Opening Songs
OP 1 - Rising Hope (Lisa)
OP 2 - Griletto (GARNiDELiA)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Millenario (Elisa)
ED 2 - Mirror (Rei Yasuda)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance, Magic, Science Fiction
Episodes: 26
So...yeah. You all know how I adore these types of animes with these kinds of settings. A school where kids attend to hone their supernatural abilities, or anything that's along that line. I absolutely love these types of anime, but lately, there have been too much disappointments when it comes to the "high school combat" genre ("Seikoku No Dragonar", "Blade Dance Of Elementals", "Trinity Seven", just to name a few). None have managed to capture me as much as a show like "Index" managed to do...that is, until I met "Mahouka". Never have a I found myself so engrossed into an anime of this genre AGAIN, since "Index" and MAYBE "Strike The Blood" (must be a Dengenki Bunko thing). "Mahouka" brings out the style and the substance that it needs to both visually impress and tell a good story. There may be some issues, such as the overly bloated character cast with too little time to develop all of them (there are plenty of throwaway characters), or maybe the occasional bore here and there due to the over complicated lore explanations (basically too much talking too little fighting). But! All is good in the land of "Mahouka'. If you require your dose of high school life with a little bit of blood, magic and intense scenarios, "Mahouka" will be sure to entertain you.
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| Ah yes, at least its not another harem. |
They kind of went all out for the opening and ending themes here. The first opening theme is "Rising Hope" by Lisa, and hell, its been awhile since I was so entranced by a Lisa song (the last one was "Oath Sign"). Instead of her usual fantasy themed songs, we get one where she kind of goes crazy and tries to rock us out, which if you ask me, sounds great. The second opening theme is "Griletto" by GARNiDELiA, which is also a pretty good songs by their standards (not a huge GARNiDELiA fan). Its hits harder and faster than most of their songs, which may or may not fit "Mahouka", as its a rather slow paced show.
The first ending theme is "Millenario" by Elisa. Well, its been awhile since we heard from Elisa, but from what I can tell, "Millenario" still sounds pretty similar to most of her older songs, moderately paced, mid-tempo alongside her strong voice. The second ending theme is "Mirror" by Rei Yasudo. Honestly, its rather catchy, especially the starting few seconds, and it only gets better throughout. IMO, its the better ending theme of the two.
Rating: 8.5/10
I might be a little bit biased here. Hell, maybe I am, but I honestly think that "Mahouka" might possibly one of my favorite animes this year. Its certainly one of the more "complex" high school animes out there, with A LOT of depth in its lore, as well as having A LOT of characters. Sure, most of these characters aren't fleshed out too well, because lets be honest, even if its 26 episodes long, it isn't quite enough to elaborate and develop such a massive cast (don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to "Mahouka for having a huge cast, its been awhile since we've seen such a diverse cast of characters). There may also be some segments that might feel a little bit too "boring" for certain viewers, because there's a lot of science and politics involved in "Mahouka"; there's going to be quite a bit of talking. Other than that though, the fight scenes are superb, the overall feel of the show is fairly consistent, and the arcs are well represented. They do the light novels justice but cutting out as little content as possible, and honestly, this is a fantastic run. Tatsuya may be a little bit of an overpowered character, but hey, I like my main characters to NOT be useless.
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| Tatsuya knows his way around the ladies. |
The story stars the sibling pair, Tatsuya Shiba and Miyuki Shiba, as the protagonists. Both enroll into first magic high school, a place where only the best of the country's magic users are trained. Because of its competitive nature, the school's student population are split into two halves, the better halves are known as the course one students, the "Bloom"s, and the lower halves are known as the course two students, the "Weed"s. Miyuki, having superior results in her entrance exams, enrolled as a "Bloom", while Tatsuya, having rather poor average results, enrolled as a "Weed". There is a clear discrimination between "Bloom"s and "Weed"s in first high school, and of course, Tatsuya is a source of discrimination by the "Bloom"s, especially because Miyuki is a highly popular "Bloom" student and she always hangs out around Tatsuya. Of course, Tatsuya chooses to keep a low profile, until he is scouted by disciplinary committee. With nothing to lose, Tatsuya accepts, and little does he know, he is about to impact the school in a way that no other student has ever done before.
"Mahouka" is easily one of the most interesting, intriguing and exciting animes of 2014. There's a lot more to be shown here than it did, and I can safely say that we haven't seen the last of Tatsuya. After all, "Mahouka" was quite a big hit, and we can all see why.
Peace.
