competing. Their motivations, what they went through in training, their bonds with the friends, and their thought process during the actual competition. As such it’s where the girls really shine. There’s still a good amount of focus on Tetsuya being overpowered. It’s different from the main series however in that instead of just showing Tetsuya being overpowered, the focus is on the girls gushing over how awesome he is, which was pretty amusing. Especially with Miyuki as her already strong bro-complex seems to have been cranked up a bit in this.

The art is essentially the same as in the main series, though the animation was noticeably weaker unfortunately. The character designs are the same for the most part and solid enough. The highlight character design wise were the new costumes for the competition which were all pretty great. I don’t remember well enough to be absolutely sure they’re new, but at the minimum they’re focused on much more in this. The OP’s visuals and song really grew on me and by the end of the anime I loved it. Even though it plays during the Enrollment Arc as well, it’s entirely focused on the Nine School Competition Arc, which sounds kind of strange but was probably for the best considering that’s the most prominent arc. The ED was also decent enough in terms of the song and visuals. The soundtrack was kind of strange in that it had a lot of great and memorable tracks, but they were used in ways that really didn’t fit at times.

As a random tangent, it’s pretty strange how the members of Course 2 basically feel like senpai to the girls in Course 1. I kind of noticed it in the main series, but it’s especially prominent here. A core part of it is of course the relationship between Miyuki and ‘onii-sama’ giving off a certain overpowering vibe. But it kind of applies to the rest of Tetsuya’s friends and Miyuki’s friends as well respectively.