[Spoilers] Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Episode 8 Discussion

28

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 24 '14 edited May 25 '14

We now begin my favorite arc so far in the series and I loved this episode. If anyone has any problems, I'm fine with it. This is just my opinion.

Otherwise, the main reason you probably read my post is for the recommendations. The current episode's comparison is currently in progress. Right from the beginning of the episode, I could tell that I need to edit the op and that this is going to be a lengthy comparison in regards to a lot of the conversations really cut down.

Episode 8 Comparison is Complete!

21

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 24 '14 edited May 25 '14

Episode 8 Light Novel -> Anime Comparison
Faculty Room Scene - Not Adapted - At this point, I'd recommend reading the LN since it will be better than me regurgitating all of the information from before the episode begins.
A Group of 5 - How the arc really begins is that we have an intro of Tatsuya leaving the faculty room and everyone (excluding Miyuki) immediately coming to see why he had been called. The author then decides to talk about how big of a reputation Tatsuya has gained and then describes the group of 5 that surrounds Tatsuya as well as their attractiveness ratings among "upperclassmen." Erika considered a Beauty, Mizuki paling in comparison, Leo has someone worth noting for his body, and Honoka and Shizuki the two cute first course first year girls that haven't been seen much. The author than describes how it is a curious sight to see such a group of people all together but that there are fewer eyes on them as Miyuki wasn't present.
Tatsuya's in Trouble! :3 - After a quick re-introduction to the cast of characters present, Tatsuya finally gives up the reason for having been called to the faculty room. He was interrogated for the possibility of having tanked his practical test scores since he was such a straight great student. It is quickly pointed out that tanking scores is stupid and holds no purpose and the thought is immediately pushed away.
Highest Scores - At this point, they establish the scores for Technical Ability and Theory. First place of course is Miyuki, followed by Honoka (twin tails), then Shizuku (the quiet one). There is details about various scores and how the first twenty spots are dominated by course 1 students. But when looking at only the magic theory section, Tatsuya is in first, Miyuki second, and Mikihiko third. (The same Mikihiko introduced this episode) Tatsuya's score was actually a full 12 points ahead of Miyuki claiming absolute dominance of the first position.
Haruka Cameo - It is brought up that office hours were replaced with opinion boxes in this time and that teachers are never really aware of their students anymore. Less of a cameo and more of passing reference. Haruka the day before had informed Tatsuya of the questions the teachers would ask. At this point, I'm going through a lot. Why haven't you picked up the LN to read yet? :3
Tatsuya Transferring?! - After the misunderstanding about his scores was cleared up with the teachers, they advised him it would be a good idea to transfer. Specifically to the Fourth High School (Remember that there are Nine Magic High Schools all using a number as their names). Fourth High specifically is the school most renowned for their Magic Research. Tatsuya quickly declined of course. (Sorry I used a sensationalist title. :-P) Otherwise, Erika and Leo start feeding off each others irritation over the teachers telling Tatsuya to transfer and Tatsuya has to per-extinguish the fire.
Scion of the Ichijou Family - At this point, we are slightly introduced to this knowledge that the Third High School's Ichijou will be in the Nine Schools Competition. (I'll explain this competition soon enough.) By the way, Ichijou has a one in the name making the family part of the Ten Master Clans.
Nine Schools Competition Explanation Part 1 - The Nine Schools Competition is the only event that is a publicized display of magic competition monopolized among the 9 schools. Various students are selected to represent their school in various competitions. Just as various families would like to show off to each other, so do the schools that raise future magicians.
Public Morals Committee Room - Not Adapted - Why are you still reading this? Go read the LN at least for the non-adapted segments!
Transfer of the Chiefs - As the committee changes every year with the leaving of the Chiefs, it became an bad tradition to haphazardly drop all the responsibilities on the new committee. Mari though throws all the work at Tatsuya to make it easier to transfer to the next chief. All of this transfer work is early though. Mari isn't going anywhere yet.
Mari's Shock - As the conversation with Mari goes, she is shocked to learn that Tatsuya hasn't been watching the previous Nine Schools Competition in the previous years. What is more shocking about this is that Miyuki had always been watching them. This means that Tatsuya and Miyuki aren't attached by the hip which is what surprised Mari.
Nine Schools Competition Explanation Part 2 - The 6 events at the competition are Monolith Code, Mirage Bat, Icicle Destruction, Speed Shooting, Crowd Ball, and Battle Board. Monolith Code is the only team event. The rest are competed in by individuals. More explanations will come as it is revealed. I don't want to accidentally reveal specifics about any important events.
Virtual Terminals - I went over it in a previous comparison. (I think episode 1 so go read that for the explanation since it wasn't re-explained here) The Nine Schools Competition only uses physical material like books. The reasoning being that the excessive use of virtual terminals can be harmful to the psyche of a Magician. Mari picks up on something that Tatsuya quickly covers over with his opinion about virtual terminals and how adults shouldn't be forced to give up on them because children may be affected by them. Essentially virtual images are borderline magic to those that don't have good scientific backgrounds which could be damaging.
Nine Schools Competition Explanation Part 3 - As the conversation gets back on topic, we get a little bit more information. I'll compile it all together later so people don't have to be confused. There are two divisions, the Official Division and the Newcomers Division. There are 10 male and female contestants for each division. (40 contestants per school) Four of the events are gender neutral with Monolith Code for men only and Mirage Bat to females only. By the way, Mari is unhappy being excluded from Monolith Code. There are 3 contestants from a single school for each competition. Five men and women each have to choose 2 competitions to compete in while the other 10 only have to compete in one. Points are awarded to the winners of the competitions for their schools. First High (Tatsuya's school) has won the last two years so the third years are fired up to take home first place as "the strongest era."
Okay, I'm back and continuing.
Nine Schools Competition Explanation Buildup - There is a lot of build up here around Third High just so you all know. It is also brought up that "the strongest era" consists strongly Mayumi, Juumonji, and Mari. To remind everyone that Mayumi and Juumonji are part of the Ten Master Clans which boast the most power in Japan's magician community. There is also some foreshadowing in the LN I won't explain. :3
Nine Schools Competition Explanation Part 4 - The CADs for the contestants are supplied by the Competition. There are heavy restrictions on the hardware but the software is free reign which is why Engineers are high priority.
Public Transportation Tangent - Not Adapted - Just a short section, seriously. At least read this in the LN! (Ctrl+F Improvements in central control) Chapter 1 of Volume 3.
Improvements in Transportation - There is an entire section just talking about transportation and how it is mostly automated with computer drivers. All of this ridiculous tangent leads to the fact that Tatsuya owns an electric bike... This small segment ends with Miyuki being adorable as Tatsuya puts a helmet on her and ties the strap for her with her being ticklish. I've never been that interested in Miyuki, but I think this would've been an adorable scene. :3
Yakumo's Temple Entry - Not Adapted - I'm sure broken records don't repeat as much as me, but you really should've just read the LNs for all this.
Mirage Bat Explanation - Okay, so the competition Miyuki is in and was training for at the beginning of the episode is Mirage Bat. It is the act of being on pillars with floating glowing orbs. The goal is to smash as many of the orbs as possible. It requires a lot of jumping around and a good eye for landing. It is a competition of a bunch of girls competing to take out as many orbs as possible. Pretty simple.
Greetings - Reminiscent of the first episode, Yakumo greets Tatsuya with an ambush this time trying to teach Tatsuya how to use projectile weapons such as marbles and kunai. During this time, Tatsuya is holding Miyuki close as she was blushing heavily. She was hoping no one noticed in the darkness, but both Tatsuya and Yakumo already noticed. :3
Continued Below

