Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen

This special is par for the course when it comes to the Mahouka franchise - bad

However it fulfils an interesting role in that it is the missing link to understanding who Tatsuya is, how he came to be, and his relationship with Miyuki. I'll get more into that later (spoilers I guess), but now for my surface level problems.

As usual the show has an over-narration problem. Miyuki narrates throughout the whole anime and it's used as a means of dropping meaningless exposition and lore dumps and telling us things that really should have been conveyed from the direction and animation instead. The entire Mahouka anime ... franchise is what I'd call a well animated visual novel with action scenes.

Now from a construction standpoint I have two more gripes. First is the framing of the story. Having present day Miyuki and Tatsuya flying to the island and reminiscing about the past is a terrible way to frame an origin story because it provides a context that disconnects us from what is happening. It would have been better to begin in the past and immerse us in the story, and then timeskip at the end to present day to remind us of how these characters have grown and where they're going.
The second gripe is the plot itself. It doesn't really exist. There is no act structure of any kind. Tatsuya is introduced. Various events happen that affect Miyuki in various ways, Tatsuya gets to flex, there's a big battle, and Miyuki's arc is brought up to the status quo that will kick start the rest of the series. It's a terrible, uninspired way to tell a story and as a result the special has no real momentum or driving energy to it. And no you can't call this a "slice of life" side story since there is already plenty of action and plot progression (albiet incredibly botched). It's just a very bad regular story

As for the fact that this is supposedly an origin story, there are problems with this as a concept, and most of them are not necessarily adaptational issues but general issues with the story itself.

First of all, if you have an origin story, what is the best way to deliver it? Typically speaking you would want to start from the beginning, establish who your characters were, and explain how your characters became who they are now. However the special begins after Tatsuya has already become an OP God. It only covers Tatsuya and Miyuki becoming acquainted and forming the incestuous sibling duo so many fans know and (supposedly) love. So why then do I call it an origin story if it's not really an origin story at all? That's because it drops all of Tatsuya's origins in an information dump in the last 10 minutes. This was a terrible idea for several reasons. First of all, we didn't get to see Tatsuya before he underwent surgery and became an emotionless OP god, so we don't really understand what Tatsuya lost in order to become who he is. We've only ever known the god Tatsuya and not the person who he was before, so we aren't given any reason to care about his origin apart from the fact that it sounds cool.
The implication of this is that it makes it less meaningful when Miyuki learns of his origins because we can only empathise with his suffering on a surface level.

Another issue here is with the way his mother views Tatsuya. Because he can't do "proper magic" Tatsuya is considered lesser and therefore not worthy to be anything other than a bodyguard for Miyuki. However as we see in this special, and even more so in the rest of the show, he is practically speaking a better asset to the Yotsuba clan than Miyuki has been, and far, far more useful than pretty much every other character we've met thus far in the anime. So while I can understand why on a political standpoint he doesn't have the qualifications to be the next leader, I fail to understand what meaningful reason his own mother would have to look down on him as a failure. While the reasoning may legitimately exist in the source material it's very poorly communicated considering this is the foundation for the entire story going forwards.

overall, this is a poorly directed, poorly written, poorly characterised, but well animated mahouka special. Ie: a generic Mahouka special

Let me say first that I've never read the light novels, so I am writing from the perspective from someone who has only watched the anime series.

While this movie will most likely be enjoyed by any Mahouka fan, was this movie good? Not really, it was fine. The story was alright, art seemed slightly off in some scenes, and character development was laughable at times.

The story begins with Miyuki reminiscing about the past, and this is where the problem with the story begins as well. It felt unnecessary for it to begin with anyone thinking of the past, or rather it wasn’t ended in a ... satisfying way. The beginning and end of the movie did not feel all that connected to the past events the movie is mostly about. Yes, they are of the same characters, in the same world, but the ending in particular feels lackluster as it does not conclude the story before well. It felt like the character basically saw something that made her think of the past, then after reflecting on such events just shrugged and carried on.

