AnimeSuki Forums

Kairin · 2014-10-02, 07:38

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire 26 episodes of Mahouka ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

General impression of the series.
Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
Thoughts about the animation quality.
Characters/Character Design
Voice Acting
Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see.
What the show meant to you.
What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

Tormenk · 2014-10-02, 11:32

Doing it mathematically from the sample criteria given, 5.5

Animation Quality: 7

Consistent quality in my impression but nothing impressive throughout.

Voice actors: 7

Main reason because of the few core VAs did a good job.

Script: 5

Passable for the most part. More "Oni-sama" moments was not.

Soundtrack: 5

BGM was forgettable for the most part. Millenario and the 2nd Op were the saving grace for me.

Editing: 5

Meh. The one area they could have improved the adaptation through creative cuts of the story and they played it straight. Wasted opportunities.

Enjoyment: 6.5

Mostly just from few interactions of the side characters that had some limelight. And certain key scenes from the novels.

Emotional Involvement: 3

Yup the tension was non-existent for the most part. I blame poor execution and composition of the key scenes for both character interactions and action sequences for this section.

Fellen · 2014-10-02, 15:17

So here's my (probably not so good) review of Mahouka.

Animation gets a 7/10. My main problem was that it seemed to vary quite a lot. At its best it was a glorious 9/10 and at its worst it was just awful.

Sound is barely a 8/10. Some of the VAs did a good job while others felt a bit dull. While the OST wasn't memorable it was often placed quite nicely. The best part about the sound were the openings and endings which were glorious to say the least.

Story is on average a 7/10. While i found the world of Mahouka to be interesting with plenty of potential i had a lot of problems with how over-dramatized some things were and also with the highschool setting which didn't suit well when Mahouka had the characters wreck professional soldiers. I'll talk a bit more in detail about every arc now.
Enrollment served its purpose as an introductory arc quite nicely. It wasn't special in any way and it had the most problems with over-dramatizing things but it managed to serve its purpose as an introductory arc.
NSC had its problems. Unlike Enrollment i'm not going to forgive it on some things since it wasn't the introductory arc and it had plenty of problems. I couldn't feel tension at all during any point. It was fairly boring throughout with a few stand-out moments and only picked up toward the end.
Yokohama Invasion was the best arc. While Japanese Jesus Tatsuya ruined the tension with his very existence the arc was quite exciting and interesting.

Characters are a 6/10. While some characters managed to be interesting (Mikihiko, Erika, Leo) others just ruined the show to some extent (Miyuki, Onii-sama). I quite enjoyed the chemistry between most of the characters but individually they weren't too special. My biggest problems were the villains who with the exception of Zhou were so incompetent compared to the highschoolers and one-dimensional that i couldn't care for them as characters and only felt sorry for them as they were up against the Japanese Jesus since they didn't even stand a chance. The only character i will talk about is said Jesus the one and only Tatsuya-Stu. Now while i didn't think badly of him as a character and found him quite interesting his Gary-Stuness ruined any tension i might have had. He was for the most part well written IMO it's just that he's too OP for the good of the show.

While my knowledge of the source-material is not the best since i haven't read everything the anime covered i can safely say that this wasn't a good adaptation of the source-material.

Overall rating is a 7/10 although it had the potential to be more. I could recommend this show to someone who wants an OP Gary-Stu protagonist and a main cast that wrecks the villains. But for the most part it's not high on my recommend list.

VORTIA · 2014-10-03, 08:52

I really enjoyed the show, but it was not without its flaws. With the series over, I've begun to go back and spoil myself on the LN volumes and I'm finding a lot of the events depicted making a lot more sense, and being frustrated that the director couldn't find some way to slip the necessary information in. Long series of exposition was given on matters that weren't all that important, and major parts of the universe and Tatsuya's powers and limitations went completely without discussion.

The primary reason I watch anime is for the characters, and that is where I feel like the Mahouka anime really shines - damn near every character is likeable in a way I can't really remember feeling about any anime in recent memory! I love that there are competent interesting male characters other than Tatsuya, and girls with love interests other than Tatsuya. The witty banter, slice of life goofing around, and relationships just radiate with human warmth. I know a lot of folks thought she was creepy, but Miyuki's adorable, and I just love how she gushes for her Onii-sama.

I'm also not sure what people's issue was with the soundtrack - I actually consider it one of the coolest and most original soundtracks I've heard in a long time. After finding out it was written by the same guy who composed the soundtrack for Gatchaman Crowds, I consider myself something of a fan of Taku Iwasaki, because he really knows how to bring energy to a scene through music.