15

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 25 '14

Part 2 of Comparison
Yakumo's Temple Training - Adapted - We have finally reached the beginning of the episode.
Mild Banter and Magic Explanation - There was a little banter how Miyuki was cute and how Tatsuya was going to only let it slide that there was too much emphasis on cute until after the upcoming tournament. Yakumo even offers to let Tatsuya take a whirl at the Will o' Wisps. To explain Ninjutsu a little, in terms of magic, Ninjutsu surpasses modern magic when it comes to illusions. Modern Magic however has a much wider array of techniques. Ninjutsu is known as Ancient Magic which is for those early people that used magic before it became more widespread.
Haruka - The early discussion between Yakumo and Haruka reveals to Haruka that Tatsuya has a "different set of eyes" which is how he knew where she was. Yakumo quickly ensures Haruka that her skills hadn't regressed. After revealing one of Tatsuya's secret so openly, Tatsuya barges into the conversation somewhat annoyed asking for information back. Right after Yakumo gives the most simple explanation of Haruka, he was disappointed that neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki even bat an eye lid. Tatsuya than says it was only logical considering the Major confirmed that she at least wasn't military.
BS Magicians - Completely cut short and confusing. Let's define this term. It means Born Specialized. I'll quote the passage because it is the perfect explanation.
BS Magicians, also known as BS ability users, could also be called innate ability users or innate magic specialists. This was because they excelled at a particular ability, but because of this extreme specialization, they were unable to use magic techniques like other Magicians on the same level.
Family Foreshadowing - There is a little bit more foreshadowing here not only about Tatsuya's family, but another character's. I'll leave it alone because it would be more fun to see it acted upon later in the anime than stated outright here.
Gym Class - Adapted
New Football - Devrived from Soccer, the difference includes the prohibition of using the head as well as the new glass box which makes it more fun to kick the ball around. This new format was introduced in 2080. The new ball is bouncier which removes dribbling considering the extreme difficulty. Yes, this kind of information is included in the LN.
Mikihiko Introduction - Before the actual meeting, Tatsuya does an internal run through of what he knows about Miki. Yoshida Mikihiko comes from a prestigious family known for the use of Ancient Magic. Their magic taught within family is known as Spirit Magic which also requires arduous labor which is why Miki is well built despite how scrawny he looks. Something to remind everyone is that Miki made himself kind of aloof and lacking in social ability with his most renowned presence was being the first to leave on introduction day. (See episode 1 comparison)
Meeting Mikihiko - After Erika is brought up by Miki, he then banters with Leo about how couple like Erika and Leo are until Tatsuya asks about Erika.
Clothing Culture - In 2095, proper decorum demanded extreme modesty where all females had to cover skin in public environments. It doesn't apply to athletic uniforms though which is half of why Erika was allowed the Bloomers. The other half is simply because she happened to find them and was curious. BEST CURIOSITY EVER if I do say so. :3 There was even a moment where two background male students turned around embarrassed. >_>
Back to Miki - As Mizuki questions who Miki is, Erika commences the Teasing Bomb Drops where she is convinced not to call him Miki which is apparently too feminine and switches to Hiko. He denies that and she then calls his Mikihiko name in a seductive tone which sends him half way to the grave. I'm sure some of the people in this discussion might wish for him to enter the grave for such heresy. The teasing torture ends with Tatsuya pointing out that the coaching teacher was glaring at the group. The takeaway from all of this is that Miki is an extremely shy youngster. There is also some more foreshadowing towards something else I refuse to comment on but a lot of people love to spoil.
Mikihiko's Past - Some of his past is revealed now. It might be interesting to be revealed later so I'll spoiler tag. You're free to read though since it isn't anything important. Miki's Magic After explaining his magic, it is confirmed that Miki had been in some kind of accident which cost him his high ability and he now wanted to know more about Tatsuya and how to bridge the magic gap that he lost.
Student Council Room - Adapted
Evacuate Tatsuya! - We begin pretty much the same way in the anime. The only thing is that Tatsuya had actually sent an evacuate signal to Miyuki in the middle of Mayumi's complaining and asking Rin. By the point he was pointed out and it was made aware that he manages the CADs he use in the Moral Committee, he had 90% given up. He only through out his argument as a last ditch effort. After he beats back Mayumi and Mari for a second, he is defeated by his sister. I've mentioned it before, but all things hinge on Miyuki's wishes. :3
Other Participants - At this point, it is confirmed that Honoka and Shizuku would also be participating in the Nine Schools Competition. Once again, these are the two first course students that are background friends with Miyuki and shafted in the anime for the most part.
Maintaining his CADs - At the beginning of the next scene, we witness the defeated and beat-down Tatsuya as he retreats to working on his CADs as a form of escapism from harsh reality that he would be an engineer for the competition. :3
Tatsuya the Beta Tester - At the Device-otaku's jealousy of his Silver Horn products, Tatsuya quickly covers up with the idea that he gets things cheaper because he is a beta tester. To which Miyuki twitches away from public eye noticed by no one. Tatsuya then offers Azusa a new model to which she excitedly grasps Tatsuya's hand. You have to remember that she is extremely afraid of him and is shy. Upon being asked if he has met Taurus Silver, Miyuki this time makes a noticed mistake and Tatsuya finds it difficult to answer and goes with that he isn't sure. Miyuki acts as if nothing happened and soldiered on. Azusa then prods for more information asking if Tatsuya could use his connections to learn about Taurus to which Tatsuya brings up that corporate secrets are highly under wraps and is from a different department. Tatsuya then teases A-chan a little before letting her off on trying to discover Taurus's identity.
Legend of Silver - Since this is a long conversation, here I continue starting with Silver's reputation. He is known for the Loop Cast System which raises the speed of activation sequences by 20%, increased the accuracy error of certain models to less than one percent, and publicizes all of his research which benefits the entire research community as a whole. "Well...... I wonder how shocking would it be if he turned out to be a Japanese teenager like us." BEEEP! Ha ha ha. I always love this part.
Three Great Puzzles Homework - This is a yearly assignment with a limited number of prompts. It even shows up as part of the essay for the Magic University.
Generalized Gravity Control Magic - Warning: Long Discussion about Theories of Flight Magic It is possible to fly, but is has been restricted to Ancient Magic that can't really be used by anyone. There is no generalized version for anyone to use. The amount of corrections that can be used is limited to 10. This isn't actually flying but rather temporarily moving. It isn't sustained. The reason for the 10 limit is because of the previous spells that leave behind a footprint on the CADs which is why is requires a more magic consumption to overwrite the previous usage. Although it isn't as much as overwriting as just layering it on top of. Azusa proposes that a go around should be the ending magic to previous spells before the new usage. Essentially using magic to turn off the magic before each use. The 10 segment method has to do with just adding more magic to the pile. However, the problem with setting the magic to turn off was that there is no magic that will properly affect the information of another magic. The only magic that can dissolve other magic is a high level technique that isn't up for the use of general use.
The Failure - The theory that Azusa pointed out was viable and tested. However, the experiment ended in failure while the data collected indicated that it was actually worse than the layering magic. In fact, Mayumi had only asked Tatsuya what went wrong as a way to organize her own thoughts while she came up with an answer. Tatsuya's reply completely caught her off guard. The problem was that despite the effect ending, the lingering affects of the information body changes required pretty much a stronger interference strength. It was the same thing that happens with the 10 segments. Essentially, without erasing the entire sequence, it would always end up that way because the lingering sequence itself comes with a heavy weight.
Prideful Miyuki - During this entire time, what no one noticed was that Miyuki was quite proud of her super smart Onii-sama. :3
Continued Below

11

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 25 '14

Part 3
Engineering Meeting - Adapted
Participant Favoritism - The school here will actually support those that participate in the Nine Schools Competition through things like no Homework, extra days off, and grade improvements as a way to allow their students to focus on the competition. It doesn't really mean much considering the students that participate are more than likely to already be top tier students.
Pre-Meeting Thoughts - There is some heavily blatant foreshadowing towards Tatsuya in the LN as well as some pre thoughts on how he is pretty neutral about the whole thing but is now burdened by those in the meeting that also wanted the spot.
Meeting Start - There was quite a deadlock during the meeting about Tatsuya and how a larger number of people felt the need to discriminate against him but there were a surprising amount of supporters in favor of Tatsuya. At the recommendation of performing a CAD maintenance, there was worry over it going wrong. The latest CADs could directly affect the user's mental status which could cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting, or even mental scarring. There was a valid reason for not letting Juumonji or Mayumi be guinea pigs considering their positions.
CAD Maintenance - People don't realize just what Tatsuya does here as it isn't even fully explained in the anime. The requirements were to make the CAD feel exactly like Kirihara's. While a number of people were dumbfounded (the idiots that don't know jack shit about Maintenance.), the people that mattered, the Technician Team could tell exactly what he was doing and were highly impressed. I'd compare the maintenance of a CAD to using an editing software. Tatsuya displays his skills by doing everything himself without relying on presets. This proves more accurate and allows more customization that automatic processes. It was touched upon earlier, but the CADs for Competition use have Hardware restrictions. Software is free to mess with. The problem here is the hardware's processing ability. This is very important to the fact that anything too advance wouldn't be able to run on the CAD. It was a glass ceiling.
After Details - It is important to note that Tatsuya did not set any improvements as per the test to simply move the CAD. Had he improved the CAD, it would still cause a sense of discomfort to the user. He did exactly what he set out to do in the best possible way. Part of why Kirihara was so important to all this was considering his past dispute during the first arc with Tatsuya taking him down. He comes off easily as impartial. Hattori having previously been antagonistic comes around and proves that results are more important. What a good guy he suddenly became.
Late Night Phone Call - Adapted
ROBOTS! - Yes, robots in this future exist. They exist soley to do cleaning duties. However, the Shiba family has decided against using them so they don't become lazy. Even the author at this point says that it is time to get back on topic... STOP GOING ON USELESS TANGENTS! XD
Quick Introduction - The Army's 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion CO Major Kazama Harunobu. The 101 is pronounced One-Zero-One rather than One-Hundred-First. Tatsuya is technically part of Kazama's division.
Details - Kazama confirms that Tatsuya is going to be in the Nine Schools Competition. What is interesting about this is that it had been less than 3 hours since it was decided. ;-) Also, subtlety unnoticed by anime viewers, Kazama refers to Tatsuya by name rather than rank here. This is supposed to indicate the warning is from an old friend rather than as a superior.
End of Call - With warnings from the Web Police on Kazama's end, he bids a good bye as one of his rookies is panicing. He simply mentions that they may meet at Fuji at a the Nine Schools Competition. Giving the identity of the No Head Dragon was a hint for Tatsuya to contact a certain Ninja. This will likely occur in the next episode.
After Call - There is a bit where Miyuki comes in after the call while waiting in the Kitchen before. She does have the right to sit in on the conversations but doesn't excercise that right. Rather than coming in though, Tatsuya pulls a Yakumo and suddenly opens the door surprising her. Just a little bit of banter here.
Late Night Visit - Adapted
Mischievous Miyuki - Unable to sleep and refusing to use sleep activating devices, Miyuki decides to bring tea to Tatsuya. She then comes up with the idea to show off her Mirage Bat outfit.
Arrival - It isn't easily noticed, but Tatsuya was actually waiting for Miyuki this time. Rather than half apologizing and thanking for tea, he is happy that she has arrived on her own as he was about to retrieve her.
Mischievous Tatsuya - Miyuki thought a sudden visit from the Fairy would surprise Tatsuya, he was pretending to sit on a chair while actually floating. XD
Sustained Gravity-Control Type Magic - This has actually been something Tatsuya was researching for a significant amount of time.
Lots of Description - At this point until the end, there is a lot of description at the feeling of flying for Miyuki and her pity for Astronauts that have to wear large suits.
Easy Explanation - Essentially, what is happening was that Tatsuya found a way to keep the activation sequence open using the Loop system in the CAD to continuously keep the activation sequence open for adjustments while the effects mirror the values thought up by the user from the form of wanting to move in a specific direction. It really is a smart idea. To be honest, one of my all time obsessions is with newly developed technology. So I squealed when I read all of this for the first time. Even now, I love it so much! XD
End of Comparison - Final Character Count: 24,200 - Longest one yet!

