Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei

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.

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.

If you look at my review scores in detail, you notice i rated lot of things rather high, but overall rating is still 3. Seems odd, right? let me go in detail on that. And i really, really hate bashing on anime.... As of writing this review, i've watched about 4,5 episodes and i think i am going to drop it here.

So, this show is essentially retelling of "irregular at magic high school" season 1 from its main characters sisters (and 2-3 of her friends) perspective. Not a new concept and these alternate perspective shows tend to be extremely interesting and give lot of new ... stories and info- good examples are danmachi or even a certain scientific railgun (compare its "sisters" arc to one in "magical index").
This spinoff, however, could've easily been an extended cut on original's season 1 and it wouldve been so much better.

Now, i am actually quite enjoying this universe a lot and main series boasts rather decent story (not top of the world, but decent, once you are able to follow it) & characters, with stellar action, great music and decent animation. And honestly, this spinoff takes all of these elements... and does almost nothing with it. Like i said earlier, it might as well have new scenes added on as extended cut for original season one- theres just so little new here. And whats worse- these new bits are so few and far between that they completely demolish the pacing of the show, while cutting upright critical information. A lot.
Even for easier to follow story, it would be a big no-no, but since the main series has fairly complex story, i legit feel sorry for newcomers to the series who started off with this.

So yeah, alternative perspective stories work, if there is actually decent alternate perspective to explore or some potential for characters to have adventure of their own. In this case, with these creative choices that went into this, it just doesnt work. It is still well-made anime (aside from serious story issues), but if you are a newcomer to the franchise- just watch main series, you get much fuller experience and clearer picture of exactly same story.

Disclaimer: I rate this anime 1/10 just because it doesn't deserve to get beyond 6.5/10

I wrote this review just because it's unbearable to watch.

If it was stand alone anime I might give 6.5~6.9/10, but It's in fact a spin-off of the popular anime, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei , which is big shoes to fill and it failed miserably to the point it became pure blasphemy to the original anime in my opinion. The scenes are inconsistent and incoherent to the scenes in the OG anime (at some scenes they put exactly the same dialog but with completely different setting than ... original) , and the art quality plunge into the abyss. It's even fall far below current animes standards. The characters are decent but not so great, and the sounds are ok. The overall score as an spin-off is around 4~5/10. It's hurtful to watch as a fan, but it's entertaining enough normal people to watch.

Still, I wished I can unseen this anime so I can maintain my high expectation toward the original anime.

Every episode feels like it's just a recap episode of the main series. The new scenes from different perspectives don't add anything new at all and don't even form a cohesive story. If you haven't seen the main series, you won't have any idea what's going on. Don't bother watching if you're hoping for more fan service than the main series, but if you want more of the ridiculous levels of bro-con antics then there's plenty of that.
There's nothing more worth saying about this series, so here's some empty words to fill out the arbitrary word count MAL requires for reviews, to ... go along with this empty series.

If I have to pick a generic school magic anime, I would definitely pick this one. It is extremely generic! The characters do not have a shred of original personality, they are very boring, and the like its history, where the drama and action are virtually nonexistent, thank to the protagonists are above all, and on top of all, they add an incestuous relationship, probably made with the only excuse attract attention (which personally makes it more obnoxious).

The first arc begins with a certain mystery, but in the middle of the story you realize that the "enemies" are not important at all, they are ... too weak, which makes me repeat again, a boring and lousy story. The only thing I would rescue from this anime is that in the classic arc of competition between schools, there is a bit of originality in the sports, although the use of magic is lousy and not at all interesting, there is no exciting logic. It is supposed to be a competition between representatives of important families and several schools, but the story ends up capturing only the characters from two schools, and as expected, the new appearances are even worse than the main group of characters.

In conclussion, I do not recommend this anime to anyone, not even fans of magic or school situations.

Mahouka is one of my favorite anime, but only Rettousei. This ripoff rewrite attempt from position of other character, Miyuki, is just bad.

Beginning can be tolerated but after that is beyond messed up.
Even on the image on MAL you can see characters which weren't in 1. season.
Only good thing in it is character art, but that can't fix the messed up story.

I was happy to have another season of this anime but remakes just ruin the experience.

I highly don't recommend watching this if you liked Rettousei if you don't want to ruin your view on Mahouka.

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.

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.

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.

This show had so much potential. If Irregular was about his brother Honor could've been about Miyuki. Instead all we get is a generic slice of life with some throw-ins from the main series.

I know they could've done something better here, that short flashback on episode 13? Those would've been nice. Explain the secrecy their past, what they've been through. This could've been a perfect setup for another season. Seeing their past through Miyuki's eyes, things she went through during the series. I mean in Irregular we had everything going on in-between his school life and his covert operations, surely Miyuki did more than just ... go to school during those times? She is after all a member of one of the highest regarded magicians of the country? Look at Saegusa and Jumonji they clearly have something going on behind the scenes outside of the times we see them in Irregular. They could've dove into what Miyuki was actually up to instead of re-telling literally almost every scene just slightly different from Miyuki's angle.

I guess in a way they did exactly what it says in the synopsis, but c'mon? Some backstory flashbacks would've made this perfect. There is enough material from their past and flashbacks to account for this.