Tatsuya is by far a favorite of mine. I think he's for a certain type of audience however. If you enjoy the overpowered, incredibly intelligent type who you kinda already know will win then he's your type (Sherlock holmes is an example of this type). As someone who goes to a school for the "gifted" ( yeah that's what they call it, it's stupid) where 9 year olds are in calculus I enjoyed the way they portrayed the emotional gap that many intelligent people face. Everything needs to be rational meaning that emotions are often ignored or thought of as useless. Tatsuya was very good at portraying this in a similar way to how I encounter it in my everyday life.
I also enjoyed the way they didn't create an atmosphere where it was okay to think that pure equality was possible. The way the show portrayed how every person has both strengths and weaknesses and therefore nothing can be entirely equal was wonderful. I'm sick of shows sympathizing with characters who believe that simply because they lack in one area that they're useless. (Spoilers) when one of the characters fought for equal rights for less magically talented people at a magic high school I was very glad that Tatsuya pointed out the irrationality of that and the way people simply complain about inequality yet never propose a solution. At my school I am what you would call a "weed" among nine year old geniuses I expect to be treated as lesser. It only makes sense as its a school and therefore being smart is highly valued, just as at this magic school being magical is highly valued.
Next, the long magic explanations. I can understand where this can get boring but as I'm highly interested in science getting to see the mechanics of the world and its magic was amazing. I liked getting to work through the ideas and think about their applications. I often get frustrated when these things are not explained so this show was perfect for me in that respect. The fact that the writers took the time to think about the mechanics of the world in such depth was very impressive.
On the down side, I found miyuki's obsession with her brother rather odd, along with the way the characters constantly pointed out the immodesty of the girls' outfits while the camera provided lingering boob shots. But hey animes fan service so I didn't really expect anything different.
