Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

HS - Episode 20

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Only in anime and by Tatsuya could you play Mayumi like that and have it all work out. Well done.

Other than that, not only is the Thesis competition the academic counterpart of the Nine Schools Competition, the arc feels more or less the same as well. Switch out gangsters for radicals (both of the stereotypical Chinese type) and we've got Competition Arc v2.

The girl who got away puts a more personal spin on this though, so I'm interested to see where she's coming from.

The Mayumi moment shows that Tatsuya does indeed have emotions. Subdued, but they exist. He had no other motivation to tease her there aside from his own enjoyment.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

The Mayumi moment shows that Tatsuya does indeed have emotions. Subdued, but they exist. He had no other motivation to tease her there aside from his own enjoyment.

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Not necessarily. He did absolutely nothing before Mayumi asked if he's not doing anything despite the opportunity. He immediately cracked that joke fitting for James Bond. I'd say it could be perfectly formulated by his intelligence, aided by his knowledge of human psychology. After all, even Terminator knew human psychology, why not Tatsuya? If he doesn't want to go around giving an impression of a robot, he needs to fake emotions every now and then. Preferably leaving very lasting impressions like this one, so that he doesn't need to bother with them all the time.

I agree with Kraco on this one. The comment seemed to be the most "appropriate" to make given the circumstance. I can't imagine Tatsuya actually enjoying saying such words, unlike say Yagami Kazuma.

But an emotionless person would NOT joke.

The very idea of making a joke right there is from emotion. He felt mischievous and did so. There was absolutely no necessity to do that. A totally emotionless creature would only do necessary things. What is "appropriate" to say is dependent on personality, which is rooted in emotions. Teasing Mayumi, and increasing her love points, is something that even contradicts his supposed existent affection for Miyuki. She would probably freeze the whole school if she ever learned about that joke.

His effort at making the gravity control system function without a magician is also a sign of his emotions. Why would he be so fixated on making a system that does not require a magician to be constantly part of it, going so far as saying that it is meaningless if the magician is treated like a tool? I think he is doing it because he feels sympathy for magicians being treated as tools/weapons like he has.

You guys are taking what he said about being emotionless too literally. How can he even function like that? I think he cannot feel strong emotions outside of things involving Miyuki, not that he does not feel anything at all. Too much is being dismissed just because of one comment. He acts very cold, but not completely robotic. He wants to do things like complete flying and fusion magic as personal research. Why the hell does he even need to do that barring personal curiosity and ambition?

Of course all that can rationalized to some sort of cover story, or theories about him needing to increase wealth/influence. But would it not be more logical to take the simplest reason as him simply wanting to?

One can also argue that his minute feelings are starting to surface more because of his interaction with "friends". He probably did not attend school (was there ever a mention of a middle school? I am not sure.) until now, so he never had a chance to exercise his emotions on other people outside of Miyuki, who he intensely cares about.

How do you know what is pure emotion and what is pure intelligence? Our only source to study is human, that is, ourselves, with no other intelligent species around and no AI yet having reached self-awareness. Obviously Tatsuya is a human, so his brain, with all the evolutionary baggage, is probably incapacle of ridding itself of all emotions, since emotions are actually much older than higher intelligence. So, yeah, he probably does have emotions, but they might be below the threshold most would require to speak of emotions. So, he could be called an emotionless human. That doesn't mean he would just want to sit on a bench and die of dehydration because it would be the easiest way out for a person with no emotions and thus no motivation. Human brain, while conscious, is built to process something all the time, even if it's useless shit like an episode of Mahouka. That's why gurus need years to learn to empty their minds. It's the same for Tatsuya, with the exception he's actually a genius, so his clock rate is higher than normal. He can't help but research stuff.

Additionally, Miyuki greatly enjoys having such a genius, omnipotent onii-sama, so Tatsuya has no choice but to do stuff on his spare time that would make multi-billion, international research projects weep in envy. Possibly even that joke is something that in Tatsuya's mind is needed for the kind of image Miyuki wants him to have.

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Originally Posted by Kraco

Additionally, Miyuki greatly enjoys having such a genius, omnipotent onii-sama, so Tatsuya has no choice but to do stuff on his spare time that would make multi-billion, international research projects weep in envy. Possibly even that joke is something that in Tatsuya's mind is needed for the kind of image Miyuki wants him to have.

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Miyuki enjoys anything that Tatsuya does well. He does not have to be a billionaire. If he were a great cook, then Miyuki would sing praises and be proud of him for it. The last line you said doesn't even make sense. Miyuki would never want a Tatsuya like that.

The rest of your post basically said what I did. He does have emotions (excluding Miyuki's case), just extremely minute. I never said he was the most sympathetic person, just not a robot.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

The last line you said doesn't even make sense. Miyuki would never want a Tatsuya like that.

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It makes perfect sense, in a human sense. Because humans oft don't realise the consequences of their wishes. Fiction of full of stories of people being granted a wish by some deity or spirit, yet when they wish for one thing, they end up with something else due to their limited understanding. The same goes for dealing with AIs. Miyuki wishes for a highly competent and cool brother, who would also flirt around with her, for example when Sayuri paid a visit and numerous other times. However, she wouldn't anticipate that Tatsuya would then crack jokes like this with other women as well, having such a (faked) personality.

That's pushing it too much. Overreading.

Miyuki wants a brother that will flirt with her. The jealous Miyuki would hate Tatsuya flirting with others. They both know that, but Tatsuya did it anyway.

