×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
REVIEW: The Irregular at Magic High School Sub.Blu-Ray 3




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:45 pm Reply with quote
I actually found this arc a lot lighter on the technobabble than the previous. It almost felt like they gave up entirely on explaining the spells and how they work when in the 9SC they looked at each one. I wasn't surprised when in the booklet most of the questions were "What spell did X use here, and how does it work?"

Tatsuya being overpowered isn't a parody, nor is it lazy writing. It's an integral part of the story, looking at how such a powerful being affects the world around him despite his attempts to remain inconspicuous. The series does end before we really get to see the impact of his actions on global community but the fact that the Scorched Halloween gets added to the history books should give you an idea.

Also before people would constantly admire Tatsuya for his skills, but once they see just how terrible his power can be you can see them starting to get unsettled by it. Narratively his abilities are much more than just cool things he can do.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
jojothepunisher



Joined: 04 Sep 2007
Posts: 799
PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 1:46 pm Reply with quote
It is great to see the review giving the show the grades it deserves.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EighteenSky





PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:51 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The irregular at magic high school has made some attempts at differentiating itself from its “magical high school harem adventure” brethren

Well it differs straight away since this series isn't a harem series.

I agree with most of the points Vaisaga raised above, put across better than I could've done.

Watched this before I read the novels and had no trouble enjoying it, a lot. The 'technobabble' thing I can understand, not for everyone, just like series such as Log Horizon not for everyone. I found it all rather interesting though, a vastly different take on magic, part of what hooked me into the world continued.
Back to top
FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:54 pm Reply with quote
EighteenSky wrote:
Well it differs straight away since this series isn't a harem series.

Aren't there a crapton of girls desperately besotted with the MC, none of whom that the MC has explicitly chosen and professed love/started dating/slept with/etc.?

That would be a harem.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EighteenSky





PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 4:20 pm Reply with quote
FilthyCasual wrote:
Aren't there a crapton of girls desperately besotted with the MC, none of whom that the MC has explicitly chosen and professed love/started dating/slept with/etc.?

That would be a harem.

Wouldn't call 2 girls a harem. Miyuki (obviously) and Mayumi have shown a romantic interest (Mayumi not so much in the anime) but that's it really. Other girls (and guys remember) may be interested in Tatsuya for various reasons but that does not automatically mean it's a harem.
Back to top
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 4:57 pm Reply with quote
EighteenSky wrote:
Wouldn't call 2 girls a harem. Miyuki (obviously) and Mayumi have shown a romantic interest (Mayumi not so much in the anime) but that's it really.


I should slap you for forgetting about Honoka.

Number wise it's a harem, sure, but not content wise. Tatsuya rarely gets into harem situations with any of the girls and in fact the boob groping and walking into bath moments the review mentions happens to Mikihiko and Leo, respectively.

There are actually more female characters who aren't romantically interested in him than those who do. Some of them even have boyfriends already and there are cases like Sayaka who liked him but gave up and started dating some one else. These are all things you'd never see in typical harems.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
BlackPoint.



Joined: 23 Oct 2015
Posts: 708
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:06 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
+ When it's good, it's good, injecting an element of courtly love into Miyuki and Tatsuya's relationship really helps. Extras are helpful for understanding the story's world. Hacking/conspiracy themes are interesting.
− Too much talking, and too much of that is technobabble. Tatsuya is grossly overpowered, starts to feel like every other magic high school story with its romance plots and general themes. Animation not as good when there's no battle, same can be said for BGM.


I really disaggre with this review The irregular is one of the best animes around and putting him being OP as a - is just making me wtf, thats what makes this anime so awesome we barely get any animes where we got some strong MC, there are way too many MC that are plain simply pussies all the way and they get maybe due idk what reason some special power that way is more crappy.
You also said that the extras are good and helpful and yet you wrote that too much talking is a - like srsly decide already what is good or bad. The talking is needed to explain various things and make things easier to follow...
As i see the dude that made this review is someone that dislikes OP character and magic oriented school story.
This anime also had one of it most epic fights i have ever seen and iam still hoping for a sequel because the LN are still selling very good which means they got more then enough money and material anyway to do another 24episode season....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:30 am Reply with quote
If I want a GOOD example of what characters like Tatsuya and Kirito are trying and failing to be I'll just go check up on old Vampire Hunter D. Then again it's probably up to Kikuchi's abilities as a writer more than anything that makes D have presence. Tatsuya is just too obviously a wish-fulfillment cardboard cutout and as such he quickly becomes boring. There's really nothing to him as a character and the writing just never gives him proper presence so we're left with stuff happening but there's no weight to it. it's just so much white noise.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animelover12313



Joined: 07 May 2014
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 5:01 am Reply with quote
AiddonValentine wrote:
If I want a GOOD example of what characters like Tatsuya and Kirito are trying and failing to be I'll just go check up on old Vampire Hunter D. Then again it's probably up to Kikuchi's abilities as a writer more than anything that makes D have presence. Tatsuya is just too obviously a wish-fulfillment cardboard cutout and as such he quickly becomes boring. There's really nothing to him as a character and the writing just never gives him proper presence so we're left with stuff happening but there's no weight to it. it's just so much white noise.


