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「来訪者編Ⅸ」 (Raihou-sha-hen Ⅸ)
“Visitor Arc IX”
Alright now things are getting spicy. Maybe not in the incest is wincest format mind you, but hey, those with a taste for familial introspection have been getting plenty of that these past few weeks. Nawh, this time it was all plot, and the setup for the grand showdown (plus some extras) has been made plain for all to see.
Being firmly on the record for wanting more characters having their time to shine, I was pleasantly surprised we actually got that this episode with Erika, Mikihiko, and Leonhart going all out—albeit only for a bit. For all the fun of electro-armour and smug redheads acting smugly, I’m really hard-pressed denying that having all three fail in the process was a serious letdown. Sure, from a plot standpoint it’s fine and makes sense; you need something to give reason to bring parasites, Tatsuya, and Lina together for one final brawl. The issue is that everyone and their hard crushing kouhai knows that if Tatsuya had remained behind that such a defeat likely wouldn’t have occurred. Regardless of certain circumstances, Mahouka has done so well at making Tatsuya the end all be all of power that you can effectively assume the outcome of various events just based on his presence—and that’s before going into any potential Gary Stu traits. It’s not a particularly bad thing of course given what Mahouka is all about, but it’s not unlikely to breed issues later on depending on what each new arc chooses to focus on.
As for this arc, however, it’s nice to see everything pretty come out into the open thanks to some timely (and wholly unintended) Shizuku intervention. Naturally given the talk of Seven Sages earlier in the season we were going to get one of them being the main enemy of the moment, but having it tie back to good old first season foes Blanche and No Head Dragon? And involve some tasty shenanigans regarding the intentional disruption of magic-based technology alongside some omnipresent overseer system? Didn’t see that coming, though I like the direction. Probably just my love of all things Deus Ex that I’m getting a kick out of this, but this is the sort of realm where I think Mahouka shines best; throw Tatsuya to the side and let the geopolitics shine—i.e. magicians are little more than disposable pawns—and I’m down to keep on exploring. Of course this might just be my hobbyist love of political science talking (got a hearty chuckle out of how Tatsuya also noted the serious flaw with Gu Jie’s plan), but hey, I can pretend otherwise.
After all, we aren’t dealing with such nitty gritty anytime soon, not when a three-way battle is about to commence—and Lina is about to learn just what she actually wants in life.
Preview
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I can barely remember the first season that I found this episode quite confusing especially with how fast the infodump was in just one apparently pre-recorded video. There are too many parties involved here each with their own agenda, and I find it quite unfortunate that the social and political implications of magicians vs non-magicians doesn’t seem to bear the impact it should have in the same way the X-Men-mutans versus non-mutans storyline have. The story is too focused despite those stakes in the background. I do think that despite the missed opportunity in the storytelling this angle may have, this results in a more streamlined and focused plot which has already branched too far out with intersecting motives, and parties involved.
Also, I do hope we get Lina’s side of events here. I do wonder what’s going on with her mind and her motivations now that she has failed her missions a couple of times and is just content with being ordered around, well as much as this episode has shown us anyway.
If you want basic info about Blanche and the stuff they did to First High you can re-watch Episodes 4-7 in Season 1, and for No Head Dragon it’s Episodes 12-18 (If you still care that is) Or you can just read the Wiki pages, but do they contain spoilers. I guess it’s much more viable to re-watch a series that’s been out for well over 6 years now, in order to not get left behind with infodumps, especially in shows like Mahouka which is very technical (Unless you remember every single thing from the first season)
I’m actually surprised they didn’t cut off that scene where Raymond contacted Tatsuya about the info he’s gathered. The fact that they showed it and teased Gu Jie in that scene, to me, is giving implications that they’re likely going to continue with future Seasons pertaining Gu Jie’s role as a Villain (Likely going to be 2 more Seasons to get there).
The much more focused storytelling done in this episode opened up a lot of possibilities pertaining it’s plot. Despite it becoming confusing due to the multiple parties involved and their goals clashing with each other, I’m actually hyped to see what’s to come in the future (IF they intend to follow exact events and Not remove relevant plot scenes).
To be fair this is the sort of material you’d expect would be better built up and tied in given how important it is to where Mahouka is heading. It’s true rewatching the first season would help (and makes sense given the time between it and this sequel), but even I had to pause and rewind a few times to make sense of it all, and that’s with preexisting watching and wiki reading. It’s not a problem for light novel readers or series fans, but this is the infodump style which often turns people off certain adaptations.
As for the future I wouldn’t read too much into the faithfulness of specific scenes. It’s likely we will get more Mahouka given the series’ popularity (as I understand it), but there’s no guarantee. Show writers usually try to remain accurate to the source material as a way to simplify any future sequel – i.e. avoid all the fun of retcons.
I firmly expect we’ll be getting plenty on Lina shortly. Tatsuya’s musing on her assassinations is a pretty big tell that she’ll be front and centre, especially given Raymond also specified the parasite location to her.