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Originally Posted by shinta

The very idea of making a joke right there is from emotion. He felt mischievous and did so. There was absolutely no necessity to do that. A totally emotionless creature would only do necessary things. What is "appropriate" to say is dependent on personality, which is rooted in emotions. Teasing Mayumi, and increasing her love points, is something that even contradicts his supposed existent affection for Miyuki. She would probably freeze the whole school if she ever learned about that joke.

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My understanding of the scene was that Mayumi essentially said "Sorry I'm unattractive". Tatsuya could have either denied that, ignored that, or agreed to that. Ignoring or agreeing would be suboptimal in keeping a healthy relationship going. Tatsuya decided to respond in a way that:

1) confirms her attractiveness
2) gives a reason for why he's not hitting on her
3) embarrasses her so much that she won't pursue the issue in the near future.

I'd say that's pretty good for efficiency and appropriateness. Mayumi knows better than to tell Miyuki what happened in that room.

I don't think the thought "Let's tease Mayumi for shits and giggles" crossed Tatsuya's mind.

Or he could have just said that she was attractive without joking about gobbling her up?

That was the simplest solution. Number 3 is an obvious gamble. It is hard to predict how anyone would react after an almost sexual harassment line like that.

Shits and giggles weren't his reason. Tatsuya has always seemed irked at teasing, so he only decided to get back at her. His pride also plays a role.

You also have to consider how inefficient it would be if Mayumi took it seriously and went for him. It would also be lethal because of Miyuki's rage. Only Tatsuya can revive from death after all.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

Or he could have just said that she was attractive without joking about gobbling her up?

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No impact at all. Thus, it wouldn't really serve any purpose. It would be just another platitude, which is something Tatsuya doesn't really sport.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

That was the simplest solution. Number 3 is an obvious gamble. It is hard to predict how anyone would react after an almost sexual harassment line like that.

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Uhh... We are talking about Tatsuya here. I'm sure he can predict human behavior as well on individual level as Asimov's Foundation on a larger scale. He knew with sufficient certainty that Mayumi would be highly flattered, even if embarrassed. Besides, saying such lines isn't a gamble in the first place if you are Tatsuya (or James Bond).

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

You also have to consider how inefficient it would be if Mayumi took it seriously and went for him. It would also be lethal because of Miyuki's rage. Only Tatsuya can revive from death after all.

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He hardly considers that a real danger. He has helped so many girls already and thus has such a large fan club. To a certain degree Miyuki enjoys her onii-sama being everybody's idol. It only becomes a problem if she thinks something concrete is happening or happened (another girl gets more attention than she from Tatsuya or gets ahead of her with Tatsuya). Don't forget that impaired emotions also means Tatsuya doesn't know fear or worry either.

It's funny how so many complicated rationalizations are being made when the simplest solution is that Tatsuya has minute emotions.

I still prefer my version/outlook on mahouka - with Tatsuya bedridden in vegetative state due to lobotomy performed by his mother, which traumatized Miyuki, and as a form of self-healing/treatement she is writing the stories(or having delusions) about her brother being a god on earth(as we were clearly shown in show Tatsuya is immortal, and knows everything all around him, and he can perform miracles(casting magic instantly)).

Episode 21 - HS




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This show is doing something correctly, with all those pairs forming. Of course some girls are still dreaming of Tatsuya in vain, but fortunately not all of them. Based on the expressions of the other dudes in the gym, I guess Mikihiko and Leo ought to count themselves lucky. At least they both managed to get some service.

That's more or less everything that seemed to happen in this episode. I didn't even remember who the heck Hirakawa was supposed to be. I had to google it to make some sense out of the spy girl's case.

It's true that sometimes in anime you get flashbacks for the most trivial details, but they still expect you to remember what happened to a secondary character that got even less screen time than the one involved in an accident in a 20s subplot 4 or more eps ago...
Both characters you've never heard of again since then, as they are secondary characters.

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Originally Posted by kraco

This show is doing something correctly

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Nods approvingly at Erika fanservice (with ponytail). Her and Leo are pretty much perfect.

HS - Episode 22

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Lu Gonghu didn't turn out to be as much of a bigshot as I thought he was, but that might just be the author trying to show how powerful our protagonists are. He seems pretty damn strong, but isn't much of a thinker. The fight scenes were pretty fun to watch. I actually miss the lengthy Tatsuya explanations about what happened during each step of the battle.

edit: okay, a lot of credit did go to Mari's boyfriend for pre-injuring Lu. I suppose he was desperate to eliminate the hacker to the point where he rushed in despite being clearly disadvantaged. Those sword moves are pretty tricky.

Chiyoda refusing Tatsuya's request because it would be "too much work" was a pretty bitchy move.

Nevertheless, this episode displayed both of the best things going for this show: Ass-kicking, and incest.

Lu wasn't disadvantaged. He was up against three high schoolers. The only problem was the fact that a strategic class magician is mixed in among those children.

If Tatsuya didn't defend Mayumi, the two girls would have died. Mari was completely caught off guard by the disappearing rush, and if Mayumi were defeated (most likely), Mari would not have the support to defeat the dude.

Then again, if Tatsuya were alone and freed from restraints due to lack of observation, it would have ended in a single pull of a trigger.

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Originally Posted by Shinta

Lu wasn't disadvantaged. He was up against three high schoolers. The only problem was the fact that a strategic class magician is mixed in among those children.

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He was disadvantaged in that a single attack was enough to re-open his wound. We all know Tatsuya is OP, so I was deliberately not counting his real ability into this current fight but rather judging it based on what they did. In the end though, I can't argue that it was thanks to Tatsuya that Lu was stopped in his tracks.