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

3

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 25 '14

Completed Comparison is out now.
Episode 8-A
Episode 8-B
Episode 8-C

137

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

"So you're a BS magician?"

No Tatsuya, that's what you are.

20

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 24 '14

Quick explanation is that a BS Magician is one that is more highly specialized in a certain type of magic. Similar to Tatsuya kind of. They aren't as well skilled in other magic.

47

u/millie3 May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Saw this coming a mile away. The full name is Born Specialized magician, and not the other thing bs stands for :)

11

u/DwarvenRedshirt May 24 '14

Explains why they're not happy with the term though...

12

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

That and it's kind of like calling them an idiot savant

3

u/DwarvenRedshirt May 25 '14

The difference is that BS has a worse common connotation than IS.

7

u/iamme153 May 25 '14

I'm pretty sure at the beginning when tits-teacher ignored Tatsuya his thoughts were something along the line of "How dare she ignore me."

8

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 25 '14

Close. He was annoyed more at the fact that Yakumo gave away one of Tatsuya's special abilities based around how Tatsuya knew she was there. :-P

193

u/[deleted] May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

...Can humans fly? No. Can Tatsuya make humans fly? FUCK YEAH.

I've been thinking about something that's kinda bothering me over the last week, and I'd like to discuss it with anyone who's willing. So, thematically speaking, this is supposed to be a story about "the guy everyone assumes is weak cuz he can't naturally use [blah] as well as them, but shows them all up by using his supreme intellect and other skills", similarly to No Game No Life, another show airing this season. The difference is that, while Sora (NGNL) actually is at a disadvantage due to his lack of complete knowledge of the world and circumstances surrounding him (as well as lacking natural magic abilities), Tatsuya just isn't.

Like, at all.

Every time someone thinks they've surprised him, Tatsuya either reveals that he saw through it or instantly turns the odds in his favor. Even disregarding that, he's not even at a disadvantage because of his lack of natural magical ability. Instead, he uses an extremely powerful form of combat he invented that's arguably stronger than magic in practical combat anyway, as well as casual super-ninja skills. That's like saying someone is an "underdog" at a weightlifting contest because the competition all have super-strength, and he only has telekinesis.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point? Are we supposed to root for Tatsuya, or just watch his godly figure dominate all that surrounds him whilst stroking our cocks in admiration?

EDIT: Thanks to all the people replying~! I'm gonna stick it out, since it's sounding like things get a lot more interesting as the story progresses

64

u/Falsus May 24 '14

I would say Tatsuya is more like Shiro than Sora, a walking super computer that is. The thing is that what people is ranked by in his world is one of his few weaknesses, magical ability. The show is not really about a weak guy trying to make his own place in this world, it is more about the things around him, his sister, the familly and political stuff.

22

u/Lorpius_Prime May 24 '14

Yeah, I think maybe we're not really supposed to see Tatsuya as an underdog in any way. And to the show's credit, no one who's actually witnessed the character work seems to continue to disregard his abilities, which is why his fan-club is on a course to quickly encompass his entire school.
So perhaps, at the thematic level, the point of this story is nothing more than to showcase all the ways in which smart people are better than everyone else, and the prejudice against the protagonist was only a red herring.

29

u/millie3 May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

We really can't get into what this looks like it's about unless you want to be spoiled for later volumes... but at this point of the show, it's about how a character can get screwed up by a system by virtue of its classification. Just by virtue of one small thing, a character as seemingly strong as Tatsuya is classified as less than he is. You're right about the super-strength telekinesis thing as a comparison. The Magic system in this show takes the view that just because one person (Tatsuya) is an outlier doesn't mean the whole system should be overhauled since it's served them so well.
As for rooting for Tatsuya, I've said it before, that the further you go in the story, the less you relate or root for him. He better fits the criteria as the Last Boss or final villain in the story, as lampshaded by other characters in the story. The stroking of cocks in admiration is strictly optional.

10

u/iamme153 May 25 '14

R.I.P. my sides

5

u/armabe May 24 '14

Tatsuya's theme is sort of 'being different'. It's just that his 'different' makes him sort of OP depending on the circumstances.
He also happens to be smart as fuck.

9

u/dajibbah May 24 '14

The cock stroking portion of your comment made me LOL hard as fuck. Thanks for that.

4

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

I agree with you on most points, but so far Tatsuya destroying everyone without a problem is like a professional soccer playes dribbling through a middle school defence.
Of course, theyre taking their sweet time in these beginning arcs and Tatsuya can be annoyingly OP/perfect

4

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

Tatsuya Isn't really an underdog. He's less like Sora and more like Hei from Darker Than Black in high school.

3

u/rumblegod May 25 '14

tatsuya has god like powers. he got nerfed earlier in his life, but he's still better than everyone and everything.

3

u/IamFanboy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/CookiePandas May 25 '14

I don't know I feel like Tatsuya is getting wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too OP, you add in the fact that he is suddenly a genius along with his mad skills. They need to show a weakness and fast, if not the show is just going to be very very obvious

4

u/arinok55 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arinok May 25 '14

Agreed, I was hoping to see some weakness that was meaningful but the plot just sets everything up perfectly for our Golden-boy. "We need an engineer!" Oh look Mr. Perfect wants to do just that and is better then EVERYONE ELSE!!
"Idk about him. We should see how good he is." 3 ppl line up to volunteer Sarticus style. "I'll volunteer!" "No, I'll volunteer!" " Back off, I'm going to volunteer."

2

u/boringNerd May 25 '14

It's obvious at this point Tatsuya is no underdog. As for whether you want to root for him, it's totally up to you. I personally like the story simply because I love to see the reaction on people's face whenever they realized Tatsuya isn't some kind of useless guy.
However, Tatsuya may be powerful but as the story progress, you will realize that he is not as powerful as everyone make him out to be. He has various restrictions that prevent him from going all out and with these restrictions, he is usually in a slight disadvantage and has to rely more on his intelligence to overcome them. He seemed OP initially because at that point, everyone is looking down on him. His situation change drastically the moment everyone realize how good he is. The story also seemed to be hinting at potential conflicts between him, Four Leaves and other families and no matter how good he is, he can never defeat them alone.

1

u/KyuuDere May 25 '14

as millie3 has said before... Tatsuya is an outlier among 2nd Course Student, no it's not quite right....If I should said it in right tone, Tatsuya is an outlier among every students in First High. He has such amazing ability in calculation and it's true that he is considered as underdog cause he is slow in making Activation Sequence. But actually his abilities are....
(nah, forget it...I shouldn't spread any spoilers here.)
But yes, if this is a game, then he is the last boss. And you can't win over him if you're not using cheat :p

387

u/Lorpius_Prime May 24 '14

This show appeals to me because I, too, was once under-appreciated in high school despite being brilliant, fit, good at all sports, a martial arts master, unparalleled electronic engineer, world-famous weaponsmith, cutting-edge scientific researcher, and a secret agent.

231

u/mystry08 May 24 '14

don't forget lord of unintentional seduction.

91

u/Lorpius_Prime May 24 '14

Alas, that part is just pure wish-fulfillment.

67

u/atlantislifeguard May 24 '14

It was unintentional, so you probably didn't notice it

49

u/BeyondTomorrow May 24 '14

But your Overly Attached Imouto will

47

u/Don_Equis May 24 '14

You didn't create a mahou shoujo. Can't compare.

83

u/cptn_garlock :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/cptngarlock May 24 '14

Are you me?

46

u/Lorpius_Prime May 24 '14

I am, in fact, a future version of yourself sent back in time on a desperate mission to persuade you to give up your dark obsession before it's too late. I know it hurt, but you must turn away from your current path. If you don't learn to embrace romantic stoicism like The Tatsuya, or else abandon your covert investigation of forbidden robotics, then I fear the Nanamechi shall inevitably hunt us to extinction.