The action scenes were great when they happened, but they seemed to be a bit few and far between. In addition, it appeared that in the rush to squeeze everything in, every action scene outside the final battle in Nine Schools Competition was more about showing off character X's best moves, with any challenge they may have faced being cut for time.

It really feels like after 26 episodes, the story is just getting started. The Yokohama Disturbances arc reminds me of the first few episodes of Code Geass - revealing to the world both the extent of the character's abilities and the challenges they face. If there isn't a season 2, I'm going to be deeply disappointed!

Overall, I'd give it an 8 out of 10. If the director had done just a little more to provide the viewer with context for some of the things going on, I'd have given it a 9, but far too many scenes were animated in a way that simply depicted what happened without providing the audience any frame of reference to understand why or how it was relevant. I don't think it's any wonder why this is popular in Japan but largely panned in the US - it's another anime adaptation that pre-supposes you're reading the light novel and exists purely to provide animated visuals. Without having read up on the background, you're losing huge chunks of the experience.

Ultragunner · 2014-10-03, 10:42

enuff said

Rava · 2014-10-03, 13:28

As a LN reader, some aspects of the show I enjoyed. Other aspects... yeah, enough said on that.

I'm pretty sure that even the most brain dead LN reader watching the series can make suggestions on what should have been swapped in and out. It was pretty blatant that they were trying to capitalize on the action as much as they can. (Backflipping onii-sama! Show off those athletics!)

One major aspect that the show really dropped the ball on is internal monologues. There may be others, but the only time I can remember them using it effectively (when at all) is the comment about Kichijouji and his half-baked knowledge. I don't think they implemented the "show, not tell" aspect completely correctly as a result.

MonkeyDude · 2014-10-03, 22:43

The side characters being shelved until onii-sama needed them did it for me. Maybe it's just Mahouka not living up to the hype, but disappointment would be the best way to describe it. Certainly doesn't help with the bastardization of Mayumi and Miyuki. Dunno which is worse between an almost completely OC character or a near-robotic follower of the great onii-sama, but it certainly doesn't present Mahouka in a positive light.

I'd give it a 6/10 just because I actually wanted a Mahouka anime. If I were to try being objective and rate it based on it's merits as a light novel adaptation? I'd say a 4/10 at best given the bad job the studio did with it. Not worth recommending to anyone unless said person really enjoys watching a show full of TEEN SPIRIT and oddly timed exposition.

Newhope · 2014-10-04, 07:57

I won't mince words I rank this as probably one of the worst series I've semi watched.

Poorly written.
On the whole apart from the odd character the casts was awful and boring whose only real purpose is to worship God-sama.
No real plot thats worth a damn.
Awful use of info dumping do I really need to know exactly how every spell work.
No tension due to our lord and savior one shoting everything.

Over all setting is good just about everything else sucked so 4/10.

zerozeronine · 2014-10-05, 11:22

MH messed up the adaption and hope they don't get contracted for a possible season 2.

SakurazukaJames · 2015-07-13, 07:23

I overall enjoyed the series, but it felt kind of elitist in my opinion.
Other stories I enjoy like One Piece feel more welcoming and inviting. It was like watching a series about beautiful, rich people and anyone who wasn't was petty and jealous of them.

charles883 · 2016-05-04, 09:16

Gary stu is worst thing happen in good story as Gary stu kills good fight and story as No humans are perfect and makes Fight scene in Mahouka boring and too predictable

Here my bit on why Mahouka one of the WORST light novel.sereis other than having boring emotionless Gary stu character which is Tatsuya

1. No good supporting character as all of them forgettable

2, No good and notable awesome villain(like Aliester in To aru, Sakai Yuji in Shana,, White queen in Accel World, Villain in Date A Live)

3. Incest pairing Spoiler Tatsuya and Miyuki are going to get Married

4.No awesome fight scene. (Chivalry of Failed knight done it 100% better than Mahouka)

5. No possible end game story and poor story writing

6.Racist based story(China)

7.Completely deviates and missing the point of underdog story

Can you defend Mahouka from my criticism

View Poll Results: Mahouka - Total Series Rating
Perfect 10	4	8.16%
9 out of 10 : Excellent	6	12.24%
8 out of 10 : Very Good	10	20.41%
7 out of 10 : Good	11	22.45%
6 out of 10 : Average	9	18.37%
5 out of 10 : Below Average	1	2.04%
4 out of 10 : Poor	3	6.12%
3 out of 10 : Bad	0	0%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad	2	4.08%
1 out of 10 : Painful	3	6.12%
Voters: 49. You may not vote on this poll

