Meanwhile (SPOILER ALERT) in the background, other superpowered teens are indeed engaged in a Fate-series type magical battle whereby the winner will be able to wish for anything they desire...all for the amusement of a race of sadistic fairies who gave them these powers simply out of boredom and curiosity. And despite the efforts of some of these battling students and the fairies to reach our protagonist, Jurai Ando, and his fellow club members and drag them into the battle royale, Ando and company still remain oblivious to it all in the end. I also like the idea of characters just escaping great danger and possible death and being completely unaware in the end.
So having read about those preferences of mine, you're probably wondering why I haven't rated this higher.
Because, unfortunately, from about episode 2 onward it becomes rather obvious that Inou Battle's primary genre is "harem". And if, like me, you don't have much use for this genre, at this point you may get a sinking feeling when you realize Ando is the only guy in the club, and the remaining females all conform to the main stereotypes of this incredibly by-the-numbers genre; the redhead tsundere (who is cast as the likely winner from about episode 3 onward) Tomoyo, the domestic-minded Yamato Nadeshiko (or "ideal Japanese woman") childhood friend Hatoko, the precocious loli Chifuyu (she's an elementary schooler, and OF COURSE she develops a crush on Ando, as well as her same-age friend Kuki. Don't ever change, Japan...), and the busty fujoshi/one-sama whose name escapes me now.
To be fair, the characters are all still likeable. For a harem protagonist, typically one of the most hated character archetypes in anime, Ando is actually pretty cool. He revels in his chuunibyou, or youthful flights of fancy in which he spends most of his energy deciding on spell names and delivering his lines with a pronounced hammy flair, and meanwhile he doesn't care what the "Muggles" think of his behavior. Yes, all the girls he comes across still flock to him like pigeons to bread crumbs, but whereas, say, SAO's Kirito (the Gary Stu by which future Stus will be judged) was a flat blank slate onto which frustrated otaku could project themselves, Ando is his own person.
Meanwhile Tomoyo, though still an easily riled tsundere, somewhat has her own justifications for being one, as well as some motivations in her life that (gasp!) don't involve Ando. And to the best of my memory, she never said to him anything like "I-it's not like I l-like you or anything..." And Hatoko, though still playing another archetype, eventually manages to break out of her shy bystander shell and try to reach out to her would-be lover. Along the way, though, she manages to command the spotlight in a five-minute (!) speech seriously questioning Ando's "chuuni" philosophy which also somewhat rattled some of us fans and our at-times similar worldviews.
Unfortunately, while that speech led us to wonder if Ando might be led to start questioning his delusional lifestyle (like Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai before), by the next episode things are largely back to normal between Ando and Hatoko. Which brings me to my next point; another one of this show's flaws was that it had a habit of bringing up some interesting threads but then forgetting about them in favor of another harem (because Lord knows Japan just doesn't produce enough of those shows). It seemed like it was on the brink of becoming something special, but in the end it was just another harem, albeit with some slightly more dynamic characters. And no hot spring scene with Ando falling on the men's/women's side barrier. Though there were two, count 'em, two beach episodes and a clothes-changing scene. Sigh...