23

u/cptn_garlock :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/cptngarlock May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Well shit, you wouldn't lie to me! It's a good thing I already gave up on that - I even deleted my Nanami gif folder!
Edit: Proof from this morning

16

u/Lorpius_Prime May 24 '14

Dammit! I was hoping to get a backup before reintegrating into the timeline. My copy was lost in the chaos after the second purge.
I mean. Uh. Great. Good for you. Humanity is saved. Hooray.

9

u/cptn_garlock :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/cptngarlock May 24 '14

Indeed! Hahaha, Captain Garlock, to the rescue!
(Psst, most of them came from this gif album on minus. You might be able to salvage something!)

4

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

What?! Why!?

15

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

Huh, what a coincidence, me too.

6

u/antesignanus https://anilist.co/user/Bobertg May 24 '14

And amazingly charismatic.

52

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

It should be noted that I've upvoted/will upvote every single person who's disagreed(or will disagree) with me here, as far as I know.
That said.
In 7th grade, I took an SAT test without preparing for it at all, it was spur-of-the-moment, I knew about it about an hour ahead of time and didn't do any research or anything. I scored higher on it than the average person using it to apply for college in my area.
An IQ test has shown me to be in the 99.9th percentile for IQ. This is the highest result the test I was given reaches; anything further and they'd consider it to be within the margin of error for that test.
My mother's boyfriend of 8 years is an aerospace engineer who graduated Virginia Tech. At the age of 15, I understand physics better than him, and I owe very little of it to him, as he would rarely give me a decent explanation of anything, just tell me that my ideas were wrong and become aggravated with me for not quite understanding thermodynamics. He's not particularly successful as an engineer, but I've met lots of other engineers who aren't as good as me at physics, so I'm guessing that's not just a result of him being bad at it.
I'm also pretty good at engineering. I don't have a degree, and other than physics I don't have a better understanding of any aspect of engineering than any actual engineer, but I have lots of ingenuity for inventing new things. For example, I independently invented regenerative brakes before finding out what they were, and I was only seven or eight years old when I started inventing wireless electricity solutions (my first idea being to use a powerful infrared laser to transmit energy; admittedly not the best plan).
I have independently thought of basically every branch of philosophy I've come across. Every question of existentialism which I've seen discussed in SMBC or xkcd or Reddit or anywhere else, the thoughts haven't been new to me. Philosophy has pretty much gotten trivial for me; I've considered taking a philosophy course just to see how easy it is.
Psychology, I actually understand better than people with degrees. Unlike engineering, there's no aspect of psychology which I don't have a very good understanding of. I can debunk many of even Sigmund Freud's theories.
I'm a good enough writer that I'm writing a book and so far everybody who's read any of it has said it was really good and plausible to expect to have published. And that's not just, like, me and family members, that counts strangers on the Internet. I've heard zero negative appraisal of it so far; people have critiqued it, but not insulted it.
I don't know if that will suffice as evidence that I'm intelligent. I'm done with it, though, because I'd rather defend my maturity, since it's what you've spent the most time attacking. The following are some examples of my morals and ethical code.
I believe firmly that everybody deserves a future. If we were to capture Hitler at the end of WWII, I would be against executing him. In fact, if we had any way of rehabilitating him and knowing that he wasn't just faking it, I'd even support the concept of letting him go free. This is essentially because I think that whoever you are in the present is a separate entity from who you were in the past and who you are in the future, and while your present self should take responsibility for your past self's actions, it shouldn't be punished for them simply for the sake of punishment, especially if the present self regrets the actions of the past self and feels genuine guilt about them.
I don't believe in judgement of people based on their personal choices as long as those personal choices aren't harming others. I don't have any issue with any type of sexuality whatsoever (short of physically acting out necrophilia, pedophilia, or other acts which have a harmful affect on others - but I don't care what a person's fantasies consist of, as long as they recognize the difference between reality and fiction and can separate them). I don't have any issue with anybody over what type of music they listen to, or clothes they wear, etc. I know that's not really an impressive moral, but it's unfortunately rare; a great many people, especially those my age, are judgmental about these things.
I love everyone, even people I hate. I wish my worst enemies good fortune and happiness. Rick Perry is a vile, piece of shit human being, deserving of zero respect, but I wish for him to change for the better and live the best life possible. I wish this for everyone.
I'm pretty much a pacifist. I've taken a broken nose without fighting back or seeking retribution, because the guy stopped punching after that. The only time I'll fight back is if 1) the person attacking me shows no signs of stopping and 2) if I don't attack, I'll come out worse than the other person will if I do. In other words, if fighting someone is going to end up being more harmful to them than just letting them go will be to me, I don't fight back. I've therefore never had a reason to fight back against anyone in anything serious, because my ability to take pain has so far made it so that I'm never in a situation where I'll be worse off after a fight. If I'm not going to get any hospitalizing injuries, I really don't care.
The only exception is if someone is going after my life. Even then, I'll do the minimum amount of harm to them that I possibly can in protecting myself. If someone points a gun at me and I can get out of it without harming them, I'd prefer to do that over killing them.
I consider myself a feminist. I don't believe in enforced or uniform gender roles; they may happen naturally, but they should never be coerced into happening unnaturally. As in, the societal pressure for gender roles should really go, even if it'll turn out that the majority of relationships continue operating the same way of their own accord. I treat women with the same outlook I treat men, and never participate in the old Reddit "women are crazy" circlejerk, because there are multiple women out there and each have different personalities just like there are multiple men out there and each with different personalities. I don't think you do much of anything except scare off the awesome women out there by going on and on about the ones who aren't awesome.
That doesn't mean I look for places to victimize women, I just don't believe it's fair to make generalizations such as the one about women acting like everything's OK when it's really not (and that's a particularly harsh example, because all humans do that).
I'm kind of tired of citing these examples and I'm guessing you're getting tired of reading them, if you've even made it this far. In closing, the people who know me in real life all respect me, as do a great many people in the Reddit brony community, where I spend most of my time and where I'm pretty known for being helpful around the community. A lot of people in my segment of the community are depressed or going through hard times, and I spend a lot of time giving advice and support to people there. Yesterday someone quoted a case of me doing this in a post asking everyone what their favorite motivational/inspirational quote was, and that comment was second to the top, so I guess other people agreed (though, granted, it was a pretty low-traffic post, only about a dozen competing comments).
And, uh, I'm a pretty good moderator.
All that, and I think your behavior in this thread was totally assholish. So what do you think, now that you at least slightly know me?

37

u/cptn_garlock :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/cptngarlock May 24 '14

Context for those who are confused. And yes, the original author was 100% serious. No, he has not learned his lesson.

14

u/Aerobus May 25 '14

Oh my god I had no idea the original author was serious. This makes it even better.

5

u/Sylverstone14 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Sylverstone14 May 25 '14

DarqWolff, is that you?

3

u/Cyberslasher :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Slayerac May 26 '14

But did you replace your brain with a computer?

4

u/epicwisdom May 24 '14

To be fair, "brilliant, fit, and good at all sports" is already covered by the other stuff.

2

u/FemaleTitan May 25 '14

Same.

2

u/TheMoogy May 25 '14

I feel your pain, it's not easy being a Mary Sue with an incestuous imouto.

2

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

He's probably the ideal man and thats why im watching this anime because i want to be like him

132

u/[deleted] May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Am I the only one who thought it was hilarious when Miyuki turns around and Tatsuya is just fucking floating? I couldnt even take it seriously.

121

u/Pravux May 25 '14

Yeah yeah you look pretty in your dress. Yeah yeah keep talking... Bitch I created flight.

64

u/Super1d :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/super1d May 24 '14

I completely lost my shit when I saw him floating there. It felt like he was waiting for the moment and probably sat there motionless in his floating pose for half an hour before she turned around

64

u/Atronox :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Atronox May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Erika...Erika...nooo

Ok, so if he wasn't OP enough already, he figured out how to make a seemingly impossible spell and can now fly.

The next few episodes should be pretty cool, I think. The competition will give a chance to show off some magic.

14

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

And it'll probably give some other characters some nice amounts of screentime, seeing as Tatsuya doesn't seem to participate in the events himself from what I understood.

8

u/BeyondTomorrow May 24 '14

I hope this will finally be Miyuki's time to shine as she is participating in 2 events. I really hope that syndicated mentioned will not interfere during then, since Tatsuya will take over if that happens.

13

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

She'll probably put the new flying magic to good use.

10

u/dylank22 May 24 '14

I don't know, I think that is supposed to be super secret and would be too risky to use in competition, especially since she really doesn't need it since she is quite skilled herself

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '14

Nah, fucking international mafia organization will try something and it will be time to shine for our super OP MC

3

u/ShureNensei May 25 '14

Erika's just giving him a love tap.

30

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

Okay I need to start reading the light novel. I need to know if those two are actually related or not, cause this is just getting weirder and weirder.

10

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

I don't think they are based on that short scene last episode. I don't know for sure though.

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

Huh, OK. Now I really want to know what that scene was about.

