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「来訪者編V」 (Raihou-sha-hen V)
“Visitor Arc V”
Now that’s the Mahouka I remember. Magic; science; magical science; Magic Jesus doing magical science—it was all present in its animated glory, and the best part is the fun is just getting started. I may be predisposed to dumping on this series at any given opportunity, but that doesn’t mean I cannot love how ridiculous things here can get.
It should really say something that only after a third of the season is over that we finally get one of Mahouka’s (in)famous infodumps. The relatively subdued nature of this season in this aspect is arguably to the show’s credit, as rather than spend inordinate amounts of time in describing the mechanics of actions (and boring the hell out of the audience), the time is now spent on watching said actions occur. Most people after all don’t really care how Mizuki’s magic eyes work, Mikihiko’s spirit magic functions, or how Tatsuya does the latest display of demigod prowess—all that matters is that the basics are present and looks cool as it transpires. Mahouka as a series may be all about attention to detail, but learning when to sideline such detail can quickly help improve the overall production.
Of course, this episode’s infodump was still hefty, although it did give the basis for the parasite enemy of the moment. Ignoring all the fun of getting into the weeds of higher dimensional space and gravity as linkage between dimensions (actual proposals or parts of current theory I should add), it’s a relatively straightforward answer for a concept Mahouka could’ve seriously gone crazy on. Extradimensional beings possessing puny third dimensional human beings? I can get behind that, particularly the basic explanation for how magic works as a concept in this universe to begin with. And if it comes with the added effect of seeing Lina duke it out alongside Tatsuya and go full tsundere, well, I ain’t going to complain. At all. Still slightly annoying how the restriction preventing Tatsuya from immediately winning is him simply not using one ability (is it really that hard to have Tatsuya struggle and be forced to improvise for once?), but hey, I’ll take what we’re getting right now. Especially if the parasite winds up possessing a classmate.
Mahouka’s latest enemy may be out in the open now, but the fight is only just getting started.
Random Tidbits
While Mahouka’s latest technobabble is grounded in real science, the talk on energy conservation is only half-right. Open systems, contrary to Tatsuya’s musing, do actually conserve energy; what separates them from closed systems is that the energy entering must be balanced by energy leaving, whether as work, heat, or something else. Specific energy types may increase or decrease, but the total system energy remains constant. In short, just consider Mahouka’s magic as the usual aether-esque substance.
Preview
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At this point the only best kept secrets in this show are the true identities of the Shiba siblings. Even Lina’s cover got blown pretty quickly, and all things considered, she’s “the Sirius”
Haha pretty much, though you can chalk that down to Tatsuya just being in a league of his own. Lina’s fast outing does disappoint me though because you’d think she’s important enough for that identity to remain a secret longer.
I don’t know if this is faulty adaptation or flawed world building.
But if your strategic-class asset gets her cover blown you’d extract her back to USNA double time instead of letting her loiter around in supposed enemy territory.
Hell why even allow your prized asset out of your country to begin with? Even the exposition bits since Season 1 made it very clear that society thinks of magicians as living weapons and military assets, and the supposed USNA keeps a very tight ship.
Jumonji just showing up and getting into the thick of action together with Lina is itself already very severe breach of contact protocols already.
Likely combination of both IMO.
Mahouka’s strength was always the details regarding its magic system, not so much its geopolitics. Add on top certain national preferences and you get takes like this which ignore a lot of convention regarding state-level assets (GITS is probably the only series to tackle this aspect right).
Likewise this adaptation passes over a lot of the LN’s detail so a good chunk of specific character choices are left out. I wouldn’t be shocked if there are some decent explanations for why some of things happened, but have been heavily abbreviated for pacing reasons.
It takes a Strategic Class Magician to fight a Strategic Class Magician. Given we have seen both their abilities (end of season 1 for Tatsuya, and the Movie for Lina) in a strictly limited sense and ignoring some bullshit that is going to come up Lina is the best to choice to eliminate the threat.
You also have to remember that UNSA wants to know who the Strategic Class Magician is, and with the introduction of the “parasites” who are STARs members (UNSA traitors) even if they wanted to pull her back they can’t, given her position in the STARs and that she is hunting traitors who for all intensive purposes are much stronger than standard magicians and the fact that it has been outright stated that getting people in and out of any (Japan included) country is very difficult they need her their to finish her job.
To be honest, the adaptation is nearly as bad as the first season was and funnily enough far closer, and what i said is the major reason why Lina was sent.
I can’t edit but i will say this, strictly speaking Japan isn’t “Enemy territory”. Like the real word they are allies, in a loose sense of the wording, since UNSA doesn’t want The Great Asian Union to get stronger.