(13 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Already our first “magic school” light novel adaptation ? Well, at least its premise is introduced by an actual fun infodump (followed by a less fun and kinda unneeded second one, unfortunately) : you know how our eyes are tricked by optical illusions. Well, imagine a world where people’s eyes were readjusted by a random global accident that allows them to see all the “phantoms” they couldn’t see yet. Oh, and the teenagers born since then can even fight them, because this is a battle anime of course.
Characters
Haruhiko, our male protagonist and point-of-view character, is the kind of super-nerd who feels the need to exposit at length about the setting to random classmates who already know all this stuff. In other words, supremely annoying. He takes part in after-school phantom-hunting activities to bring a bit of dough in, but he’s not too good at it. He’s partnered with…
Mai, who’s a very good if messy phantom fighter. It’s just a shame that her casting magic involves massaging her own body. Also, any of the bounties they’d win are negated by her tendency to leave off massive collateral damage on her path.
Reina is a random shy and reserved classmate Haruhiko befriends after he sees her eating messily a whole bunch of phantoms at once. Mai is all for including her in… and at this stage, you can agree with her wondering what Haruhiko even brings to the team anymore.
Ruru is a cute little phantom girl Haruhiko has befriended/tamed. She doesn’t actually do that much besides being a bit obnoxious.
There’s another girl stomping off the activities room in a huff, and she’s featured prominently enough in the credits that she’s probably joining the team soon.
Production Values
Oh, dear. You can tell that KyoAni took delight in animating the shit out of that three-minute exposition sequence at the beginning that explores in a visually appealing way the high concept behind the series, because after that their talent is wasted on way too detailed shots of Mai’s torso as she casts her magic. Urgh.
Overall Impression
Presumably you know by now that any show in the “magic battle school” genre faces an uphill battle with me. This one hurts its case by starting semi-promisingly and then falling off a cliff into the same tired old clichés, bothersome exposition, and creepy fanservice. It’s also self-aware enough to make it worse.
Urgh, I’ll pass. I have no time for this crap.
