Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei Episode 10 Discussion

CeddyyBearr said:

So they will actually cover Monolith code as well in this spin-off?

SgtBaitMan said:

They could have spared more time for Mitsui and her Mirage Bat.

Khunime said:
Shizuku vs Miyuki finally, it was pretty interesting but not that amazing. I prefer a new season of Irregular rather than this anime

darren42 said:
Honoka and Subaru will have another brief showing in the next episode for the rookie Mirage Bat finals.

SideCharacterKal said:
A pretty good match between Miyuki and Shizuka, the OST gave me the chills. Sadly, everything that Chadsuya did for her wasn't enough to beat Miyuki. Anyway, seems like it's time for the boys to shine. Hopefully, we'll see Tatsuya vs that red head.

Leo said:
I also was rooting for Shizuku even knowing the result of the match.

So Fourth High used magic before the start of the match. At least we will see Tatsuya in action in the next episode.

Rima128 said:


Is Tatsuya participating in the competion for him to face the redhead? I don't think so. However, I haven't watched the original series so I don't know.

SideCharacterKal said:


I don't really remember the reason anymore but he did participate in the competition and it was against the redhead. And I must say, it was one of the best fights of the competition so hopefully they'll include it in the spin-off.

theGodde said:
That is exactly what I meant by tied down. Not literally "tied down" but in the same way you'd say getting married "ties you down".
I certainly agree that if Miyuki is a lot more independent the show most definitely does not communicate this properly. Miyuki's ability to sway Tatsuya doesn't really feel fleshed out to me because there are very few occasions where she suggests things that Tatsuya is directly in opposition to. From what I gathered in the first season, Tatsuya didn't want to stand out and so didn't want to be in the disciplinary community, but at the same time felt pretty apathetic about it overall. So when Miyuki told him to do it, it didn't feel like she had any particular sway over him, but more just he was open to suggestions. And as for him working so hard during the sports festival, I feel like that wasn't necessarily Miyuki pushing him, but his own drive to please her. It's important to make a distinction between things Miyuki makes Tatsuya do, and things Tatsuya just does because he cares about Miyuki - as we can't really list those among the facets of her own character agency. I would argue that if the show wanted to demonstrate Miyuki's ability to sway Tatsuya, there should have been more times where she convinced him to do something even when he was in direction opposition to it.

By a pilot - mean writing a smaller story and showing it to people as a prototype for a much larger story. Say you write a short story with one of the more contained arcs in your main plan and give it to friends to test for you.
My massive story has started to bog down because I keep changing the plan for it. (Mainly because the more I write the more plot holes I find and then I have to go back and foreshadow/justify them, and then those tiny changes make rippling effects that completely reshape the entire plot). And I already had over 50,000 words written - split into 2 volumes of which around 5-10% of the material is useful under my latest plan without a complete rewrite. The best part is that I know as a fact I would never have made those revisions if I hadn't written those volumes, and so I'm trapped in an endless loop of rewriting and revising because of my own perfectionism. The thing is I know that if I stick with it I'll come out with a much better story than if I had of just left what I'd already written. (And I have the time since I'm still at Uni and don't need an income yet).
Overall, I'd agree that there's no such perfectionism that allows you to get everything right from the start.

I dunno. What motivated Naruto's obsession with Sasuke? It definitely began as jealousy/admiration, but by the end I think Naruto saw him as a friend more than anything else. This is made a lot more clear at the waterfall, where it puts that rooftop fight into perspective a bit more. And to me it didn't feel like a retcon, but merely confirming the original subtext of the scene. Sasuke is the only person who truly understands Naruto (and vice versa), and so they unwittingly develop a strong bond of friendship.
Sasuke's motivation for that fight is perfectly clear. MF just got slammed by Itachi for being too weak and now even Naruto is better than him. He wasn't angry so much at Naruto, but more at himself. And this lust for power overwhelmed him to the point where he was unable to see the true value of what he had until he gave it up.
That said Shippuden totally ruined that bond for me with the ridiculous way Sasuke behaved, and the almost incredible lengths Naruto would go to get him back. It really stretched the believability of their characters too far.
While I agree Neji was more interesting, it felt to me that once the chunin exam arc finished, his own arc was also completed, and all his most interesting aspects came with his interactions with Hinata, as he is a far more morally complex person who doesn't see the world in black and white - which contrasted well with the naive good nature of Hinata. I don't remember a single strong character moment for Neji after the Chunin exam finishes (yes the fight post-exam to get to Sasuke was great, but it didn't test or grow his character). I think pretty much all the characters stopped growing or changing once Shippuden hit, and just settled into their particular character archetype for the rest of the show - aside from Shikamaru, who has the best character development in Shippuden during that earlier arc.

