*First review. Please be lenient.
I first found out about this series because the anime is one of the most hyped anime of the Spring 2014 anime series being released. Having watched the first 3 episodes, the series was interesting enough to check out the original source material. And it is great!
This is a MIGHTY LOOOOOOOOONG review. There will be very very minor spoilers***, but those probably won't mean much for those who've not read the LNs. For those who want a mini review, here's one. A (very) detailed one is below:
Story - 8
+ Interesting and well developed world and magic system
+ Plot gets increasingly interesting
...
and complex
+ Pacing is overall good
+ Very hard to stop reading!
- Starts slow
- Increased complexity of plot leaves unanswered questions later
- Little bit biased against certain countries (in the future..,)
- Some things are a little hard to believe
Art - 10
+ Great, unique character designs (watch anime!)
Characters - 9
+ Big cast of varied and interesting characters
+ Plenty of interaction between side characters, not involving MC
+ MC is badass and mysterious
+ Unique and cool magical skills amongst the characters
+/- MC is super OP
- Some characters are underdeveloped or neglected
- MC sister has incestuous thoughts
Overall - 9
+ Author is very good story teller. Does great job in engaging reader.
# Not yet complete. Many storylines not yet resolved.
Story (8)
It is 2095, and scientific technology has made magic an accessible important scientific tool in the world. In Japan, Tatsuya and Miyuki are siblings who are starting school at National Magic University First Affiliated High School. However, Tatsuya is enrolled as a course 2 student, while his extremely talented sister, is a course 1 student, and hence, part of the top half of students that achieved the top grades in the school.
First, I will quickly mention that Tatsuya is the MC, and he is such a total badass that many claim he is OP (over powered). This is contrary to many shounen that start with wimpy kids that grow steadily throughout. The MC is already a powerful character, and the story progresses such that his motives, secrets and powers are slowly revealed in the events that follow, rather than the MC growing in strength as he encounters new events. More about this in the character section.
Now, the world of MKnR is extremely interesting. One of the best parts of the series is that the author explores many areas of society affected by magic. While the military and school system is most emphasised, other areas such as politics, media, international relations, civil rights, research etc are all explored to some extent, giving off the feeling that the world of MKnR could possibly work in such a way if magic did exist in that form.
The concept of magic as part of scientific development is one of the main issues elaborated on throughout the series. While fascinating to ponder upon, and rather unique, the detailed explanations throughout the series, and especially in the first volume, sometimes get confusing and, unfortunately, ruin the pace of the story. However, for those readers who love figuring out these things, this will prove a great treat as it is evident that the author poured a lot of effort into developing the magic system in the series.
Plot wise, the series proves very entertaining. The series is covered in several seperate arcs, that are each covered in 1 to 3 volumes, and almost always revolve around Tatsuya (Vol 5 is a collection of short stories, some without Tatsuya at all). Admittedly, and as many fans of the series have claimed, the first arc is rather slow, and even a little simple. This has been attributed to the fact that a lot of world-building and character introductions were done, and these are essential in understanding what goes on later. However, from volume 3 onwards, the pace picks up to a decent rate.
In many of the arcs, the stories go about in a manner similar to a highly complex and dangerous chess game (with Tatsuya as a rather OP chess piece). Each arc usually deals with some seperate group that intends harm on Tatsuya and his sister or those around them whom they consider important, and it is fascinating to see the various countermeasures or actions Tatsuya and his friends take to repel the enemy. While each arc can be considered a story on its own, all of them are connected in some way, and each slowly reveals a new side or secret of the mysterious Tatsuya.
Moving on to the later volumes, some have extremely complex plots with the participation of many factions with various hidden agendas in a single arc. This can be seen as both a pro and con. While this has increased the mystery and intrigue of the series, and sometimes, making it seem even more entertaining, the complexity does prove a little confusing in some instances, and leaves a few unanswered questions (vol 9,10 and 11).