I try not to be one of those people who will say that the source material explains his character better but tbh this was a pretty bad adaption of the original source. SO much were omitted and cut out because they try to fit a lot of materials into 26 episodes. I think they went through 6 volumes 1-7 (minus volume 5) and they were pretty lengthy so tons of information just got lost.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:18 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:

Tatsuya being overpowered isn't a parody, nor is it lazy writing. It's an integral part of the story, looking at how such a powerful being affects the world around him despite his attempts to remain inconspicuous. The series does end before we really get to see the impact of his actions on global community but the fact that the Scorched Halloween gets added to the history books should give you an idea.

Also before people would constantly admire Tatsuya for his skills, but once they see just how terrible his power can be you can see them starting to get unsettled by it. Narratively his abilities are much more than just cool things he can do.


"It's intentionally bad" is not a good excuse for poor writing. There are ways to do extremely over-powered characters. Mahouka is not a good example of this.

Quote:
I really disaggre with this review The irregular is one of the best animes around and putting him being OP as a - is just making me wtf, thats what makes this anime so awesome we barely get any animes where we got some strong MC, there are way too many MC that are plain simply pussies all the way and they get maybe due idk what reason some special power that way is more crappy.


I see this argument all the time and it makes zero sense. There is a massive gulf between "'pussy' MC" and "overpowered gary stu" and treating them like they're the ONLY options available is a false dichotomy.

The problem with Mahouka is not Tatsuya's power. It's the fact that no one can actually match him meaning that he is never challenged. The entire point of a story is to challenge the protagonists. There's a reason why "torture your babies" is advice given to every new writer. Not only that, but Tatsuya himself has literally zero personality yet is the centerpoint of the series. The series prides itself on its magic system and worldbuilding even though they're completely irrelevant 90% of the time. I don't care that ice spells involve slowing down the molecules of the target or that flying requires blah blah blah, just have them use the goddamn spell and get on with it. Magic is supposed to be mysterious, arcane, and mystic. Mahouka's magic is science homework. Boring science homework at that.

Believe me, I tried reading the very novels themselves! But as I was doing so, at one point, I said the Eight Deadly Words--the words that no writer ever wants a reader to say about their work:

"I don't care what happens to these people."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
leatherhead333



Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:43 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:


"I don't care what happens to these people."

Because I didn't.


I'm going to have to agree with this. Tatsuya's complete and total lack of a specified limit to his abilities make it so there is absolutely NO tension. I don't think Vaisaga gets the point of villains. Bad guys are SUPPOSED to pose a threat. Or whether be a polar opposite to the ideals of the protagonist or something along those lines they need to at least REGISTER on the danger meter. If NONE of the characters in danger why even have the villains in the first place? That's basic " Let's waste time with a random Team Rocket attack" writing. It only serves as arbitrary and pointless action if the "Jesus" main character can solve even death with his ridiculous power. I feel like a concept like this can only work in the likes of "One Man Punch" where it's self aware of how having a main character like this ruins most of the tension. I honestly felt it was laughable at times where the anime just proceeds to continuously have a Tatsuya dick sucking contest hardly ever showing him being bothered by any of it (UNLESS YOU TOUCH MY WAIFU SISTER THEN YOU DIE!).

I'll take people's word for it that Tatsuya is a much more relatable character in the novels but the anime really didn't give a shit about showing him suffering from this power at all. When Miyuki points out how much pain Tatsuya feels when reviving people we are given NO visual representation of that pain. He goes on to single handily nuke blast the meaningless bad guys and hardly looks phased. What the hell am I supposed to feel from this?

It doesn't help that he's a talking cardboard and the rest of the cast doesn't hold up much better given most of their development was shafted in favor of techno babble. These characters never get a chance to flourish in this world. And that's kind of sad honestly. I do respect the irregular for being much more scientific with it's magic concept and going to great lengths to properly explain it than pretty much every other series with a magic concept. At least in the novels anyway. Sometimes characters would bring up terms I don't remember being explained before hand so at that point I lost all interest in what was being said.

Characters > Explanations.

How it should always be.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2530
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:18 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
The problem with Mahouka is not Tatsuya's power. It's the fact that no one can actually match him meaning that he is never challenged. The entire point of a story is to challenge the protagonists. There's a reason why "torture your babies" is advice given to every new writer. Not only that, but Tatsuya himself has literally zero personality yet is the centerpoint of the series.


While I can't say much in regards to Mahouka in general, having not seen or read it, this bit reminded me of one way a story can have overpowered protagonists yet still work well.

