Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Raihousha Hen - Episode 1 - 10 Second Anime

Powerful American magic user Angelina Shields comes to Japan to observe Tatsuya Shiba. Season Premiere.

Visitor Arc I

Hmm.

The Irregular at Magic High School's Shiva the Destroyer is back, but he's not doing much destroying after the events of the last season. Mind you, all that stuff only happened two months ago in the story, but to the audience it feels like six years. Oh yeah, because it was! That 26 episode arc ended in the 2014 summer season and this new one started in the fall of 2020, so just time-shift your attention six years and you'll be fine. I'm serious. The season premiere treats us like adults, does a short recap of the last episode, and then we jump right into the next story. Fans of the light novels should be giddy over this adaptation choice.

Mahouka's continuing story takes on the consequences of Tatsuya carving a hole out of South Korea to prevent a greater tragedy. The guy who says he's weak at magic but tough in a fight became an unregistered strategic weapon by unleashing that attack, so all the nations of the world need to find that walking neutron bomb. It's no surprise that America figured out the best lead first and took advantage of a student exchange program to place their own neutron bomb at Tatsuya's school to get a response from him. Angelina Shields is a bombshell in other ways too!

I considered making a First Thoughts section for the season premiere of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Raihousha Hen but I soon realized that with all the staff being the same and continuing the story with no filler episode to get new fans up to speed, it was unnecessary. It is as if six years never happened between the last season's last episode and this one. The humor is the same. The harem elements are the same. The supporting characters act like they don't need introductions. It's refreshing! The animation style is the same too and the hand-drawn action scenes are a welcome contrast to the recent reliance on CG for everything. I honestly feel like I've traveled back in time watching a show that's set 75 years in the future. Mahouka did a solid job in delivering a new season to its fans.

Heh.

The opening credits place a great importance on Angelina since she's one of the "visitors" the subhead refers to, but Miyuki will always be number one in Tatsuya's unexpressive heart.

The very serious Sirius hunts down defectors for America's Stars program, the elite of the elite magic users for America. Interestingly enough, Sirius is a disguise for a fifteen year old girl named Angelina who will be going to Japan as a foreign exchange student. She's exchanging with Shizuku, which makes Honoka very sad. Her going away party doubles as a Christmas party.

Tatsuya and Miyuki meet their friends at a New Year's shrine visit and they also find a suspicious foreigner wearing a flashy kimono outfit. Mahouka conveniently timed reports of an American operation attempting to find the unregistered strategic magic user with a suspicious blonde girl wearing a flashy kimono at the same shrine Tatsuya happened to visit. Sylvie, Angelina's caretaker while she lives in Japan, needed to sit Angelina down and instruct her on actual Japanese culture instead of whatever she picks up from "sketchy anime and manga." Does Mahouka count as sketchy?

Angelina acted like a friendly foreign exchange student, but we did see how Miyuki is stronger magically than the American girl. Tatsuya and Miyuki reported to their aunt about how she doesn't act like a spy, so they wonder what is her real mission. Another of Angelina's team, Mia, acts like a real spy at a nearby university, but she hasn't found any leads there on who the walking neutron bomb might be. The Americans put all their eggs in the Tatsuya basket, so Angelina thought it was time to put him to the test. 

Angelina went right up to Tatsuya and asked him why he's hiding his strong magic power. Ha. Yeah, why, Tatsuya? He explained how all the usual magic parametric testing shows he's slow in accessing his magic and it's not particularly strong, although he's quick to cast it. He claims he just wants to "be tough in a fight." Yeah, I think we got that! Angelina didn't buy it, but then Tatsuya shut her down by brute force. Tough in a fight! Angelina wasn't convinced totally, but Tatsuya held her hand. The harem starts to grow again.

Meanwhile, the other thing that will become Sirius's, Angelina's codename, main mission is tracking down the American defectors who appear to be searching for a new magic power. This "Visitor Arc" chapter title might be referring to more than one visitor.