Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

In the dawn of the 21st century, magic, long thought to be folklore and fairy tales, has become a systematized technology and is taught as a technical skill. In First High School, the institution for magicians, students are segregated into two groups based on their entrance exam scores: "Blooms," those who receive high scores, are assigned to the First Course, while "Weeds" are reserve students assigned to the Second Course.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei follows the siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba, who are enrolled in First High School. Upon taking the exam, the prodigious Miyuki is placed in the First Course, while Tatsuya is relegated to the Second Course. Though his practical test scores and status as a "Weed" show him to be magically inept, he possesses extraordinary technical knowledge, physical combat capabilities, and unique magic techniques—making Tatsuya the irregular at a magical high school.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shiba, Tatsuya Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Shiba, Miyuki Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Saegusa, Mayumi Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Chiba, Erika Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Kitayama, Shizuku Supporting

Tatsumi, Yuiko Japanese

Mitsui, Honoka Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Ichijou, Masaki Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Shibata, Mizuki Supporting

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Watanabe, Mari Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Fujibayashi, Kyouko Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Kashiwada, Shinichirou Producer

Kimura, Yasutaka Producer

Reviews

Mar 11, 2026

fubuki_kira

Recommended

a competently written show with a relatively low amount of peak low moments. the main character while being very OP by any measure doesn't trivialize every encounter and often intentionally defers to let others handle things for him. specifically, the show uses a magic based power system with a 8/10 hard rules rating. meaning it's based in hard logic with extremely little wiggle room, very little cannot be explained using rules. the main character is a relative outlier having little magic in the measurable magic system the show uses, but has an ability set that is as of my current understanding, not accessible to anyone ... else.

ignoring the incest subplot, which is going to be hard for some people, the show offers action, intrigue, and quality animation for the entire duration. that isnt as true for the second season, third season, or the movie placed between those seasons, so enjoy it now. the voice acting is high quality and the music is above average. you have 26 episodes, so a two cour show by modern terminology, so you will get to physically watch the show, for a long duration, a luxury in this one cour market we find ourselves in.

worth a watch if you enjoy school shows, magic shows, or combat shows.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 16, 2025

RemanTheArchean

Mixed Feelings

ChatGPT told me I should love this show based on my past preferences (its reasoning is here: https://chatgpt.com/share/6897894e-9288-8006-9088-e25d6b2f9c63), and to its credit this show *does* have many things I typically enjoy: A non-whiny OP protagonist that hides his power level, a serial (non-episodic) structure with political machinations, cute girls fawning over the MC, and mystery elements. All of that is great in theory, but the execution is lacking somewhat.

One of my biggest issues was that I had a difficult time understanding WTF was going on. I could understand the basic gist well enough: for each arc the show starts in a school setting, but ... something isn't right. Terrorists are plotting something! Eventually there's a direct clash which the good guys inevitably win.

But beyond that surface-level understanding, it was quite hard for me to tell why things were unfolding they way they were. I think this was due to a number of factors:
1. The story starts in medias res with minimal explanation of what happened previously.
2. The show is partially a mystery-thriller that wants to keep its cards close to its chest.
3. This was sourced from an LN, which probably means they're racing through details at a breakneck speed.
4. I found it very hard to keep the characters straight, since they mostly have the same darkish hair and are wearing similar school uniforms. Also, there's simply too many of them.
5. The show is just bad at explaining things.

I was desperate for a few scenes that would explain some things like the motivations of the villains (beyond simply "they want our awesome tech). Instead, the show devoted lengthy sequences to exposition dumps about the minutiae of fictional technology of this world. Something like this is always going to be a tough sell, but it could be worthwhile if those details are plot-relevant to an interesting meta-mystery. However, it didn't seem like that's the case, rather it seems that the writer wanted to gush about this stuff since they thought this world's lore was interesting in it's own right. It... really wasn't.

With its mediocre execution, I was done with this show after 1 season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 12, 2025

TryingT0L1ve

Not Recommended

Well-written

Alright, let’s be honest: this anime has absolutely nothing unique about it. There’s really no reason for anyone to watch it, unless it’s literally your first anime ever—then maybe you’ll enjoy it.

Let’s start with the general idea: the anime is about a protagonist who’s basically the strongest at everything. He never loses, and it all feels extremely forced, like a child writing the plot. It’s basically: “Hmm, let me create an insanely overpowered character who got misjudged during evaluations, haha, I’m a genius.” Even the whole discrimination theme feels incredibly forced and illogical—it makes no sense most of the time.

The only somewhat decent aspect is ... the futuristic setting, with things like a third world war having happened. But even that is nothing that any person couldn’t come up with.

Now, about the characters: they are painfully cliché. You don’t really feel any unique or memorable personality from any of them. It’s either extremely predictable and shallow or just a generic copy of characters you’ve already seen a hundred times before.

As for the soundtrack—it didn’t impress me at all. Usually, I don’t even care much about soundtracks; either it’s amazing, or I just ignore it. In this case, I simply ignored it.

The animation? Completely standard. I don’t put much weight into animation quality because I focus more on the story itself. But still, it’s nothing new or impressive—it’s just the usual, generic anime style.

Now, the pacing and progression: this is one of the anime’s biggest issues. NOTHING RELEVANT EVER HAPPENS. It’s so fixated on the “I’m the strongest” thing that there’s no real story. Nothing progresses. It’s honestly bizarre how bad it is. You might expect that because the anime is fairly short, it would dive deeper into the story or character development—but no. I promise you, almost nothing actually happens. Since the protagonist doesn’t evolve at all, every “difference” is just him explaining what he did, showing it again in slow motion, or someone finally noticing. But none of that shows any real progression. You could easily fit the entire anime into one episode.

Also, it’s worth mentioning the uncomfortable "forced romance" between the protagonist and his sister. It gets slightly less creepy later on, but since it’s never properly explained, it’s just disturbing to watch.

In the end: this anime has a plot that’s, let’s say, “decent” at best, but still feels extremely childish—like something a 7-year-old could come up with. The entire show is so silly that a child could explain the full plot in five minutes. I know I might sound a bit harsh, but imagine I told you there’s an anime that fails at absolutely everything it tries to do—where literally ANY OTHER ANIME you pick will have something better. An anime that no one will ever list as their favorite. And yet, you’re still sitting there watching it. There’s simply no reason in the world to waste time on this anime. Honestly, I’d even say that Dragon Ball Evolution offers more fun or relatable moments than this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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