2014-10-02, 07:38	Link #1
Kairin AnimeSuki's Mascot Join Date: Apr 2006	Mahouka - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating This thread is to be used for discussing the entire 26 episodes of Mahouka ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc. A few subjects you might want to ramble on about: General impression of the series. Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices. Thoughts about the animation quality. Characters/Character Design Voice Acting Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see. What the show meant to you. What could the creators/animators/writers have done better. And so on. The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example: Animation Quality: 1-10 Voice Actors: 1-10 Script: 1-10 Soundtrack: 1-10 Editing: 1-10 Enjoyment: 1-10 Emotional Involvement: 1-10 Average = Total Series Rating Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling. Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

2014-10-02, 11:32	Link #2
Tormenk Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Gaf's Room	Doing it mathematically from the sample criteria given, 5.5 Animation Quality: 7 Consistent quality in my impression but nothing impressive throughout. Voice actors: 7 Main reason because of the few core VAs did a good job. Script: 5 Passable for the most part. More "Oni-sama" moments was not. Soundtrack: 5 BGM was forgettable for the most part. Millenario and the 2nd Op were the saving grace for me. Editing: 5 Meh. The one area they could have improved the adaptation through creative cuts of the story and they played it straight. Wasted opportunities. Enjoyment: 6.5 Mostly just from few interactions of the side characters that had some limelight. And certain key scenes from the novels. Emotional Involvement: 3 Yup the tension was non-existent for the most part. I blame poor execution and composition of the key scenes for both character interactions and action sequences for this section. __________________ "Are you afraid of change? Or are you afraid to change?" "Wheel turns, river flows and life goes on." "Best way to kill a man, is to leave him alone." "Until you come, until we close our eyes."

2014-10-02, 15:17	Link #3
Fellen Insert user title here Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: The police station (Don't ask!)	So here's my (probably not so good) review of Mahouka. Animation gets a 7/10. My main problem was that it seemed to vary quite a lot. At its best it was a glorious 9/10 and at its worst it was just awful. Sound is barely a 8/10. Some of the VAs did a good job while others felt a bit dull. While the OST wasn't memorable it was often placed quite nicely. The best part about the sound were the openings and endings which were glorious to say the least. Story is on average a 7/10. While i found the world of Mahouka to be interesting with plenty of potential i had a lot of problems with how over-dramatized some things were and also with the highschool setting which didn't suit well when Mahouka had the characters wreck professional soldiers. I'll talk a bit more in detail about every arc now. Enrollment served its purpose as an introductory arc quite nicely. It wasn't special in any way and it had the most problems with over-dramatizing things but it managed to serve its purpose as an introductory arc. NSC had its problems. Unlike Enrollment i'm not going to forgive it on some things since it wasn't the introductory arc and it had plenty of problems. I couldn't feel tension at all during any point. It was fairly boring throughout with a few stand-out moments and only picked up toward the end. Yokohama Invasion was the best arc. While Japanese Jesus Tatsuya ruined the tension with his very existence the arc was quite exciting and interesting. Characters are a 6/10. While some characters managed to be interesting (Mikihiko, Erika, Leo) others just ruined the show to some extent (Miyuki, Onii-sama). I quite enjoyed the chemistry between most of the characters but individually they weren't too special. My biggest problems were the villains who with the exception of Zhou were so incompetent compared to the highschoolers and one-dimensional that i couldn't care for them as characters and only felt sorry for them as they were up against the Japanese Jesus since they didn't even stand a chance. The only character i will talk about is said Jesus the one and only Tatsuya-Stu. Now while i didn't think badly of him as a character and found him quite interesting his Gary-Stuness ruined any tension i might have had. He was for the most part well written IMO it's just that he's too OP for the good of the show. While my knowledge of the source-material is not the best since i haven't read everything the anime covered i can safely say that this wasn't a good adaptation of the source-material. Overall rating is a 7/10 although it had the potential to be more. I could recommend this show to someone who wants an OP Gary-Stu protagonist and a main cast that wrecks the villains. But for the most part it's not high on my recommend list. __________________

2014-10-03, 10:42	Link #5
Ultragunner Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2012	<p>No iframe support, please <a href="http://youtu.be/sN_tWfuQB9I">watch on YouTube</a>.</p> enuff said __________________

