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Seven Magic High Schools Worth Enrolling In


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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:06 am Reply with quote
Well, thank goodness that forming a harem (intentionally or not) is not one of the enrollment requirements
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:09 am Reply with quote
Who could forget the show where the tsundere beats the MC with a horse whip and expects the audience to think it's funny. The LN was even worse, having him pass out from the pain. God, worst tsundere ever.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:12 am Reply with quote
I'm surprised that Index and Railgun both made the list since one is a spin-off and they intertwine on a regular basis. No complaints from me, though.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:17 am Reply with quote
Both Index and Familiar of Zero are from the same year, source-material-wise. Soul Eater is the one that's actually the oldest, from this list.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:34 am Reply with quote
I'm not sure some of those are really in the "magic high school battle genre." Specifically Index. Yes, Touma is a student. However, the vast majority of the major characters he interacts with are not students at all. Nothing of note ever happens at his school either (well until more recently in New Testament spoiler[when the High Priest destroys most of it]).

I think to really fit into this genre, the main characters (both good guys and bad) need to be students and the school itself needs to be important.
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Azumi14



Joined: 09 Dec 2015
Posts: 58
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:45 am Reply with quote
I a big fan of Tokyo Ravens and after see the Anime I read all the light novels except the last two books. Because the last two Tokyo Raven light novels have not been translated and probably will not since there not a big fan base. I surprise that Tokyo Ravens made the list since almost all the reviews trash the anime. I love the characters and the depth of emotion in the anime and light novels. There is enough material to make a season two. I hope so.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1255
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:49 am Reply with quote
I think my favorite example falls under the "sufficiently advanced technology" clause: Baka Test. It's got a neat premise (you get a little avatar whose attack power is based on your grades) and, more importantly, is funny as hell.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:53 am Reply with quote
Azumi14 wrote:
I a big fan of Tokyo Ravens and after see the Anime I read all the light novels except the last two books.


I'm a big fan of the anime and LN. I though the anime was strong on its own as I hadn't read the LNs until afterwards. The two leads are both strong, and I felt the system of magic is used was quite unique and made it stand out among other magic high school battle series.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:55 am Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:
I'm not sure some of those are really in the "magic high school battle genre." Specifically Index. Yes, Touma is a student. However, the vast majority of the major characters he interacts with are not students at all. Nothing of note ever happens at his school either (well until more recently in New Testament spoiler[when the High Priest destroys most of it]).

I think to really fit into this genre, the main characters (both good guys and bad) need to be students and the school itself needs to be important.


I think there's still some merit in classifying it as a Magic High-School anime because of the school festival(s), but even then those only end up being a background to the plot, and not the plot itself, whereas in stuff like Rakudai the school tournament is the plot.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:55 am Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Who could forget the show where the tsundere beats the MC with a horse whip and expects the audience to think it's funny. The LN was even worse, having him pass out from the pain. God, worst tsundere ever.


Amen to that, brother.

That said, I actually did really like the first season of Zero's Familiar. Louise was awful at first but she did develop over the series and by the end of it became a tolerable person.

Which is why I hate the 2nd season because it throws that out the window and Louise regresses into the abusive bitch she was at the beginning. Third season was an improvement but by then I was so disillusioned that I didn't even watch the final one.

Bit surprised, but happy to see Mahouka on the list. The general attitude towards it seems pretty negative here on ANN. People always throw "Gary Stu" around whenever it's mentioned and I'm really tired of explaining why that's wrong.

Two other titles that are great are Blade Dance of the Elementalists and Unlimited Fafnir. Unfortunately their respective anime don't reach the point where they get really good.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:22 pm Reply with quote
Paul wrote:
Magical high school shows might be here to stay, or they might go the way of “girls with guns”


Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad

Man, what I would give for a return of traditional "Girls with Guns" shows, like Gunslinger Girl and Black Lagoon.


One thing that I really liked about Chivalry of a Failed Knight was that the core romance actually evolved and progressed throughout the show. It had some harem elements, but it went beyond them and that was pretty neat. I haven't bought a show like that in a while, but I would consider picking this one up.
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GeneStriker



Joined: 03 Feb 2016
Posts: 156
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Is it weird that I hated Index, but loved Railgun? Something about Touma irritates me as an MC, but I don't seem to mind him as a side character...
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:52 pm Reply with quote
GeneStriker wrote:
Is it weird that I hated Index, but loved Railgun? Something about Touma irritates me as an MC, but I don't seem to mind him as a side character...


Yes, definitely. I'm checking my chart of my acceptable opinions here and the norm is to like Index but dislike Railgun. It is a tolerable opinion to like or dislike both, too. But to like Railgun and dislike Index is definitely an anomaly. You should get it checked by a professional.

On a not-sarcastic note, I dislike Misaka as a side character and kind of like her as a main character, but there's just too much fluff in Railgun that I don't care about in the least.
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WingKing



Joined: 27 Apr 2015
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:58 pm Reply with quote
GeneStriker wrote:
Is it weird that I hated Index, but loved Railgun? Something about Touma irritates me as an MC, but I don't seem to mind him as a side character...


I've only watched five episodes of Index so I don't have an opinion myself, but it definitely isn't weird. I've actually heard a lot of people say that.

As for magic schools, Little Witch Academia is the first one that comes to mind for me - of course they've only made short films of it so far and it looks like Paul was sticking to TV series, but it's still the entry in this genre that I've enjoyed the most.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:04 pm Reply with quote
I think the big problem with the overabundance is that its probably going to go critical and then disappear. As was said its an amazingly good setting, but there's so many right now (and so many bad to mediocre one) that I really don't feel like sniffling trough the crap to discover the good stuff and I doubt I'm the only one. So I'd imagine in a few year they'll be few and far between, kinda like what happened to show like cowboy bebop which were so abundant for awhile in the 90 and disappeared.

Part of the problem with how samey they all are is the main character I find. There almost invariably "the special one". In a world where everyone has super power they have to be the one with super super power. This to me kinda kill the potential of the school aspect since the lead is almost always un-relatable, we all were at school and we all know what's its like to be one student amongst a sea of not that different student. Standing out is particularly hard, especially in a positive way. But in those story the MC just stand out for something that they were born with, they never have to make effort and try hard, there just the precious one effortlessly.
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