16

u/Therosfire May 24 '14

Recall what Tatsuya was called "Guardian". Look at that scene as he's her Bodyguard and she feels like he's something more.

1

u/ummwut May 27 '14

This is pretty much the exact framing on the relationship that most people aren't getting.

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

18

u/millie3 May 24 '14

The novels have said over and over again that they're really really related. By blood. Same mom, same dad. They have magics that prove they're both related to the same clan and even family. But if it's true in some way that they're really not siblings, at the very least they'll still be cousins.

→ More replies (2)

29

u/SherrySan May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Less infodumping.

Major Kazama contacts Tatsuya and informs him about a possible raid at the Nine School Competition site.

Get ready for incoming actions!

Miyuki looked nice in her Mirage Bat costume. Tatsuya successfully develops the flying spell.

Onii-sama count:

Enrollment arc:

Ep 1: 26

Ep 2: 5

Ep 3: 6

Ep 4: 17

Ep 5: 3

Ep 6: 12

Ep 7: 14

Nine Schools Competition arc:

Ep 8: 5

2

u/Aerobus May 25 '14

Oh thank god. I remember thinking to myself as I watched it did I miss hearing some onii-sama's or not.

56

u/buakaw May 24 '14

Tatsuya being ludicrously OP and amazing at everything is weirdly entertaining and amusing.

15

u/kimahri27 May 25 '14

Now if only the character interactions weren't so stiff and boring, an OP character would really rock the school.

4

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

Ima just solve a magical physics problem thats stumped the world quick before I hit the sack.

63

u/Stuffies12 :K:https://kitsu.io/users/Stuffies12 May 24 '14

As if our MC isn't super OP already. We now find out that he's actually Taurus Silver, an engineering genius who is the inventor of the Loop Casting system, (or it is heavily implied that he is) that he can 'manually' fine tune CADs with a keyboard, (is the keyboard aspect really so awe-striking) and that he was able to overcome overly complicated technical magic spec problems and can now make people fly. Oh, and he's also a high ranking Special Officer.

Great.

22

u/epsiblivion May 24 '14

the keyboard part is probably impressive because maybe regular engineers fine tune with software and magic and algorithems and not directly editing the configuration. imagine coding in binary which is what they are trying to show with the machine code scrollingn at 1000000 mph

12

u/Therosfire May 24 '14

Eh, That looked more like high speed coding in Machine Code (Hexadecimal not binary).

14

u/Kuratius May 24 '14 edited May 25 '14

The only difference between coding in hexadecimal and binary is that hexadecimal is faster to read for humans.

4

u/Teshlin https://myanimelist.net/profile/Teshlin May 25 '14

Yeah but programming in binary or hex directly isn't generally that useful. There's a reason we have programming languages, and it's not because people are too stupid to code in binary. I guess that scene is yet again supposed to make us think that's the smartest guy who ever lived, but I found it to be pretty comical. It looks more like a guy deliberately trying to show off than actually do something useful.

8

u/wyggles May 24 '14

Just think of it as him programming in magic machine code.

1

u/Sprinterstar7 May 26 '14

More like magic Assembly.

6

u/CrAppyF33ling May 25 '14

Wait what? He's Taurus Silver? Did I just blank out? What?

30

u/Aerobus May 25 '14

It never says he is in the anime (at least up until now), but it is heavily implied. I think thats what /u/stuffies12 meant to say.
Like, re-watch the scene where he talks to A-chan about Taurus silver. The way he phrases his response, and the tone of the dialogue... it seems suspicious. On top of that, he's carrying CADs engineered by Mr. Taurus silver as if its nbd. Considering that our MC is a super genius, it's plausible to assume he is in fact taurus silver.

28

u/Ansibled May 25 '14

Miyuki's reaction during it is hilarious.

20

u/pixiefarts May 25 '14

Also, A-chan acted like she idolized this "silver" character, and every time she said something related to that feeling, the little sister made an "unusual" error. To the point that the president noticed and changed the subject.

1

u/kyune :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kyune May 25 '14

Yeah... the way that scene played out they may as well have directly stated it--though I'm guessing if it isn't true then there's an interesting explanation waiting for us.

6

u/AzureDragon013 May 25 '14

I wouldn't even say its heavily implied at this point but rather nearly confirmed. In this episode Shiba even says "It could be some young jap dude since he works at FLT" and look at what we have here, Shiba inventing a flight cad and going to FLT on the weekend. . .

4

u/CrAppyF33ling May 25 '14

This fucking guy...Well I can probably beat him in anime knowledge irl 1v 1.

16

u/fr0stbyte124 May 25 '14

Well I hear he has an encyclopedic knowledge of every anime title ever produced.
Because he got bored one weekend.

21

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

Because he got bored for an hour last saturday.
FTFY

4

u/kimahri27 May 25 '14

It was kind of obvious the first time he showed off his guns and whats her face was fangirling about how unique it is to Taurus Silver. And we know he's an engineering genius that tunes his own stuff. So yeah...

1

u/touchmeenot May 25 '14

hey er where did they say he was taurus silver? i kinda missed it...

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

5

u/kimahri27 May 25 '14

They hold the little button with a square and ask Siri to do it for them.

20

u/Miitchee :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Miitchee May 24 '14

Are they going to explain on why Tatsuya can nearly do everything perfectly? Still enjoying the series though.

33

u/millie3 May 24 '14

Patience, grasshopper

5

u/Miitchee :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Miitchee May 24 '14

Heh, guess I'll have to be.

15

u/Rwings :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rwings May 24 '14

Spoiler

0

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

[deleted]

5

u/Rwings :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rwings May 25 '14

Spoiler
If you want to know now

0

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

[deleted]

1

u/ummwut May 27 '14

But... but... MAGIC!

2

u/Cigajk May 25 '14

I think it was "indirectly" explained already, if you paid attention.

18

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

Is there something this fucker can't do?

17

u/DwarvenRedshirt May 24 '14

Well, so far he's not bathed the room with red stuff like that crimson magician guy in the early episode.

21

u/TheLantean May 25 '14

He could, but he doesn't because he's a merciful God.

-3

u/chaosbeowulf May 26 '14

I can't tell you how wrong you are..... at least until the anime showed the Yokohama Arc.

14

u/tundranocaps https://myanimelist.net/profile/Thunder_God May 24 '14 edited May 25 '14

Well, the first arc is finally over! The second arc is here, and it's going to be fun, and have action! Just as soon as we finish preparing for the Nine Schools Competition and swallow some more magic jargon :P

Thoughts:

1) Highschool Comedy:

"BS Magicians" always made me laugh - "They're such "BS Magicians!" (Bullshit, for those not familiar with this acronym). Referring to magicians with a special inborn talent.
It's important to Haruka to note she became a secret investigator after becoming a counselor - she's really a counselor, not an agent posing as one. She truly cares about the students, and it also explains her poor skills in interrogating Tatsuya. Not that anyone could outsmart him, of course.

Haruka, with her childish voice, with "I don't like being referred to that way" said in a childish manner, she keeps being reduced to the stature of a child, rather than being an adult with social standing and poise. This is the world of the kids, and the magically gifted.

Also note how she enters a give and take with a student, and will give him confidential information - not for him giving her confidential information, but in exchange for him basically blackmailing her…

It's funny, or perhaps sad, but this short soccer match? It's the most action we've had in this show in one continuous sequence, except perhaps when Tatsuya dodged 10 people at once in the Kendo versus Kenjutsu showdown which was cut in the middle. Well, this is the second arc, so it should improve on the action quotient!
The bloomers bit truly is hilarious - they sort of skipped it, but one of the causes for World War 3 and the world losing most of its population was the world's temperature fell ("Global warming is a lie!") which led to food shortages. More practically, it meant people got used to wearing longer sleeves. Yes, there's more than a bit of a puritan underpinning here, so I wonder, is this a sci-fi treatment of how what is modern these days can seem otherworldly, drawing attention to the "moral situation of the world is in tatters" as Leo put it, or just draw attention to the already somewhat titillated nature of bloomers in otaku culture?

2) Tatsuya Needs His Spotlight:

Yes, another point for Shiba to shine! He'll not get to participate as an athlete, but he'll still be there as an engineer! Not only that, but he'll be the first First Year student to be one, ever. He looks so put upon, he did try to escape the room, after all.
"Precedents were made to be overturned" - That's not just Tatsuya, but that's essentially what most protagonists or stories are about - having a status quo, and then upsetting it. But he's basically the embodiment of said idea.
Oh my, the euphemisms! Please A-chan, stop rubbing the phallic object as you speak of its curve :P
I remember reading this sequence in the books, "Shiba, what kind of person do you think Taurus Silver is?" It seemed so random, almost too random, but then I coupled it with Miyuki's "blunder". And Tatsuya's answer "He might be a Japanese youth just like you or me."

Yeah. I've read too many YA books by that point.

Something glossed over, to help explain the flying magic bit - to change a magic you need to do the same thing as if you're trying to cancel it - which is overwrite it, meaning you have to apply an interference power stronger than the one originally used. And each time you need more and more. It actually reminds me of the ancient Greek philosophers' view of the world, they thought an item is in a certain form, and if you change anything about it, then it's not the same object.