Generally, the story does not have any really glaring plot holes, though, as mentioned just now, in later volumes, the added complexity does add some confusion.
One thing that needs to be mentioned is the bias and incredulity of some of the events within the story. The LN does seem to shed a rather negative light on Chinese, with many of the main antoganists being brutal or greedy people originating from China, or rather being part of the implied to be backwards Great Asian Alliance. Conversely, Japan is an independant country, with some of the most advanced technology and best magicians in the world. Furthermore, their high school students seem capable of matching, and even totally annihilating experts in warfare, or professional intelligence agents, with one particular student being more than extremely OP...
Yet, personally, while a little hard to swallow at first glance, I, as a reader, found myself not caring much about these. Hell, I'm a Chinese and even I was against the Chinese b******* in the series. This could be attributed to the skill of the author in presenting protagonists that anyone would easily want to support, or it could be because, the exoticness(?) of such a world makes it hard to see 'Chinese' as chinese, or Americans as Americans etc, but rather, as just opposing groups to the main characters that the reader has come to understand and root for. (Sometimes, I even WANTED the main characters to be more OP... -_-)
Finally, as far as atmosphere of the story goes, it is initially rather light and there are several comedic moments, often involving Tatsuya's resistance to embarassing situations. The atmosphere does darken somewhat and become more mysterious as the story progresses and enemies become more dangerous and difficult to detect, however, comedic moments are somehow snuck in on occasion to lighten the mood.
Art (10)
With the coming of the anime, art in the LN does seem a little irrelevant, so I won't go into this section too much, since all you have to do is watch the anime to get a much clearer image of the characters and their designs in the anime. However, I have to say that the character designs are very cool. Most illustrations are cleanly drawn, and the covers are nice to look at. The uniforms look especially interesting and, many have noted how modest the girls uniforms are, unlike ahem... most of those in school life anime (short, easily exposed skirts *cough cough*). Then again, there's no shortage of... beautiful females lacking complete coverage of their bodies, though none are truly 'ecchi'
Character (9)
MKnR has a big cast of characters. By volume 12, the number of significant characters probably numbers close to 30, though, in the series itself, only Tatsuya (and Miyuki?) have truly permanent and important recurring roles.
Initially, such a big cast of characters does become rather difficult to absorb. Maybe it's because I myself am not particularly good with Japanese names, but there were several occasions in the first few volumes where I had to recheck the names, not least because the characters would alternate between calling the family and first names of the characters to suit the occasions eg. Ichihara-san and Suzune being the same person!...
However, as we slowly uncover the quirks of each character, and sometimes go in depth into some of the more important characters, they start to become an essential and memorable part of the series. With so many characters, several different perspectives, from totally different backgrounds are explored, eg. Katsuto being a proud and noble heir to a Ten Master Clan, Sayaka being a course 2 student struggling for recognition, Morisaki a typical course 1 student looking down on 'weeds' etc, that overall, lead up to giving the reader a rather complete and well rounded impression of the world of MKnR.
Though, it is probably the individual powers of the characters that make such a large cast so fun. From the ice queen Miyuki, to Katsuto's Phalanx, Tatsuya's mysterious powers, Erika's swordsmanship, Yoshida's Spirit magic etc, all once again, show different perspectives and cover the rich variety of magic use in MKnR. Also, all the characters have their individual strengths and weaknesses (yes, Tatsuya has weaknesses!) and it gets highly entertaining when we see the various powers pitted against one another.
Unfortunately, sometimes, this large cast of characters does lead to some under development of the characters. Almost evey character interesting in some way, especially when it comes to their individual magical powers, though, to some degree, character development does not always get a really proper fleshing. eg. Ichijou Masaki, Mari, Azusa etc all do get some development etc, and contribute greatly in some instances, even make the series more interesting, but are all very much neglected in the later volumes.
