
In my experience in the world of academia, the two times of the academic year that are the most stressful for students and instructors alike are its beginning and end.

Voice cast: Saori Hayami, Yuuichi Nakamura, Yumi Uchiyama, Ryouhei Kimura.Īir dates: Streaming Saturdays at 1 p.m.
IRREGULAR SCHOOL OF MAGIC SERIES
For example, why do some people need to press buttons to activate it when others seemingly just use their minds? Also does the CAD decide what spells you can cast or is that an innate thing in the magic user? And while I know I could look up this information on a wiki, you shouldn’t need a wiki to understand the most basic aspects of an anime - especially one that purports to explain all this in the show itself.The Irregular at Magic High School (Mahoka Koukou no Rettosai)īased on Light Novel Series by Tsutomo Sato It is clearly somewhat like a computerized wand or spell book but, despite the lengthy explanation on how it works, I am still confused by it and its basic operation. I vaguely know what it is - i.e., that it allows people to cast spells - but am not sure how. As a result, it’s difficult to figure out how things work despite the vast amount of time spent explaining how things work.Įven the CAD, the single most important item in the anime, is explained poorly. Thus, much like Final Fantasy XIII, The Irregular at Magic High School suffers from a serious case of proper-noun-itis. Bad: Tons of Exposition… That Explains NothingĮven worse, when new magical rules and/or technology are introduced, the explanation is not only delivered with technical jargon, but also with fictional technical jargon - i.e., concepts are explained using other unexplained technical magic terms from The Irregular at Magic High School. In the case of Tatsuya, it seems that he can do pretty much anything so there is rarely a sense of danger even when he’s in a supposedly dire situation. It almost feels like watching a kid playing make believe as he makes up superpower after superpower to combat any and all problems. Moreover, Tatsuya does the impossible so often in The Irregular at Magic High School that it more than stretches the bounds of believability. After all, as you barely have any time to digest the magical rule information to begin with, it is hard to be surprised when something you only just learned is impossible is, in fact, possible. By not having the magical rules come up organically in the story, the times when Tatsuya does the impossible are robbed of much of the “cool” factor the anime is aiming for. Of course, these exposition dumps might not be too terrible if we weren’t often taught the rules of the world mere moments before Tatsuya breaks those very rules. In practice, this means that the story must make a sudden stop every once in a while for the new concept to be explained. There is almost no foreshadowing and information is rarely - if ever - doled out before the episode in which it becomes important. Thus, it often feels like the rules of the world are being made up on the fly. We are never really given a baseline of how magic works and are instead told how specific things work only when they become vital information for the continuation of the plot. We, the viewers, are pretty much just thrown into a world with a complex magic system with little overall explanation. Unfortunately, it is how the story is told that is the problem. In other words, when looked at based on story and characterization alone, it’s pretty darn enjoyable. It also has a cast of diverse characters with distinct personalities. There are tons of exciting moments and the world it creates is both well thought out and interesting. Honestly, there is a good adventure to be had in The Irregular at Magic High School. But their school days are far from normal as they have to deal with everything from terrorist strikes to intermural school magic tournaments which, surprisingly, can alter the very political structure of Japan.

It is in this setting that we find Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba, a brother and sister who have gotten into the most prestigious magical high school in Japan. Thus, high schools for magicians are of paramount importance as they quite literally train the protectors of the future. Like having a collection of nukes in the Cold War, having strong magic users deters other nations from invading your own. Magic users are often engineers and researchers but their most important role is a military one - magic users are the WMDs of the future.

The Irregular at Magic High School is set in our future, a future where magic is just another science.