For example, Bastard!!'s lead Dark Schneider is essentially unkillable & you know that he'll never lose. Likewise, Hareluya II BØY's Hareluya Hibino constantly gets up from any beating he's given & ends up winning. What makes these two different from Tatsuya, at least on a surface-level comparison for someone like me, is that D.S. & Hareluya both play up how powerful they are & how much damage they actually do take.

D.S. is a fourth-wall breaking, pompous jackass who outright states that his status as main character means that he can't lose a big fight. Hareluya calls himself "invincible" & has absolute surety that he will win, no matter what. At the same time, though, both of these characters still take on absurd amounts of physical damage. Hell, D.S. gets reduced to nothing but a head at one point, showcasing how powerful his opponent at the time is, though in the end D.S. still lives & talks trash; he just can't really do anything as a head. Meanwhile, Hareluya, though a more realistic portrayal, takes constant assault & damage to himself, sometimes to points where a normal man would be essentially destroyed. While he seemingly never showcases any physical signs of intense damage, outside of getting bloodied to various extents, he still gets up & fights back.

Again, this is nothing more than the viewpoint from an outsider to Mahouka, & I'm not judging Tatsuya in the process (because, really, how can I if I've never seen him in action?), but considering how much I see people argue both sides of his portrayal, I just wanted to try to understand how he differs from other overpowered heroes in anime/manga/light novels.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
T.Silver



Joined: 13 Jul 2015
Posts: 163
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:00 pm Reply with quote
As a hardcore fan of the novels, I found the anime to be a very poor adaptation. To be fair, Mahouka is a very hard series to adapt, hell even the author in an interview said that he thought the series would be really hard to adapt and even mentioned that he thought the first arc would be impossible to adapt. If Madhouse tried to make a 100% faithful adaptation, the episode count would have been probably doubled, but they were limited to 26 episode, so they had to make sacrifices. However, they choose to sacrifice characterization and the substance of the plot, but decided to keep in most of the techno info dumps, which I think was a poor choice.

With that being said I still really enjoyed it. I was 8 episodes in and that was enough to get me to try the novels. Even afterwards, though I was a bit disappointed, I still enjoyed the anime even more since I knew all of the details and info left out, so I wasn't confused and understood the characters a lot better.

As anime only, its hard for me to judge, because I watched most of the anime with knowledege from the LN, but I can understand why anime only watchers dislike the anime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rensie



Joined: 02 Sep 2011
Posts: 251
PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 1:59 am Reply with quote
Really want to see a second season, i like overpowered MC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 1:00 am Reply with quote
leatherhead333 wrote:
Tatsuya's complete and total lack of a specified limit to his abilities make it so there is absolutely NO tension. I don't think Vaisaga gets the point of villains. Bad guys are SUPPOSED to pose a threat.


I think this is the real problem with the writing of Irregular. It is not that it is bad per se (nor is it good). It just sort of misses the point and is lazy. The story wants us to think Tatsuya has some disadvantage, but then the actual writing is writing of convenience. Tatsuya will ALWAYS pull something appropriately out of nowhere and explain it away. The only time the author has put any sort of seal or limit on Tatsuya's power, is his power of resurrection. And that seal only seemed to be placed to garner an incestous kiss. To be actual good writing you do have to establish expectations and limits, and here they are simply not present. The only expectation is to wonder what new thing Tatsuya will pull out next.

And I don't mean expectations and limits in terms of not being OP. Nor do I think that bad guys are supposed to pose a threat. I think One Punch Man is an excellent example of OP with expectations and no threat. It establishes clear guidelines to Saitama's powers. Essentially that his punch is way too OP. The viewer can then work with that, develop expectations about how Saitama is going to solve situations.

Look at all the big Marvel superheroes, all of them have established guidelines as to how their OPness works. Whereas with Tatsuya there are none whatsoever. The viewer has no expectations because there is noway to predict in any form how Tatsuya will solve any given situation. The author spends literally pages and many minutes of the anime explaining their complex magic system. Which is completely irrelevant to the story, as it simply does not matter, nor account for any action Tatsuya will do. Even if you learn the magic system by heart, it would still give you no better explanation of things. As the author will simply pull something new out of his hat. It is lazy writing.

leatherhead333 wrote:
I'll take people's word for it that Tatsuya is a much more relatable character in the novels but the anime really didn't give a shit about showing him suffering from this power at all. When Miyuki points out how much pain Tatsuya feels when reviving people we are given NO visual representation of that pain. He goes on to single handily nuke blast the meaningless bad guys and hardly looks phased. What the hell am I supposed to feel from this?


Take my word for it. He is no better in the novels. His actions and the system are explained a little better. However, all the flaws of the writing are inherent in the source material. And yeah it becomes hard to emphasise with Tatsuya as none of his feelings ever are particularly described. The entire time really it is Miyuki talking about how Tatsuya is suffering at any given moment. And him just going about his business as a typical meatloaf.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group