2014-10-03, 08:52	Link #4
VORTIA Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008	I really enjoyed the show, but it was not without its flaws. With the series over, I've begun to go back and spoil myself on the LN volumes and I'm finding a lot of the events depicted making a lot more sense, and being frustrated that the director couldn't find some way to slip the necessary information in. Long series of exposition was given on matters that weren't all that important, and major parts of the universe and Tatsuya's powers and limitations went completely without discussion. The primary reason I watch anime is for the characters, and that is where I feel like the Mahouka anime really shines - damn near every character is likeable in a way I can't really remember feeling about any anime in recent memory! I love that there are competent interesting male characters other than Tatsuya, and girls with love interests other than Tatsuya. The witty banter, slice of life goofing around, and relationships just radiate with human warmth. I know a lot of folks thought she was creepy, but Miyuki's adorable, and I just love how she gushes for her Onii-sama. I'm also not sure what people's issue was with the soundtrack - I actually consider it one of the coolest and most original soundtracks I've heard in a long time. After finding out it was written by the same guy who composed the soundtrack for Gatchaman Crowds, I consider myself something of a fan of Taku Iwasaki, because he really knows how to bring energy to a scene through music. The action scenes were great when they happened, but they seemed to be a bit few and far between. In addition, it appeared that in the rush to squeeze everything in, every action scene outside the final battle in Nine Schools Competition was more about showing off character X's best moves, with any challenge they may have faced being cut for time. It really feels like after 26 episodes, the story is just getting started. The Yokohama Disturbances arc reminds me of the first few episodes of Code Geass - revealing to the world both the extent of the character's abilities and the challenges they face. If there isn't a season 2, I'm going to be deeply disappointed! Overall, I'd give it an 8 out of 10. If the director had done just a little more to provide the viewer with context for some of the things going on, I'd have given it a 9, but far too many scenes were animated in a way that simply depicted what happened without providing the audience any frame of reference to understand why or how it was relevant. I don't think it's any wonder why this is popular in Japan but largely panned in the US - it's another anime adaptation that pre-supposes you're reading the light novel and exists purely to provide animated visuals. Without having read up on the background, you're losing huge chunks of the experience.

2014-10-03, 13:28	Link #6
Rava Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005	As a LN reader, some aspects of the show I enjoyed. Other aspects... yeah, enough said on that. I'm pretty sure that even the most brain dead LN reader watching the series can make suggestions on what should have been swapped in and out. It was pretty blatant that they were trying to capitalize on the action as much as they can. (Backflipping onii-sama! Show off those athletics!) One major aspect that the show really dropped the ball on is internal monologues. There may be others, but the only time I can remember them using it effectively (when at all) is the comment about Kichijouji and his half-baked knowledge. I don't think they implemented the "show, not tell" aspect completely correctly as a result.

2014-10-03, 22:43	Link #7
MonkeyDude Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007	The side characters being shelved until onii-sama needed them did it for me. Maybe it's just Mahouka not living up to the hype, but disappointment would be the best way to describe it. Certainly doesn't help with the bastardization of Mayumi and Miyuki. Dunno which is worse between an almost completely OC character or a near-robotic follower of the great onii-sama, but it certainly doesn't present Mahouka in a positive light. I'd give it a 6/10 just because I actually wanted a Mahouka anime. If I were to try being objective and rate it based on it's merits as a light novel adaptation? I'd say a 4/10 at best given the bad job the studio did with it. Not worth recommending to anyone unless said person really enjoys watching a show full of TEEN SPIRIT and oddly timed exposition.

2014-10-04, 07:57	Link #8
Newhope Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008	I won't mince words I rank this as probably one of the worst series I've semi watched. Poorly written. On the whole apart from the odd character the casts was awful and boring whose only real purpose is to worship God-sama. No real plot thats worth a damn. Awful use of info dumping do I really need to know exactly how every spell work. No tension due to our lord and savior one shoting everything. Over all setting is good just about everything else sucked so 4/10. Last edited by Newhope; 2014-10-04 at 08:14.

2014-10-05, 11:22	Link #9
zerozeronine Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: neverneverland	MH messed up the adaption and hope they don't get contracted for a possible season 2.

2015-07-13, 07:23	Link #10
SakurazukaJames Member Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: North Carolina	I overall enjoyed the series, but it felt kind of elitist in my opinion. Other stories I enjoy like One Piece feel more welcoming and inviting. It was like watching a series about beautiful, rich people and anyone who wasn't was petty and jealous of them. __________________ I will never apologize for enjoying fanservice.

2016-05-04, 09:16	Link #11
charles883 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2015	Gary stu is worst thing happen in good story as Gary stu kills good fight and story as No humans are perfect and makes Fight scene in Mahouka boring and too predictable Here my bit on why Mahouka one of the WORST light novel.sereis other than having boring emotionless Gary stu character which is Tatsuya 1. No good supporting character as all of them forgettable 2, No good and notable awesome villain(like Aliester in To aru, Sakai Yuji in Shana,, White queen in Accel World, Villain in Date A Live) 3. Incest pairing Spoiler Tatsuya and Miyuki are going to get Married 4.No awesome fight scene. (Chivalry of Failed knight done it 100% better than Mahouka) 5. No possible end game story and poor story writing 6.Racist based story(China) 7.Completely deviates and missing the point of underdog story Can you defend Mahouka from my criticism