[Ravagerblade]

Originally Posted by karice67

It's an issue that's built around homonyms - it's the Japanese '4' that people have problems with, because the pronunciation "shi" is the same as the pronunciation for 'death'.

Hence, they won't have a problem with the English word 'Four'.

(And Japanese (and Chinese) people probably have a much higher sensitivity to superstition than secular people in the West, if only because there are quite a few occasions where we actively avoid using '4'. For example, we avoid giving money at weddings / New Year that in sums that have the digit '4' in it (we try to give money in sums using the number '8' instead). Apparently, there are even buildings in Japan that skip the fourth level because of this. Comparison for English might be the number 13.

So yes, a valid argument for the world of Mahouka, whether you like it or not.)


But if Tatsuya's the super genius, why do they treat him like crap? Given that his father just stood there and let Aoki completely ignore him and diss him, it looks like it's something completely acceptable in the Yotsuba family. To me, that raises questions about what exactly it is the family values in their magicians, which I assume to be related to whatever it is that the magic education system believes is valuable (casting speed, the scale of the spell and the ability of the person to 'rewrite information' with their magic (ep. 3)). Doesn't look like super intelligence or high psion count - which Ushiyama's words suggest is a trait of both Miyuki and Tatsuya - count for much.

You've pretty much nailed in imo. That's what it seems to be