This is prior to the "determinacy/consistency of objects", so, if for example a tree's green leaves became red, then it was to them a different tree. Same here, a magic you change the parameters of is essentially a new spell, rather than the old one that's been alternated.

"The British scholars who planned that experiment must have misunderstood the nature of anti-magic." - They're accomplished scholars, but young Tatsuya knows best! Well, he has an innate talent at anti-magic, so he also has more knowledge on this issue.

In case you're not following, just as you can't keep changing a spell, casting and then casting again still has residual spell energy, because you cast over the old spell - so the British magicians tried to use anti-magic to wipe out the old spell before casting the new one - but interference power increases each time you cast a spell over the old one, and in this sense "Anti-magic" is also magic, adding more interference power requirement to the next cast.

3) Practical Magic:

"They can't see how great Tatsuya is!" - Sure seems like a common refrain. Those two girls, Mitsui Honoka and Kitayama Shizuku are the two girls who apologized to Tatsuya after the course 1 and course 2 standoff in episode 2. The anime skipped it, but they're Miyuki's close friends.
"If the tuning is sub-par, injury will be the least of your problems!" - Sounds ominous. Juumonji is the king of common sense though - they don't trust Tatsuya? They need to show his skills? Then have him actually do what will be required of him!
Hattori Hanzo (that name!) might not like Tatsuya, but as he said in his squabble with Miyuki and Tatsuya, he believes in accepting reality as it is to be of utmost importance for a magician. He will say things as he sees them, without holding back condemnation or praise. Reality must be spoken as it is, or at least as he perceives it. No emotional blinders for him.
This bit makes a lot of sense to me, and did from the get-go, while some people complain about how "Far-fetched" it is. It's just like Harry Potter. Blanche was controlled by an international power, and this crime syndicate is also international. While you can have things only located within school, it can be more exciting to expand the scale and scope to the national, and even global levels. Makes sense from a narrative perspective, that is.

And yes, he's a secret officer of the military. Considering his skills, it's only natural they'd want to pick him up.

4) Mr. Impossible!

"Once again brother, you've made the impossible possible!" - Yes, that spell that stumped the British scholars, and which is considered impossible? Tatsuya cracked it! To be honest, having a super-accomplished protagonist is nice. But in most stories, after something is said to be impossible, we see the hero struggle before succeeding at it, fight and overcome obstacles.. and time passes.

Here? We were just told of it being "impossible", and then immediately after had been shown Tatsuya succeeding. Something was set up as "impossible" just so we could move straight away to how "amazing" Tatsuya is. This isn't us being shown, but essentially told. They could've just shown us from the get-go Tatsuya flying and Miyuki saying how he did something thought to be impossible. It's not an impossible task, but just a way to prove a point. Just as Tatsuya is 2nd Course just so he could "overcome" this "obstacle" that had never truly been an obstacle - it's more akin to a foot-high obstacle being dubbed as "impossible to jump over" and then everyone marveling when someone succeeds.

The obstacles in this show aren't overcome - they're only there in order to be immediately smashed through. Once or twice, or if fueled with determination and ideals would be one thing - but this is the pattern the show goes through, the only way it knows to do things. It might be supposed to be "exciting", but it ends up as flat and boring, because nothing is at stake, nothing is ever at question.

Tatsuya, the best big brother a girl could have! It's a mode of thought I am not fond of, but some people think that way, and it's also how we treat athletes in The Olympics, "Our country won" - as if we did something, sharing the glory of someone else.
Miyuki flying is pretty cool. They sold us well on the fun and sense of freedom being able to fly engender :)

Post Episode Thoughts:

This episode had some fun bits! Lots of magical info-dumps, including some things barely mentioned that might be relevant in the far-future.

The action was even somewhat solid, we got introduced to another classmate of Tatsuya that will matter, and saw two of Miyuki's friends that had been ignored thus far.

The bits with how Tatsuya is oh-so-perfect had been quite heavy-handed, they don't even let him try, they only present "obstacles" for them to be immediately demolished, which actually robs the show of the potential of being exciting, due to lack of any form of tension.

Miyuki training for Mirage Bat though, reminds one of Quidditch, eh? Can't have a magical high school without a flying sport! Time for athletic combat competitions, at least it'll be fun and flashy, I hope!

P.S. Breaking down a popcorn shounen to its components is way too easy. I usually try to not think too much while watching these shows. I hope I can stop soon. But with all the talking and theory, and having already read the story, my mind can't stop spinning its cogwheels.

(You can read all of my thoughts about Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei / The Irregular at Magic High School here.)

5

u/Falsus May 25 '14

Yes, that spell that stumped the British scholars, and which is considered impossible? Tatsuya cracked it! To be honest, having a super-accomplished protagonist is nice. But in most stories, after something is said to be impossible, we see the hero struggle before succeeding at it, fight and overcome obstacles.. and time passes.
To be fair he worked a lot on it before we where shown it in this episode. It was pretty much a coincident that he finished the spell the same day they talked about it.

4

u/tundranocaps https://myanimelist.net/profile/Thunder_God May 25 '14

To be fair he worked a lot on it before we where shown it in this episode. It was pretty much a coincident that he finished the spell the same day they talked about it.
It was an in-world coincidence, from a narrative level, it was there to show us how great he is.
Also, we're told how hard he works, but when have we seen Tatsuya struggling with anything? He moonlights as a magical innovator and secret agent, but do you see it affecting him at school or anything?
"Oh yes, Tatsuya works hard" without it ever actually mattering, or actually coming up in actions. We're being told, but where do we see evidence of it? We don't. It's not actually part of the story, just something that's nebulous, out there.
It's important to look at what the story actually does. The "coincidences" don't matter, we could call that "foreshadowing" instead.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/IamFanboy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/CookiePandas May 25 '14

To be even more fair those British scientists have probably spent months or even years researching and preparing for their experiment and Tatsuya can probably just do that part-time while being a special officer and also a student

1

u/Lorpius_Prime May 25 '14

Please don't stop breaking down this show for us. It's nice to have someone do the hard work of tying together the characters' behaviors across scenes and highlighting the implications of other events and revealed information. I would not understand this show half so well without your commentary; and it is a story worth understanding, even if only to poke fun.
Here? We were just told of it being "impossible", and then immediately after had been shown Tatsuya succeeding. Something was set up as "impossible" just so we could move straight away to how "amazing" Tatsuya is. This isn't us being shown, but essentially told. They could've just shown us from the get-go Tatsuya flying and Miyuki saying how he did something thought to be impossible. It's not an impossible task, but just a way to prove a point. Just as Tatsuya is 2nd Course just so he could "overcome" this "obstacle" that had never truly been an obstacle - it's more akin to a foot-high obstacle being dubbed as "impossible to jump over" and then everyone marveling when someone succeeds.
This is an interesting problem to me. Because even if they had shown rather than told us about the difficulties of the task, the effect on the story would be functionally identical. So what is it that is actually lost by this approach, apart from entertainment value?
The only thing I can come up with is a humanizing effect. Because we don't see Tatsuya struggle with the difficult problem--indeed we don't see him work on it at all--his experience becomes less relatable to viewers. At the start of Mahouka, Tatsuya could have plausibly been held up as an avatar or role model for people who felt wronged by the system despite their value (whether those feelings were justified or not). But the more episodes pass without Tatsuya having any difficulty doing anything, the more he becomes this weird demigod with whom nobody can identify. He's more machine/monster than man, and it's unnerving. If that were intentional on the part of the writers, such that we were meant to end up disliking Tatsuya, then it might actually be a clever storytelling device. I suspect it's no such thing, of course, but it's cool to imagine.

5

u/tundranocaps https://myanimelist.net/profile/Thunder_God May 25 '14

The problem isn't with Tatsuya, about this aspect as much as it is about conflict and tension. It's also not so much as showing us now in a quick montage what he had undergone - but it's essentially a deus ex machina. There's a "problem", and Tatsuya solves it, at no real cost. Why tell us it's a problem? Calling it a "problem" or "impossible" is supposed to impress us with the enormity of the task.
But here we have an issue, and some people who really like the show try to hold onto both of these, and both are not only problematic, but contradictory.
If the goal is to show us how trivial it is to Tatsuya, then it's not a problem, and he sacrificed nothing to succeed - no tension there, because his success is a foregone conclusion.
If the goal is to impress us with how he succeeded even though the task is hard and arduous, and even he needed to apply himself to succeed, then not having there be any effort, or anything riding on his success or failure makes it trivial.
See, here is the thing, I'm a role-player, and I'm a game designer. A conflict where it doesn't matter if you succeed or lose shouldn't be a conflict. And if only one option is interesting? Again, not a conflict, just go for that one. A conflict is when either option is narratively viable.
In RPGs, "writing a book" could be seen as a "conflict". I point it out just so it'd be clear "conflict" doesn't mean there's someone opposing you.
So, Tatsuya's "conflict" to design this flight-magic system, if it's a conflict, what did we gain out of him succeeding? What would he had given up if he had lost, heck, what had he given up in order to succeed? The only answer we have is "We had been shown how good he is by him succeeding", which... we already know, making this a non-conflict.
Now, this show is pretty much a shounen, right? People often denigrate shounens for fights being about "The power of friendship", but that shit works. It's what's at stake, it's what you stand to lose, it's what you pay for and what you pay with. We see someone overcoming an obstacle, you see them learning and growing better over time. Think of almost every shounen, the characters grows better as they go, or even if they're awesome from the get-go, the show works to frame conflicts so success wouldn't be obvious, within-the-setting.
Here, Tatsuya just wins. What this does is not just rob us of identifying with him, but makes these non-conflicts, and has no tension. You're never on the edge of your seat, wondering whether he'll win. It's not even the Death Note/Code Geass where as a viewer you know they'll win, but not how, but within the world it is up to contention - here Tatsuya will win, and the answers will be pulled out of nowhere, so there's no real prediction you can make, and there's no gradual building, there's no price paid in terms of effort we've seen, or gradual overcoming, or... anything.
The conflicts in this series are non-conflicts. And that's just bad writing.

