Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei is racing through this content.
In my episode 4 review of Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei I wondered if we would get a fresh perspective on the terrorist plot and I guess the answer was kind of yes and no.
I mean, if you wanted a truncated version of events where the conspirators are rounded up in a series of stills with some narration to hold the plot loosely together inbetween one or two very small additional scenes that give Miyuki and her friends a few minor moments to shine, I guess this delivers.
Still there honestly doesn’t seem like enough new material in this arc to really warrant a spin-off giving it a whole new perspective. Likewise, if you hadn’t seen the story previously, very little of what transpires here will make sense and you’d be forgiven for having no clue what the terrorists were after or how the various students fit into that final conflict given half of them have barely been introduced in this version of the story.
Now does that mean I wasn’t feeling a little bad for Honoka as she first saw the terrorists and froze up? No. One thing I will praise Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei for doing is giving Honoka and Shizuku their time to shine as they really were quite powerful but never really got the limelight outside of the sports tournament in the original story.
Here we see Eimi come to their rescue and then Shizuku protect all three of the girls. Even Honoka pulls herself together later and plays a pivotal role in rounding up the student ringleader. The girls and their smiles as they high five their success was one of those really joyous moments in anime that make it well worth watching.
On the other hand, despite Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei being seen through the eyes of Miyuki, other than learning she’s better than a dry-cleaning service I don’t think much has been added to her character over the last five episodes. Even her confrontation with the terrorists added little that we didn’t see in Tatsuya’s version though it did extend the sequence where she was freezing them.
Is this really Miyuki’s story?
About the only real addition is her remorse after and realising that Tatsuya definitely cleaned up after her at his own expense. Which kind of makes you realise why she’s so hesitant to act most of the time.
Be that as it may, they rapidly wrapped up this confrontation with Blanche and the after credits sequences introduces us to the girls from third high as a lead in to the nine-schools tournament. I’m trying not to get my hopes up but this really is a chance for Miyuki and the others to shine as Tatsuya’s perspective focused on the engineering and programming of the CADs whereas the girls will focus in on the actual competition given they are all a part of it from the beginning.
It really is a chance for Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei to find its own feet and to really bring these characters to life outside of the story we’ve already been told. It would also be great if some of the girls from third high got a chance to be more than just the nameless competitors given we really only learned anything about the males last time after Tatsuya entered the competition.
Still, it will be hard for them to really surprise us given we did see or hear the outcomes of most the events last time around. My fingers are crossed as I’d really like to see these girls working together, making friends and rivals, and just really dominating the plot in a way they haven’t quite managed so far this season.
Images from: Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei. Dir. Hideki Tachibana. Connect. 2021
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Karandi James
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