CThomp415

I went into this series with high hopes after reading the synopsis and a few reviews, but I have been exceedingly disappointed from the very beginning. If this had been released in the 90's, it would have been a mediocre series, but being released in 2016 means it just feels old and dated. Not only is the animation quality sub-par, and the sound quality and voice acting done poorly, but this show ticks every box on the 90's anime tropes list. Every time I started to get into the story, the immersion was broken by some stupid prat fall withcartoon sound effects or a completely unnecessary and dull transformation scene. If I had to watch one more outtake with a giant bead of sweat on someone's head, I was going to throw my monitor across the room. The characters are all fairly non-descript with only the occasional different hair color or outfit piece to tell them apart and every one of them is bland and unremarkable. I kept having to rewind and replay scenes just to figure out who was doing what since the only person who you can pick out of the crowd easily is the main character's rival. Lastly, and probably the biggest flaw to me, is the horrible story telling and the terrible pacing of the series. Almost the entire first episode is the main character telling you about the last 6 months of his life. Why should anyone have to sit through an entire episode of exposition in a series? The whole point of animated shows is that they can show you things that can't be reproduced in real life, so why waste my time having someone tell me a story when you can just show me? And the bad pacing just continues throughout. I kept having trouble figuring out how much time has progressed between and even during episodes as the story just seems to randomly jump forward. I still can't believe that the main character went from a worthless nobody to the number one in the school between episodes. Why in the hell would you skip the story of his come-uppance? Overall, this is a pass. While the show is not horrible in any one area, it is lacking in every area. I can't find any redeeming qualities in this series and I wish I hadn't spent several hours looking for them. Don't make the same mistake of wasting as much time on this as I did.

Hidden_Depths

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers. ---- This show starts out with really no intro to the main character and never tries to give an explanation to a few questions you might have at the start of the show; however, this does not detract from the experience. This is a very enjoyable short magic anime with a strong and determined hero who wants to change the lives of him and those around him. He is a underdog with immense potential and culmination of rare abilities and for the most part he hides his true power from all around him. Watch this show and you'll notregret it. To enjoy the show more and not constantly wait for things to be explained that never really are, I will give you a backdrop to the story that can't really count as a spoiler. World: The main character appearently 3 months prior to the show woke up to a world vastly different from the one he knew. People around him were the same, but the world changed from ours with science to a world with magic being the fundamental core of society. With this change, Magical has become the great divide in social class and there is great demand for magic in work and also jobs related to combating monsters which now exist and attack humans. Magic: Magic is broken into elements and some are much more rare than others, with the rare ones often giving way to its own hierarchy since they tend to be more powerful and bolster the effectiveness of any group of mages that can recruit a rare type mage. Elemental powers are determined the day you enter a magic high school. What the series never explains is that while Magic ability is rare and types can be rare, what is most rare is possibility of have a second element. They not only do not mention that this exists prior or after the main character becomes one, they don't even talk about it when you see someone else use more than one type later in the series. Series Start: The main character enters the stage as he is trying to pass magic school entrance exams, but since he had only 3 months to learn what he needed to have learned about his new magic world, he fails desperately. His dad does everything he can to help his son get into the school. Another minor fact they never explain is when before the start of the show he exactly and for what reason he ran away with a girl of a prominent magical family (it doesn't seem to follow the timeline of him just waking up 3 months prior to exams). Time: This series while 12 episodes is short due to its shorter than normal time length. Despite that, the show actually covers around 3 years time and is virtually the opposite of Slice of Life since he seems to spend all his time getting stronger and has little interaction with classmates or any random events. Other explanations (Minor Spoilers): Strongest members of Privileged established families do not waste time going high school and have speed up training to make those that go to school to learn magic a secondary class of mage. Due to translations and the lack of explanation, the power displayed by individuals might not be clear. Most of the show talks about levels of magic without clarifying; I will try to do this now. Staying away from the issue that equal levels of magic are not equal across elements;I will mention levels the show equates to characters. While one teacher said he could not accomplish what a student at level 2 did, another teacher displayed level 2 ability to her class. Hunters seem to be around level 2 with leaders at level 3. While it seems a big deal when they mention level 3, you find out later that this is still the Basic Tier of Magic. 1 time later in the series a "Pro" or "Master" shows up and it is talked about how his 2 elements of "Advanced Tier" Magic did what an entire squad of Basic Tier Hunters couldn't do. Thanks for reading: This show is a hidden gem cropping out from the Chinese market and I can't urge strongly enough that it is a great little series to pass the time with.