Magic— A century has passed since this concept has been recognized as a formal technology instead of the product of the occult or mere folklore.
At the National Magic University First Affiliate High School, A.K.A Magic High School, students are divided into two distinct groups according to their academic performances. The “Bloom,” who demonstrate the highest grades and are enrolled in the “First Course,” and the “Weed,” who have a poor academic record and are enrolled in the “Second Course.”
This spring, a very peculiar brother and sister enroll as new students. Older brother Tatsuya is an underachiever with some deficiencies and enrolls as a “Weed,” while his younger sister Miyuki is an honor student, who enrolls as a “Bloom.” Ever since these two have entered through the gates of this prestigious school, the calm campus was beginning to change…
Review
The Irregular At Magic High School follows a brother and sister who have just enrolled at First Magic High. Set in 2095, the setting is a world where magic is common place and those who can use magic are used as weapons for their nations military needs. We learn from the onset that both Tatsuya and Miyuki were hiding their true identity from everyone but we don’t know why.
The complete blu-ray set is broken up into 3 distinct arcs: Enrollment Arc, Nine Schools Competition Arc and the Yokohama Disturbance Arc. Throughout the series, the plot covers a wide variety of timely topics like class discrimination at school, family duties and world conflicts. Of course since we are at school, we also cover the typical school antics you might expect in high school.
The series takes a little bit to get interesting. After about the first half of the Enrollment arc I was hooked into the world they built around how magic was used an enhanced and the struggles of the class divide at the schools. Course 1 Students “Blooms” were those with high practical magic skills and test schools. Those who were considered reserve students or “Weeds” were in class 2 and were looked down upon. Though not everyone in class 1 agreed with those old notions of superiority in skill.
Mixed in with the daily school plot of enrollment, to an inter-school magic competition, a larger plot of military interference and terrorist attacks are mixed in. The final arc culminates all of the build up in that larger plot but then the series stops. The series waits until the final 2 episodes to reveal to the rest of Tatsuya’s school mates what his skills are, but even then the full truth is never revealed to us or the others. Without any additional episodes, that can be maddening to anyone who is interested in the world that was built.
The light novels would be the best way to get caught up and continue the story. The 26-episode series run covers the first 7 volumes (excluding 5). Madhouse is the studio behind the animation. Overall the magic sequence and battle scenes are well animated and beautiful to watch. The music is very techno and upbeat, sometimes to the point of distraction from the seriousness of a scene. The lack of another season also leaves many character interactions unresolved.
I leave the final episode with more questions then answers given. However, I don’t feel like I wasted my time watching those 26 episodes. It does make me want to go and see the movie which takes place several months after the events of the last episode. It also makes me want to read the light novels to continue the story. No word has come up on a season 2 since the series aired its last episode in 2014. Although 4 years have past, the high selling rate of the light novels makes it possible a season 2 could still happen. There have been more than a few cases were anime came back after a large break (Blue Exorcist for example).
If you like some slice of life, magic and mystery, you should check out The Irregular At Magic High School. You can pickup a copy of the complete blu-ray set which was just released on Oct 16th over at RightStuf. The complete set comes with the following:
The irregular at magic high school Complete Blu-ray Box Set includes:
- Spoken Language: Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 HD Widescreen
- Episodes: All 26 episodes
- Number of Discs: 7 Blu-ray discs
- Total Run Time: Approx. 650 min.
- Rating: 13 UP
- Textless Openings
- Textless Endings
- Trailers and Commercials
- Get to Know Magic Studies! #1-7 (short videos)
- Box illustrations by Kana Ishida (Character Design)