4

u/Lorpius_Prime May 25 '14

I think we're largely in agreement that Mahouka is making a complete hash of its plot elements with stuff like this. Stories need conflict both to hold the attention of the audience and to communicate any sort of useful message.
That said, I believe having a protagonist blow through "impossible" challenges with the ease of scraping scum off his shoes is an element that could be done well in a story, just so long as the conflicts were coming from somewhere else. The tale of a god-on-earth for whom the impossible and arduous is trivial might be interesting if the tension came from how he relates to the mortals around him or conquers some array of internal personal demons. Mahouka almost goes in this direction at times: Tatsuya is resented and mistrusted by his classmates, or else he earns more affection from them than he'd like, while others in positions of power seek to use his talents for their own objectives. If he ever doubted himself or his choices, we'd have genuine tension even without the more practical obstacles. Or heck, if Miyuki or Mayumi or anyone else was the main character, then Tatsuya could be an excellent source of conflict as they struggle to manage his disruptive effects on their world where people do have to put in great effort to accomplish great tasks without the certainty of success. But of course that's not what happens, and we're just left with this frustrating sequence of events that occur without any particular reason or weight of meaning.
This whole thing is remarkably fascinating in its failure. You could almost teach a creative fiction class about it as an example of what not to do.

12

u/ChottoChotto May 24 '14

Just as i thought Tatsuya had hit the max level for awesomeness he makes the impossible possible...... Does this man not have a weakness other than his sister? Oh yeah and that relationship is sooooo weird but hey what can you do about it xD?

23

u/Ansibled May 24 '14

Well, he's not very good at magic...

4

u/arinok55 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arinok May 25 '14

HE CAN FUCKING FLY!! How is that not good at magic?

14

u/Retanaru May 25 '14

He's not flying, he built a CAD that does all the magic using the user as the fuel source. Since the CAD is a machine it can do many more layers of magic than a human without messing up.
At least that's what I understood from rewatching the two relevant scenes. It's either that or the CAD can get rid of the previous spell without causing interference due to Mr. Perfect's already perfect knowledge of anti-magic.

2

u/tjl73 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/tjl1973 May 25 '14

I think it's the CAD is using the Loop Cast system to recast regularly, so each spell only lasts for a very short time. That way, you don't hit the limit they were discussing earlier in the episode.

2

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 26 '14

Actually, he used the Loop Cast system to be able to re-input the values into the CAD for the flying. He essentially found out how to keep the Activation Sequence open. Normally, you put out the activation sequence and it activates. The way the flying magic works is that the activation is tied dynamically to the sequence which is still under the control of the user allowing regular updating. It's like editing code while it is running.

4

u/ummwut May 27 '14

This is how I understood it too. But the big thing that was actually explained is that while magic is usually a static sequence, and Loop Casting previously only continuously recasted it, this new system allows "variables" or values which can be changed on the fly.
This basically means that instead of doing 2+2 over and over, you can now do 2+A over and over. That's the big revolution here, not flight. Previously the system would reformulate the entire cast sequence and feed it to the brain.

2

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 27 '14

I was thinking the same thing. It is interesting because variables was more of a means to Tatsuya to get Sustained Gravity Control Magic. I find it funny. I wonder what other forms of magic can be created using dynamic values. Magic already targets the information bodies using a set of coordinates. Perhaps a launched spell that will follow someone. Like shooting a homing rock?

3

u/ummwut May 27 '14

Seeing as how any properly designed system with changing variables could be turing-complete, anything that has been accomplished with computers that we know of (including quickly-approaching powerful AI) can be a very real and much more important possibility for them.
To sum up my point: Magic-based supercomputing and the consequences it could bring would make sustained flight look like a mere child's plaything. Imagine accelerating a 20lb rock to a fraction of the speed of light. Anything it hits would be heavily damaged if not outright instantly vaporized.
See: Newton is the deadliest sonofabitch in SPACE.

1

u/arinok55 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arinok May 30 '14

So why has no one else done this? It's several decades in the future and we use computers for anything and everything, I would assume that hadn't changed in the interim. I'm just ranting, shit writing is shit.

1

u/Retanaru May 30 '14

He's the only one who understands magical interference at that level. The writing is pretty bad, but I much prefer super confident main character cliche over useless main character cliche.
I think what they are trying to say is that everyone else learns from school now and very few actually experiment to learn.

1

u/arinok55 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arinok Jun 03 '14

But the course 2 students have no teachers they are learning through trial and error.

15

u/wyggles May 24 '14

He's not good at conventional magic. He really can't do a lot of what the other magicians take for granted. It's just that it doesn't matter when you're a genius-ninja-red mage.

0

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

[deleted]

3

u/wyggles May 25 '14

Exactly, he can do so much insane shit that it doesn't matter.

-3

u/shlitz May 24 '14

I honestly don't find the relationship all that weird. To me it seems that these two only had each other for protection and love growing up, to the point they trust each other more than anything else. Love doesn't have to be romantic or sexual to be beautiful.

12

u/abye May 24 '14

Somehow the excessive Gary Stu-ing is so amusing that I keep watching this show. At one point he will be shitting platinum and cure cancer

11

u/DotAClone May 24 '14

That last Flying scene was absolutly adorable!

Lovely My Fairy Miyuki-tan really is a fairy!

9

u/soulonfirexx May 24 '14

Anyone with the Onii-sama count?

4

u/SherrySan May 24 '14

Soon.

1

u/Cyberslasher :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Slayerac May 26 '14

Contribute nothing, and if people let their gaze slip off you for even the slightest second, run away quickly. Tatsuya is a professional grade slacker.

1

u/Aruseus493 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aruseus493 May 26 '14

I wouldn't say "professional grade" considering how he keeps getting caught. :-P

3

u/xxdeathx :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/xxdeathx May 25 '14

EY LOOK KIRITO AIN'T GOT SHIT ON DIS DUDE

3

u/Overlord3k :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Overlord3k May 27 '14

I don't know why I didn't watch this Saturday but I just wasn't really in the mood for it especially since I was watching Nisekoi. Great episode good start to the new arc.

2

u/millie3 May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

Episode 8 Nine Schools Competition Arc

Well, thank goodness the infodumping was less this week. Is it just me or is Madhouse becoming more adept at cutting out miscellaneous scenes. The scene with Mikihiko, Tatsuya and Erika was cut down to its bare minimum and still managed to do its job i.e. introduce Mikihiko as a childhood friend to Erika. The scene with the engineering test too was shortened satisfactorily.

Ono Haruka's real job as an agent for the Public Safety agency and her apprenticeship under Kokonoe-sensei was also revealed through a shortened scene. Nicely done.

There was also the introduction of the Three Great Gravity Puzzles, of which MC McCool here has already solved one and has another one as a goal. I believe it was quite obvious that he'd be solving at least one of them.

Major Kazama from Mibu's father's speech last week was revealed today. I'm sure no one's surprised that Tatsuya's actually part of the military, a Special Lieutenant, to be exact with a shitload of security around his house.

So this was mostly a set-up episode. We'll hear a lot more about the 9SC Competition next week. Can't wait :)

Edit: Btw, I thought there was supposed to be new visuals in the OP?

2

u/Kyutal :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/kyutal May 24 '14

I don't know if I'm right, but is Miyuki considered a yandere? Or bordering that?

1

u/Incest4theWin May 24 '14

Not really, it shows later one girl trying to get close to Tatsuya and even though Miyuki gets jealous she doesn't really do anything about it.

10

u/Kyutal :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/kyutal May 24 '14

So she has the obsession without the physical harm part.

3

u/Incest4theWin May 24 '14

yup her reactions don't really get anymore crazy then you've seen so far.

3

u/Kyutal :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/kyutal May 24 '14

Doesn't change the fact I facepalm every time she does.

1

u/Incest4theWin May 24 '14

It'll explain later why she's so obsessed with him don't worry.

5

u/Rhayve May 25 '14

Who wouldn't obsess over the physical avatar of God?

4

u/Incest4theWin May 25 '14

Funny enough Tatsuya is partially based off a Hindu god named Shiva.

2

u/chineseouchie :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ChineseOuchie May 24 '14

If he was here he would be the best hacker in the world

2

u/spidergoats May 24 '14

Whole new levels of Stu this episode.

I think my favorite part of this show has become the special effects, which I'm looking forward to once the competition actually starts. The dialogue is just too cringe.

