The story started unpromisingly, with a pretty stagnant first episode. It gathers pace slightly as the anime progresses but is never really gripping. Much of the tension to the plot is negated by the sketchy limits of magic and abilities of the characters. It is a light, comfortable ride, hitting all the expected notes, but never ventures out of the ordinary.
A teacher who doesn't fit into a prestigious academy clashes with his students, and as they are draw into dangerous affairs of the kingdom the teacher starts showing a different side to himself. Short adventure arcs follow each other as the characters are developed and their back story explored. Some are more poignant than others, all the arcs are inoffensive, and enjoyable, but nothing to surprise or amaze.
Glenn began as a very interesting main character. He started as a pretty useless and weak magician, absolutely inept at his job as teacher of the most prestigious magic academy in the world. He slowly reveals a more serious and dark nature as the anime progresses, and as his character was gradually rounded I was more and more excited about finding out more.
Until he dropped right into a stock, bland, cliche, boring, done-to-death anime hero, complete with troubled past( flavored with tragic love story), OP abilities, doing good to redeem his dark past, an unchanging resolve to uphold justice, protecting everyone and not letting anyone die "again" ... etc, etc., the whole bucket load.
Sistine is your typical tsundere main heroine, who inspires the hero and keeps him anchored to light and hope. Blah blah blah. Rumia, the other main heroine, is not as typical a shounen anime heroine. She is strong but gentle, not especially talented, with a troubled past and an unique ability. Rumia is definitely the more sympathetic and compelling of the two heroines, though not exactly out of the ordinary, but sadly, the anime spends more time on Sistine and her inevitable crush on Glenn.
Rel is the most intriguing of the show's female characters, but I felt that her story was glossed over, and her actions and the motives behind these actions roughly explained and too rushed a to arouse empathy in the viewer, which is a shame, because her back story had the most potential, and raised rather profound questions and explored an interesting issue with more depth than this comedic anime seemed to have potential to.
The art is pretty much what you'd expect from this kind of an anime. The character designs are slightly too fan service oriented to my taste. Cat ears on Sisitine, and that bunny ear gravity defying ribbon on Rumia... And that uniform... What academy has that kind of uniform?
All in all this is a light hearted anime that seemed truncated rather abruptly. (Just when some depth seemed to be had from the dynamic of Sistine and Glenn, the anime ends.) A show very suited for relaxing, nothing offensive, not really exciting, but fairly enjoyable.