I will say that there are two types of situations. Writers who write a story and that story will unintentionally inherit theme as a result of the writer's unconscious focus, or writers who write a story off a plan involving specific themes incorporated into the character arcs and so forth. I think anything we refer to as a masterpiece is usually an exploration of theme, so I would say ultimately all good works are written around a theme. You can tell when a story isn't written with a theme. I would argue Neon Genesis Evangelion isn't written with a theme in mind. However it had a purpose - that being the physical expression of the writer/director's depression and the desire to be loved and validated. And so in that respect it could be called a theme.
I just went through my most highly rated anime list, and sure enough all of theme were theme driven. I also went through the top highest rated anime of all time and sure enough they were all theme driven too. It's really reinforced to me that writing from theme really is essential to crafting a good story.

I think he also needs to be placed in more situations where no normal person would be able to make completely rational decisions - such as a trolley problem scenario lmao. Then show Tatsuya sacrificing a member of the extended cast to save 1,000 people in an auditorium or something - demonstrating that Tatsuya seriously lack emotion.

I would disagree with the soldier aspect. Nothing about Tatsuya signals "soldier" to me. He is certainly closer to an assassin or special operative. I know a lot of soldiers/military personnel IRL and I don't think Tatsuya would really benefit as a character from being more like a soldier. His whole situation is meant to be that he's forced by the system and by his aunt into doing terrible things, and that has reduced him to the state we see here. So having him be a soldier makes the feeling of dirtiness and betrayal a lot weaker in my eyes. There's something violating about being forced to kill people as an assassin, but as a soldier it morally feels perfectly legitimate. The concept of Tatsuya existing within that illegitimate grey area is what makes his backstory tragic IMO. But you've read further so you'd have more of an insight into this.

interesting. I looked it up. Is it called air gear?
But yeah I'd agree with all your points. I've been working on a magic system of my own for a smaller story project, and it's certainly difficult to visualise how magic would affect daily life. The more advanced the civilisation gets the more different it will become. You almost have to go back to a point where they were almost parallel (say the middle ages) and then work up from there bit by bit, slowly expanding your world. However that's something I feel like you'd have to be an engineer to even consider lmao.

I liked him initially but overall I'm not a big fan. I didn't really get a sense of who he was as a person, he never really seemed to go beyond the stereotype he embodied - and I've seen that stereotype more than enough for that to feel unsatisfying.
I like the ninja detective idea a lot. It sounds really cool and fun. Not to mention it would make sense within the world as magic is something that you dedicate your life to - much like being a samurai or a shinobi. The reason why these roles were phased out is because of industrialism and a greater value on numbers over skill. And so within a magical world it's perfectly logical for such roles to remain in use.

malMaxi said:
She doesn't so much suggests things to Tatsuya as acts on her own and lets him deal with the fallout.

I'll grant you that we don't have too many examples of this. However, the examples we have range from heroic (protecting a child in ep.1 of current show), to mild (forcing Tatsuya into the Council), to murderous (she is implied to having freeze-murdered all of Blanche flunkies, despite Tatsuya asking her to contain herself), to just plain "woman scorned" (in a fit of jealousy, she inflicts enough damage on Tatsuya himself to trigger the anti-death cheat).

I really do think that this tension between the "miko of all that is good and pure" Miyuki and "jealously proud force of nature" Miyuki is the exact appeal of her character.

