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「少女探偵団、始動よ！」 (Shoujo Tantei-dan, Shidou yo!)
“The Girl’s Detective Club is here!”
Well, good to know Yuutousei is on the right track. Completely. What’s that, not liking the right track? Don’t worry, the onii-sama line hasn’t yet been forgotten (to my eternal chagrin), but for the moment it’s all about that sweet sweet side cast – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
For all I’ve harped on it already, it bears repeating again: damn do I like the focus of this spinoff. Although the titular Miyuki is never far from the scene, Yuutousei has strongly reinforced how it intends on giving some of Mahouka’s lesser-known faces a good deal of this season’s spotlight. Case in point being the continued doting on Suzuka. Cutesy admiration of Miyuki and burgeoning Magic Jesus crush? Butt end of all Shizuku deadpan humour? Displaying that steadfast loyalty to doing what’s right – and letting herself get talked out of it? All on proud display. I also have to give credit for the time Mayumi and Eimi are getting to show off their, erm, unique and totally not exaggerated characteristics, but at least for me for the moment it’s all about the little duo who could.
Speaking of focus, the real fun is going to be seeing how it translates into this season’s later events. Given how Rettousei’s main developments are being treated here – i.e. as second-hand background scenery – it’s not an unreasonable expectation to see some better fleshing out of the parts which Rettousei’s first season rapidly swept through. We can probably expect the quintessential tournament shenanigans to receive more attention during the Nine Schools arc for example (by emphasizing the actual competition over the stuff Tatsuya got up to) and even the likes of the current Blanche material to be less about super-secret anti-magic machinations and more about its effects on the average school denizen. Make no mistake, getting any sort of story perfection here is highly unlikely and I’m fully convinced now the most value will only be found by those already Mahouka fans, but if Yuutousei keeps this approach up it certainly will be a decent bit of in-universe fun.
All we have left to find out is which other secondary cast members are primed to get the Suzuka treatment.
Preview
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Here’s my thing with this show. It puts all of its focus on the secondary parts of the first show, ie, lots of fanservice and lots of dumb jokes (don’t get offended, they’re supposed to be dumb, like dad jokes)
But those things were secondary for a reason. They were a distraction that padded the more important stuff, and they just don’t stand on their own imo.
On top of that, this series keeps contradicting the first series. Things like Eimi having this big thing for Tatsuya, when the first series established that she never met him until he was their engineer, and there’s multiple other examples just in these first 3 episodes. Eimi was easily the best part of this episode btw, and my only real saving grace for my enjoyment here.
To me, this series seems to throw away most if not all of what made the original enjoyable and replaced with fluff and filler. More than anything, it just makes me want to stop watching this and go back and watch the first series again. Even the parts of the first series that focused on these background characters I enjoyed more there.
Sorry, I really wanted to like this, but I’m just going to have to pass.
As Mockman mentioned below there’s not that many contradictions flying about (at least yet). I’m personally getting my money’s worth out of this so far, but I admit a lot of that is down to who’s been featured so far and where this season’s focus seemingly lies – i.e. the Nine Schools arc. We have to see how that plays out and what is featured (and different) in it before we can get a good feel about Yuutousei’s overall strength.
I did like how the Student Council trio made fun of Miyuki’s super doting brocon moment. It almost seemed like they were self aware about how thick she was laying it on hahahaha. With the way Tatsuya is, I can totally understand why he indulges Miyuki. But it was kinda funny to see her get embarrassed about being caught bro-coning it out in public.
I’ll probably stick through for awhile more. Unlike many fans of the original, I wasn’t too interested in the detailed technomagic systems so I don’t mind that there’s little focus on that side of things.
That was a funny moment, especially when Mayumi and Suzune did their skit.
While I enjoyed the first season, it did take itself too seriously. This has been fun so far and while nothing really new has happened yet, there are some unknown characters in the opening that will likely open things up once the story reaches the games. As the show is an easy watch, I’ll be sticking with it unless they do something unimaginably weird.
The laidback focus of this one is what sells me the most on it. It’s incredibly easy to watch, doesn’t really have any troughs of boredom (yet), and plays up the secondary cast who I admit I often like more than the main duo. It won’t be anything particularly special of course, but for me it’s quite good as a Mahouka spinoff.
You mean Honoka, right? Not Suzuka.
Ah damn yes I do, I always mix up their names when writing and it gets really annoying XD
FWIW, there’s nothing in the first season that specifies that Eimi wouldn’t know who Tatsuya was until the games sequence. He introduced himself to the group of contestants then as he had been assigned to them as their engineer — the group which incidentally included his sister, Honoka and Shizuku but that was a formality. Everyone already knew who he was.
Secondly, at least over Yuutosei’s first three episodes, there’s nothing to indicate anything special between the two. Miyuki has to tell Tatsuya the redhead’s name. All in all, it seems like a reasonable way to tell an overlapping side-story that only occasionally conflicts with the orginal telling. Eimi is interested in having her own type of fun. It’s a coincidence that Tatsuya’s at the centre of it.
I’m more disappointed in how the cafeteria scene or the confrontation at the gate were handled in ep.02. Those scenes were mangled in their retelling. Or how Honoka is made to do pratfalls (which she never did originally) or her newfound social ineptitude. If Honoka is physically capable of doing the surfboard competition then she probably shouldn’t be stumbling around on dry land. But, it’s all in good fun.