Then again, the main character is Tatsuya, and it is probably more believable that he will deal with all sorts of people, and that it is maybe unrealistic to believe that so many will always stick with him and develop constantly throughout the series. Honestly, this LN has one of the more realistic interactions between characters I've read, in the sense that Tatsuya never really depends on any single one character for everything, nor does he force himself to be a loner when his friends can be of use. Besides, a big plus point I particularly liked was that many of the side characters form unique relationships between themselves that do not necessarily go through the MC. Ultimately, partially because of the above point, I believe that the occasional underdevelopment and negligence for some can be forgiven, even overlooked.
And then, we move on to the main character himself. Tatsuya probably proves to be one of the coolest badasses around. Unlike many of the side characters, we see no noticeable change in his powers or character throughout, leading some to claim he fails to develop at all. This is somewhat true, especially in the first 7 volumes. However, it can be said that the first 7 volumes were a slow buildup into revealing who Tatsuya really is as a person (with volume 8 finally giving us the final details as a flashback). And this steady unraveling of Tatsuya's secrets and character prove fascinating, (The culmination of all this proves to be bloody badass) and makes him probably the most interesting character of all. In fact, I may even go so far as to say that his unchanging and totally reliable badass-ery is one of the positive aspects of the series.
However, it is incorrect to say that Tatsuya does not develop. He does, though not very noticeably. Furthermore, with the introduction of a new character in volume 9 and some developments, there comes several instances of Tatsuya having to push himself.
Note, there are several incestuous moments in this LN, when it comes to Miyuki fawning over Tatsuya. However, none of them are really sexual, and tend to be on the more innocent side. The incest theme may put off some people, however, in MKnR, there is a full backstory that explains this interaction, so don't just ignore this series because you believe there's some pointless fetishes being thrown around xp
Additionally, occasionally there is the feeling that, when it comes to group fights, Tatsuya and his sister are so OP, you wonder if some of the side characters were really necessary.
Enjoyment (10)
I read 12 volumes in 7 days. That's at least 3600 pages. That was how addictive the series was. Satou Tsutomi is quite adept at building up the intensity and the anticipation of readers. As mentioned above, some enjoyment is taken away because of lengthy explanations that still prove confusing (this may be remedied by watching the anime, which will have animated sequences of what occurs), but the magic in the series is truly unique in its own way with it's combination of science and magical theories etc.
In some ways, MKnR seems like this great mixture of Sciece Fiction, Fantasy, and even some Mystery and Supernatural, and I believe fans of any of those genres may find MKnR a worthwhile read. For those currently watching the anime, I can confidently say, for those who don't mind reading thousands of pages, this LN is a must read. The detailed explanations and further exploration of the world in the LN will undoubtedly enrich the experience for fans of the series.
I will mention again that some suspension of disbelief is required to fully enjoy the story. I mean, it does get a bit hard to swallow when mere 15-18 year olds have combat abilities surpassing full time military men, or have the knowledge to construct and engineer nuclear reactors. But, again, Satou's storytelling skills are good enough that, it probably won't matter how astonishing some of the events may seem in reality, because the reader is more than likely to be too immersed in the story.
Overall (9)
I cannot give the series a 10 because it is not yet complete, and hence, there are too many unresolved issues in the story at the moment. Also, some of the minor blemishes do make the story a little short of great. However, the way things are going, and the very many possibilities that are open for Tatsuya and co. to take, expectations of MKnR are strong.
Apr 27, 2014
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
(Manga)
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*First review. Please be lenient.
I first found out about this series because the anime is one of the most hyped anime of the Spring 2014 anime series being released. Having watched the first 3 episodes, the series was interesting enough to check out the original source material. And it is great! This is a MIGHTY LOOOOOOOOONG review. There will be very very minor spoilers***, but those probably won't mean much for those who've not read the LNs. For those who want a mini review, here's one. A (very) detailed one is below: Story - 8 + Interesting and well developed world and magic system + Plot gets increasingly interesting ... |