I definitely agree with you that having more examples of Miyuki forcing Tatsuya into things would definitely be to Mahouka's benefit. In fact, if we go with your idea of having Tatsuya engage in more situations featuring actual ethical dilemmas, then Miyuki can be a perfect trigger for these kinds of situations (in fact, the Blanche situation is a very good template for that).

malMaxi said:

When plans are changing, there are some important things to ask yourself.
1) Which parts of the plan is not changing? Chances are, the rest is useless fluff that can be either completely cut away, or significantly downsized.
2) Are the parts that are staying unchanged fundamental for your creative goals? If they are - you are on the right track. If they are not - you have a fundamental problem with the plan itself.
3) Assuming (2) is "yes", what specifically is preventing the parts that are staying unchanged from coming together into a coherent story? Most of the time, the answer is "the point of view that ties these stories together is not fleshed out". If this is the case, then you need to spend some time thinking about a point of view that serves as a framing device. It can be embodied by an actual in-story character (done most commonly). It can also be a location (like the ship in Cowboy Bebop), or some manner of McGuffin (like the mask in first season of JoJo). It can even be something superficial (Baccano newspaper).

malMaxi said:
So, i guess, the narrative broke the moment Naruto got lost in his own fantasy of "Sasuke is my friend", when Sasuke really didn't want to be friends anymore. However, i guess the author wanted them to end up as friends so much that he decided to stop Naruto's development for the sake of his idea.

Well, at least he saw his plan to the end :D

malMaxi said:

The highest rated stuff has both the themes and the execution down pat. I understand that writing from theme is your cup of tea, so you definitely can and should do that. However, do remember that the path to glory is littered by works that are described as "had good premise, but couldn't deliver". Don't confuse premise with themes. A theme doesn't become a theme unless it is actually played out.

malMaxi said:
I didn't read THAT much further. I only really read up to anime-adapted material, the rest of my story knowledge comes from wikis (because actually reading that became too painful by that point :D).

Soldiers suffer plenty of betrayal, too. There are things such as criminal orders, things like corrupt superiors, things like simply stupid superiors. There is plenty of outright betrayal as well.

That being said, i can see why the term "soldier" doesn't really fit Tatsuya. He is too much of an edgelord to qualify as an actual soldier. Being an edgelord is one of the first thing military life beats out of a person :). Tatsuya's commander is a solider, but Tatsuya himself is definitely not (despite the commander's apparent high opinion of Tatsuya).

I guess a better term would be "a warrior noble". Historically, these were the people who had to carry out the actual real-life "trolley" decisions.

I can't see Tatsuya struggling with any of these decisions, though. He will quickly and efficiently take the most rational course of action. Unless, of course, Miyuki throws a wrench in the works :D

malMaxi said:

Air Gear is definitely not an example i had in mind, lol :D. I think they got the "marginalized subculture magic" part down right, but not the "mundane magic". However, if you want to see some complete batshit mad magic systems, Air Gear is definitely a thing to consider :D. However, this is one of the few situations where i really feel that anime is no good and you should read the manga instead. I'm not much of a manga purist, but in case Air Gear the difference becomes apparent from literally the first few manga pages. Not to mention the fact that the anime actually stops just a few volumes shy of when the magitek stuff really hits the fan in the manga.

Here is the one i had in mind: https://myanimelist.net/anime/28391/Ao_no_Kanata_no_Four_Rhythm
Being a 6-7 score anime, you shouldn't expect anythinig outside of the generc. The idea and handling of Grav-Shoes is literally the only thing i remember it for.

You don't really have to be an engineer. Just have a solid idea and be curious enough to actually study up a little on the physics surrounding it (as opposed to lifting sciencey-sounding gimmicks wholesale like Mahouka does :/)

malMaxi said:

Historic ninja didn't really partake in the large scale murder ethical dilemmas, though. They could maybe wipe out a village or two or - at most - explode a dam and flood a city.
However, nothing prevents us from upgrading the concept to modern age, where a ninja operation involving a portable nuclear bomb (or a similarly destructive and portable magical device) can easily create just the situtation for a trolley dilemma.

tsubasalover said:
It seems like Rettousei 3rd season gets rebroadcasted in Fall
https://twitter.com/mahouka_anime/status/1434168875961274368

Rima128 said:


How do you know that?