Well, it's terrible and here's why.
I've read the LN as well, won't add it to my list as I don't wanna see it there.
It's bad as well.
The only good thing about it was the concept behind the magic being scientific. But if it ain't executed right, does it matter? lol.
The thing that drags the entire show is the terrible as hell main character.
First of all, it doesn't miss a single moment to pamper the main protagonist.
Without even trying I already have about 9-10 times they repeated ''how great he is''... ''what a prodigy he is'' ''How capable he is'' ''He's the strongest in the world'' in mind.
Yet they also love to victimize him at the same time so he is sympathetic as well... well it doesn't work when he's probably the definition of perfect.
He's overpowered as fuck. A talented magician placed in a crappy kids class. He’s there because he is bad at pushing some block on a floor with his mind. Surely they will not judge his capabilities solely based on that and will give him other tests? Nah, dude... why would they? -__-
He is a brilliant magician and can cancel any other magician's attack and he’s stupidly intelligent to the point that he can solve the world's hardest magical problems in less than a second. When he has some free time he is an engineer, going by the name of the oh so mysterious Silver creating the best magical gear in the world. He solves magical problems that the rest of the world have been struggling with for years. He creates the power of flight just cause he suddenly thought of doing that. He has a freaking X-ray vision. He can take down an entire team of terrorists by himself. He can detonate the power equivalent of an atomic bomb over anywhere in the world. He can heal all wounds instantly. He can raise the dead. But he is not very good at pushing a square inch block across a floor so clearly he’s a flawed character.
When you're main character's as perfect as this, there's no tension.
Tatsuya resolves problems without any effort and without any trouble. Any danger that is presented in the series is meaningless as he overcomes it with ease.
Mahouka likes to fake danger, like it has some factors against him. It doesn't.
That's just meaningless words that mean nothing at the end of the day.
The anime loves to over-explain every little thing. The Light Novel is so riddled with this issue to the point that there are pages upon pages of explanation of something he did like 10-15 pages ago.
Characters constantly discuss magic and barely anything else, there's no chemistry between any character cause of that. Every single character interaction feels forced.
Hell, Tatuya would walk about 2 meters and go into a massive explanation of why it was sooo hard for him. The show loves to make it seem like he sacrifices something for everything he does or that he puts negative effects on his body. But as I said, that's all just words. It's not like that, he doesn't act like anything negative affects him and in the end it doesn't affect him or anything else around him thus it means they're just pointless words.
And you know what's appaling? All these huuuge info dumps do not build anything about the lore.
They're like gigantic text books that teach you the magic... come the f*ck on, that's something the character should learn, not me, go on with the freaking story.
What these magical explanations also do is make Mahouka very dull to look at. The vast majority of the show is still frames of talking with no artistic quality put into their presentation. The magical fights are just as boring and dull and have no choreography whatsoever.
Not only is Mahouka extremely bland visually, it doesn't have good animation either but the music is forgettable as hell.
The whole thing is boring and extremely flawed... and all of countless flaws derive from only 1 character... and that's the protagonist. That means they're going to be present forever until the protagonist somehow magically changes.
Are you all wondering why I barely mentioned any plot progression? THERE IS NONE! THE PLOT BARELY PROGRESSES! ALL THESE INFO DUMPS MAKE IT SEEM LIKE ALOT OF IMPORTANT DIALOGUE HAS BEEN SAID BUT NOTHING OF THAT SHIT IS IMPORTANT.
The explanations for their powers are non-sensical. Doesn't matter how much you try to make it seem scientifically possible... it's not. SO GO ON QUICKLY ABOUT IT AND STOP WASTING MY TME!
Maybe I should mention something about the other characters?
THEY'RE ALL STUPID ARCHETYPES USED IN EVERY LIGHT NOVEL.
A character is usually that, an archetype who is made unique by having many more traits besides the archetype he/she is.
Now let's say that the characters in Mahouka are just the archetype, without any of the additional traits. That's how bad the characters are. I didn't care about any of them and completely forgot about some even.
Oh, also, his sister is also in love with him, that's to further imply how incredibly awesome he is. -_-
(I based this review of 5camp's really good review, because of that some sentences might be strikingly similar but I also gave some of my opinions on why I hate this piece of ass anime).
Overall this show is bad in every possible way and I give it 2/10.