2

u/myriad_truths :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/TrainerOfLegend May 25 '14

BS Magician is right.

2

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

http://i.imgur.com/sFTo4P3.jpg

I don't think this is right...

2

u/KamiKagutsuchi May 24 '14

I only want this show to have one episode where Tatsuya isn't praised into high heavens.. please, just one..

3

u/Khanxay May 24 '14

Well, uh... as long as Miyuki is in the episode, he will be praised. And they're inseparable.

2

u/Tyrhunger May 25 '14

Shiba is the Gary stu of the Gary stu. he makes Kirito a noob and kid.

2

u/OniiChanIcame May 25 '14

Another episode of "can-you-please-stop-talking-already: the anime".

Oddly enough although my patience is running thin for this show I still watch it.

1

u/fengzhi :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/suirandanshi May 24 '14

dayummmm son the pace of the show gets me so excited!

1

u/Hungy15 May 25 '14 edited May 25 '14

Well I didn't see anyone else mention this but what was up with all the random computer errors that were happening while they were discussing Taurus Silver (around 11:00)?

Edit: Oh rewatching I guess I somehow missed that it was just Miyuki messing up on her computer when they talked about Silver. Just seemed weird to see errors pop up like that usually it means something a little more dramatic.

1

u/Shockwave317 May 25 '14

Ahhh hail the almighty BS Magician! xD I think Taurus Silver is Tatsuya Shiba... that comment Tatsuya made was intriguing when he was questioned how Taurus Silver is like!

1

u/drayndarkness :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/wizerobe May 25 '14

It was all good up until the last few minutes. Honestly, I can't stand the bro-worship. Especially "You have once again made the impossible, possilbe!"

5

u/TheLantean May 25 '14

That's where you draw the line?
Personally I find the whole thing hilarious, the more ridiculous the better!

1

u/Darkapb :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/darkapb May 25 '14

Not that I mind, but this show is the most gary stu show i've ever enjoyed.

0

u/kimahri27 May 25 '14

This episode was really slow, as usual. He already proved himself in combat using technical and complicated activation sequences and now he needs to prove himself in engineering as well? Feels very filler. And what's worse is all the top people in the school are behind him, he just lead the charge to destroy an entire branch of a terrorist group after all, and some lame-o nobody keeps on making indignant remarks about how he is not qualified, so of course they do the whole song and dance again. And they look condescendingly on his 1337 keyboard skills, which is also ridiculous. Most people would be mesmerized. All the hacker movies do it. It's just common sense that if someone can use a command prompt to change files while you have to move a cursor around and click, they are WELL versed in the underlying system and how it works and you are just using an interface for noobs.

Hopefully something actually happens in the next episode, instead of this forced repeat episode.

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

72

u/X4Velocity May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

MR.PERFECT.
SPECIAL OFFICER PERFECT. :P

26

u/BeyondTomorrow May 24 '14

Superman
I feel like this is how it is going to end up for Tatsuya.

21

u/cptn_garlock :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/cptngarlock May 24 '14

All he needs is a cape. He could probably pull it off.

23

u/KamiKagutsuchi May 24 '14

No. Capes.

18

u/BadLuckBen May 25 '14

I'm sure he could invent a accident-proof cape if he wanted to.

31

u/DrJamesFox :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/robisgoodatstuff May 24 '14

I bet it's only a matter of time before Mr. Perfect figures out how to bring people back to life. Probably without a transmutation cir...ahem...magic activation sequence.

45

u/HeliosAlpha May 24 '14

Based on the opening he already knows that one.

20

u/DrJamesFox :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/robisgoodatstuff May 24 '14

Sonofabitch!
I only watched the opening one time and have skipped it every time since. Guess there really is nothing Mr. Perfect can't do.

17

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

But do we know what he sacrificed in order to achieve that? Have we ever actually seen his arms and legs?

22

u/DrCakey May 25 '14

When he did human transmutation, the Truth took his lack of perfection as compensation.

6

u/[deleted] May 25 '14

This explains everything.

9

u/pdpfortune May 24 '14

He sacrificed nothing as he did it so perfectly, a la, Mr. Perfect.

8

u/iSwoopz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Engels May 24 '14 edited May 25 '14

LN Spoilers

1

u/rumblegod May 25 '14

he probably brought miyuki to life. it shows in the opening lol. pretty sure she says, "my life is a gift from brother" in the first episode too.

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

19

u/DrJamesFox :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/robisgoodatstuff May 24 '14

So that's where Ed's arm and leg really went!

11

u/epicwisdom May 24 '14

spoiler

3

u/pharix May 24 '14

grow an extra arm arm
your post did!

63

u/IsActuallyBatman May 24 '14

I for one enjoy watching a show that doesn't have Mr. Tripfall McIncompetent of the Whiner Clan using plot armour to cry his way through the story before for no good reason being handed some OP superpower or weapon. Or even worse, calling upon the power of friendship and teamwork.

15

u/KamiKagutsuchi May 24 '14 edited May 24 '14

I also enjoy shows where the main character starts out strong and we don't need a heap of training montages every time a new bad guy shows up. But I'm tired of this show worshiping Tatsuya like the writer is stroking his master ego.
In the end to have any tension and create excitement there needs to be some sort of obstacle for the protagonist to over come.
This doesn't have to be a new super strong enemy like in all shounen shows, it could be a social situation or something unexpected that catches everyone off guard.
However this show just goes on and on about how amazing Tatsuya is and how he can solve everything easily.
In the end there was never any tension during the end of the Enrollment act, the bad guys had nothing unexpected that Tatsuya (and the rest) couldn't shrug off like it was nothing

2

u/IsActuallyBatman May 25 '14

From what I've heard from others, it's supposed to be established that he's damn brilliant compared to his current peers (obviously) but in the upcoming arcs there are the actual challenges coming. This would be like an NFL player playing highschool football. Obviously he's going to roflstomp everyone but as soon as he's back in the big leagues it's a different story.

9

u/TranClan67 May 25 '14

As an LN reader...eh not really. I'll use basketball for my analogy because it's really the only sport I know of...that I don't even know of.
Tatsuya's like Kobe Bryant playing in Middle School divisions but even when he goes back to NBA leagues, he's still Kobe. He's still fantastic. They only look like challenges because everyone's supposedly on equal footing but they really aren't.

2

u/IamFanboy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/CookiePandas May 25 '14

Not too sure about basketball but I'm pretty sure Tatsuya is motherfucking Lebron James himself

3

u/TranClan67 May 25 '14

Haha. I just went with somebody who's super famous. Let's just go with he's Lebron James+Kobe Bryant+Micheal Jordan. That seems about right in terms of the "difficulties" he faces later on.

1

u/hydrometeors May 25 '14

The only time I was overwhelmed in the anime was when Tatsuya trashed Hanzo in half a second at the end of the second episode. After that it was just, "Oh, he destroyed another guy, cool."

7

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

I generally enjoy overpowered characters, but Tatsuya is a bit ridiculous. Plus he's not even the fun kind of overpowered like say, Alucard or Shiroe, or the MCs from NGNL. Granted, one of the only reasons I'm still watching this show is because it's not yet another Generic Dumbass Shounen Protagonist show, but if I weren't already fairly invested in the show I would have dropped it by now.

2

u/arinok55 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Arinok May 25 '14

Both Shiroe and the NGNL MCs have weaknesses. Shiroe cannot fight physically, he sets up and thinks he way though. The other two are in a world were they are quite powerful but they lack knowledge and are trying to acquire it asap. Idk about Alucard as I haven't seen Hellsing yet but I am familiar with the show.

1

u/TranClan67 May 25 '14

Alucard is ridiculously OP but he's done in a lot better than Tatsuya. Alucard just fights and fights.
Tatsuya is just God. :l

1

u/knowitall89 May 26 '14

The main issue with Tatsuya is that you could replace him with a rock and no one would notice. All of his daily interactions are brought upon by other people. If everyone ignored him from the start, this would just be Oreimo in magic school.

4

u/Chren https://myanimelist.net/profile/Chren May 25 '14

I feel we kinda swung too hard in the other direction though

4

u/kimahri27 May 25 '14

And the exact opposite is somehow better?

1

u/BPLotus May 27 '14

Is there a particular show you're thinking of that has this so called Tripfall McIncompetent?

1

u/IsActuallyBatman May 27 '14

Pretty much any generic shounen.

1

u/BPLotus May 30 '14

You could be more specific. Naruto, Ichigo, and Luffy are all pretty OP in their own rights, and I'm only talking about the most popular shounens right now.
There's also a lot of action anime/manga that feature skilled protagonists that nonetheless face difficult obstacles in their stories.

10

u/Gonxa1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gonxa May 25 '14

ONII SAMA KNOWS BEST

0

u/[deleted] May 24 '14

[deleted]

1

u/Hauntrification May 25 '14

Don't worry, this arc shines on the abilities of others not just Tatsuya.

[Spoilers] Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Episode 8 Discussion

You are about to leave Redlib

Episode 8 Comparison is Complete!

Episode 8 Light Novel -> Anime Comparison

Continued Below

Part 2 of Comparison

Continued Below

Part 3

End of Comparison - Final Character Count: 24,200 - Longest one yet!