Reminiscing of the past is fine as a story element if it actually serves a purpose for the current state or nature of the character within the same continuation – as in if the reminiscing was within an episode in a series, it is perfectly fine for that to conclude into the character’s current behavior or development in another episode, but for this movie, even if it is not a standalone movie, there should be still be something taken from this past you reflect on you currently try to live out within the same movie. For example, Miyuki could be shown in the end living out a lesson she learnt in the past. If not, the reminiscing serves little to no purpose and it would have been better if the movie started and ended with only the past events.

Another problem is Miyuki’s narration. Having a character state too much of their inner thoughts and through that reveal their personalities is just lazy. While there were indeed times when the narration made the scene funnier, there was simply too much.

The animation of the movie felt slightly off during the fight sequences at the beginning (fight sequences at later parts of the movie was fine and looked good). It did not flow well, stances did not look natural and the poses some characters held during a few scenes even looked wonky.

Character development felt abysmal at times. This movie was used to display how Miyuki got to the point of being all ‘Onii-sama’ in Rettousei, but the transition to get to that point felt rushed and forced. The final change in feelings did not feel natural. The gradual build-up at the start of the movie was fine and made sense, nor was it unreasonable and rushed. However, right after the climax (which did not really build up tension at all and feel like a climax), she had a sudden and complete change of heart that did not feel like what the events before would result in. They would certainly steer her in the way of her eventual feelings for Tatsuya, but not that completely immediately after.

This movie actually suffers from poor character development for side characters, or rather, the lack of character development for the side characters. There wasn’t much of a closer look or a deep dive for the side characters, and while these side characters are important to the development of the main characters, they suffered from the lack of character. Some characters only got to express part of their inner feelings in a rushed, short speech at the end, of which the contents would be closely related to the main characters. Others get a single line that referenced what would be a complex character trait but well, only received one line describing such. This movie would have been a great opportunity to dive into these particular side characters as they are not closely followed in Rettousei.

In the end, from a non-LN audience perspective, although I am unaware of what could have been of this movie if it followed the light novel, there were elements in the movie of which I was unsatisfied with.

The fact that they didn't start this series with an actual origin story, turning episode 1 into a prequel movie, should tell you what kind of shit-show you're dealing with here.

At-least this movie is slightly better than the actual series, probably because Tatsuya isn't surrounded by a harem constantly jacking him off, worshiping his every move. The annoying as shit sister, with the personality of a loli-incest fuck-doll made in Japan, is less annoying, at-least until she begins her incestuous brother worship by the end of the movie.

Art is the same as the show, nothing mind blowing happening here. Art was never the issue ... with this series. The comedic background music track that plays over everything that the director thinks is "cool" in the series, is missing from the movie, which is a welcome surprise.

Plot, however, remains a shitshow.

The fact that even in the backstory, the origin story, Tatsuya is still an OP demigod, doesn't help. In good Isekai shows, the protagonist starts weak and gets stronger. But this fucking show refuses to make the protagonist weak, even in the origin story. The hack writer who came up with this dribble as an excuse to simp on a fictional loli, probably finds it hard to get off without the power fantasy being ON 24/7.

I guess since this is the origin story, it didn't give the writer enough time to offload his pointlessly detailed explanations on run-of-the-mill magic spells that every other fucking fantasy hero just.. casts, without going into hour long explanations. So that's another piece of good news.

If you were expecting something exciting in Tatsuya's past though, don't. A generic harem Isekai with a generic story being given top rating on this site by thirsty fanbase. That's all this show is.

5/10

Watch this before season one btw. There isn't anything that acts as a spoiler for season one.

The reminiscence arc of irregular at magic high school is a pretty big flashback in the form of a movie. It explains the history of Tatsuya and Miyuki and their relationship. This doesn't seem to be a necessary part of the story but it adds some nice background information. You can watch this after the first season or after the second season, it doesn't really matter that much. You shouldn't watch it before the first season though because it's a flashback, not a sequel, so it expects knowledge of the characters.

Overall the story isn't too good. It's cool at times but some parts are ... kind of boring. However it does provide background information and character development so it might make watching other parts of the anime more interesting. The two most important characters in this movie are Miyuki and Tatsuya and all other characters are of lesser significance. The art and sound were both alright.

Overall it can be a nice movie to watch if you want a bit more background information but it might be slightly disappointing if you're watching this for the story. Don't watch it if you haven't watched any part of the series yet.