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「手出しはさせません」 (Tedashi wa Sasemasen)
“I Won’t Let Anyone Interfere”
Although I’m quite content with Yuutousei being the less renowned and more knowledge demanding version of Mahouka, I’m not sure this week was what I specifically had in mind on that point. Girls showed off and resolutions were had, but was there satisfaction in the material shown? The jury is out on that one.
Considering everything Yuutousei has shown and hinted towards to date, what probably irks me the most regarding this episode is how shallow it was. For all the focus on the lesser-known actors (well, actresses) of this arc, precious little in new scenes and developments were shown and even less in coherent story laid out bare. While Yuutousei has previously made it well-known this season would demand previous experience with Rettousei, this was arguably the first point where it was mandatory; items like the school debate, Tatsuya’s crushing of Blanche itself, and even Sayaka were barely touched on or explained before leaping to the next cameo. Maybe it’s just my expectations being too high in the greater scheme of things (Miyuki doing Miyuki things notwithstanding), but this opening arc really felt like wasted potential when compared to what Rettousei had on offer.
On the other side of things, however, is what comes next: the Nine Schools Tournament. While I’ve gushed on this before, Yuutousei has undeniably played it up hard: the OP features it in abundance, it’s the first arc where many of Yuutousei’s “main” characters play prominent roles *giggles in detective trio*, and it’s arguably the arc where Rettousei missed the mark for many Mahouka fans. It may be unwise to expect any sort of major improvement over the main story given what we’ve seen to date (particularly this week), but considering the foreshadowing of certain antagonists I certainly am optimistic the better parts of Yuutousei lie ahead.
After all, if Miyuki can keep strutting her stuff so much, nothing says the likes of Suzuka, Honoka, and rambunctious snaggle tooth redheads cannot do the same.
Preview
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Unfortunately the Blanche event in Rettousei is all about Tatsuya and Miyuki establishing how OP’ed they are. The only side characters on site are Leo and Erika (who are there just to prevent anyone who slipped away from escaping) plus their seniors. I’m glad they skimmed through it, disjointed in execution it may be.
NSC arc is where the secondary characters should shine (hopefully) since they have their own matches to build the story around.
Yupp and I think it’s why I’m as disappointed as I am regarding it. The indication was Yuutousei would focus hard on its side-cast and feature new takes on Rettousei’s events, so having the result simply be glossing over moments where they don’t feature prominently – rather than create new scenes for them to feature in – was not particularly appealing in practice. As you mention though the Nine Schools competition should hopefully rectify this so we’ll just have to see how that arc plays out!