I have been highly anticipating a second season of The Irregular at Magic High School since I watched it years ago.
Full Disclosure: As with many anime, I do not often read the source material. Why? Because I like manga, but I don’t LOVE manga. Okay. Let’s back up. It isn’t that I don’t like manga, I don’t like how much money manga requires me to spend. It gets so expensive for something I am only going to read once. I am not the kind of person that would re-read the series over and over. So, due to that, anime fits my preferences a lot more. As previously mentioned, I like looking at the product before me. Not what the product could have been, or should have been, but rather, how it makes me feel in that moment without any other preconceived notions.
My impressions over the years was there was a very intense dissatisfaction with how the anime handled the very complicated magic system.
I admit. I had to watch Irregular quite a few times before I began to understand how their “magic” worked. Even then, I don’t think I still fully grasp the complexity of the magic, and because I have not read any of the source material, I doubt I ever will.
That being said, that has never diminished my enjoyment of the series. I don’t really need to know how their magic works to understand what is happening in the anime. After reading many criticisms, I do have to say that I agree that there were several aspects regarding the “magic” that could have been made clearer. The anime dances around the technicality of the magic and leaves the viewer to make inferences on how it works. I can honestly see why so many people were disappointed with it.
That aside, a new arc/season debuted on October 3rd on Funimation.
DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE SEASON.
We begin the episode at a farewell Christmas party. One of Miyuki’s classmates, Shizuku, is about to go study abroad through an exchange program, which is rare. To allow one’s magic user out of the country is tantamount to giving away state secrets.
We are introduced to Angelina Kudou Shields who is an American undercover agent. I was pretty surprised to see that she is based out of Dallas, Texas which is very close to where I grew up. They did a pretty good job on the Dallas skyline. Despite her age, she is high-ranking officer within her organization. She is tasked with trying to find information on the “strategic-class magician” responsible for the “Scorched Halloween” incident which annihilated the southern most tip of Korea.
When she arrives to Japan, she sticks out like a sore thumb, but quickly integrates her into the circle of Tatsuya’s friends, however, he is very suspicious of her and has some theories about her identity. They have a cat-and-mouse moment where she tests Tatsuya and ultimately fails.
Overall, there wasn’t really anything over impressive about the first episode, and that is to be expected. They are laying the groundwork for two “enemies” having to work together against a mutual enemy. Out of the new releases I have watched opening week, unfortunately, this was the weakest one. I’m not passing judgment yet, but the first episode didn’t really grab my attention.
Filthy Casual for Life 