If theres any one anime any one popular anime in particular I could say is feasibly written by an AI scrolling the algorithm it would be The Irregular at Magic High School. Why so? Because the show does not have a spec of human emotion in it. Ignorance is the word of the day here folks. It was fairly apparent in the first season of Mahouka and somehow even moreso here. Every aspect in this season from the narrative to the soundtrack to the characterization to the tension to the worldbuilding is divorced from whats commonly viewed as respectable. Its not quite as insultingly awful as Season 1 but it does repeat a lot of similar failures and even amplifies other parts. It saddens me that out of every show in the mostly dead genre of magic high school power fantasies except perhaps the Index franchise THIS ONE was the breakout hit that came to spread holiday depression by amplifying all its worst traits. To say this season has a plot would be massively overselling it. Things happen but very little lasts to any degree. An American secret agent girl named Angelina Shields drops in to stop vampires from draining magic from faceless NPCs in a world were given no reason to care about. She uses a disguise and the show tries to build intrigue of whatll happen to her and her rivalry with Tatsuya and Miyuki. Which mightve been something.unless of course you watched the film which came out three years before this season immediately giving away what happens to her. Oops. Oh and then the last two episodes try very badly to make some point about discrimination with the worst racism allegory since RWBYs White Fang. Many fundamental problems with the core premises of Mahouka return this season except the magic system issues thats just ignored and they tend to affect the new elements when it wants to branch out a bit. The new element they want to highlight the most is Angelina. A top ranked American superspy with a secret identity the show actually tries to give her feelings and a goal she wants to accomplish something seemingly foreign to Mahouka. But whats the shows reaction? Treat her like an absolute joke. Most of the comedy revolves around her constant incompetence at her job mostly the lazy chibi comedy that feels bafflingly out of place for how solemnly serious it wants to be. The show cant go one episode without having Tatsuya the AllKnowing bermensch snip out that shes sus yet the camera still focuses on her devious smirk. By Episode 4 she duels Miyuki and is on the verge of handily losing Miyuki portrayed like an imposing villain by the direction. Then for the rest of the arc Tatsuya and Miyuki effectively do her job for her rather than giving her the chance to actually grow or change with any renewed confidence. A show with thought or effort put into it mightve made her seem more like a competent rival or at least have compelling payoff for running into Tatsuya and Miyuki but no Cant let anyone get anything out of Tatsuya and Miyuki the incesty power couple of modern anime. No one wins here. Fans of her character dont get to see her actually prove her competence or get meaningful development and fans of Tatsuya and Miyuki dont have some sort of rival that can in any way enhance their growth. And it makes America look stupid for having someone like her headline their team. Not that Tatsuya and Miyuki look any better. Oh the show tries to FOOL you into thinking theres character development but its lies that mean nothing. Miyuki is still one of animes most poorly written characters with no personality besides loving her brother and being jealous of anyone else who gets near him. This could work if she was an antagonistic figure that stretched her love for her brother through drastic actions they take against the world but no deuteragonist keeping the status quo. The show will claim theres an arc of her losing attachment to her brother by having her monologue about it which bears no fruit and is partially demonstrated by the camera ogling her. After all the chart says that fanservice sells why not show more of the female and none of the character? Mahouka: Were a super serious science conspiracy anime about secret agents political drama and magic parasites Also Mahouka: Lets have two separate scenes of women undressing for the camera once for goofy comedy and once for drama with no foundation or worth thats really just fanservice anyway. Also lets give a tagalong girl no personality whatsoever besides being another tsundere for Tatsuya with inexplicably magic hair beads. thats just perfect. Aniplex: Perfect Get it into production immediately The ignorance never ends. Tatsuya smiles more but hes only slightly more tolerable than the previous season. In Episode 5 theres a plot involving a rogue parasite that the show tries to act like has tension but the cast has the answer to every hitch there could be. Tatsuya admits he couldve solved the problem for good but didnt thus prolonging the runtime. Genius. Another episode tries to act like he missed some detail about Angelina but he gets the info he wants almost instantaneously just by phoning a few people. Its lip service to the idea of conflict. The obvious worship continues a parasite powering a robot by someones love for him clings to him like theyre trapped in a spiderweb Miyuki and Tatsuya feeding off everything else ironically for a plot about stopping possessive parasites thats exactly what the leads are the algorithm too ignorant to admit it. Less than two minutes after losing his arm to a power blast he instantly gets it back. We cant have TWO MINUTES of tension in this show. And dont worry about the vampire plot its solved instantaneously when the utterly unmemorable leader shows his face and could quickly be put on hold for a Valentines Day episode which is the only time the show has a pulse of life in it. As if the cherry on this shit cake wasnt done yet you get the last two episodes. Radical magicians forming in response to discriminatory boycotts from the ordinary humans who claim race superiority enact terrorist attacks against magician slaverysomething never ahown and of no value since all the main characters are magicians reaping the benefits of the systems high class. Of course none of these terrorists have any actual point that causes the main characters to question anything or have the charisma of say the villains in Die Hard. This would be like if The Hunger Games was from the perspective of the capitalists on top.................................................do I even need to say whats wrong with that? Everything else? Well Erikas the only returning side character allowed to have half a personality but it doesnt matter any and no one else even gets that much. The animation is decent nothing exceptional with no memorable action but it fixed the first seasons color grading issue and the soundtrack is poorly mixed. Most of it is unmemorable dubstep techno but Episode 9 tries to have a rap go along with it thats super drowned out by the dialogue and action sfx. Theres so little to attach yourself to in this series. Mahouka confuses me it really really does. Ive seen bad anime aplenty that set clear goals for themselves and fail at them but Ive hardly seen an anime be so antithetical to everything about basic storytelling. Even series like SAO can pass off as fantasy adventure stories with kernels of depth and the occasional bit of earned emotion burdened by some icky scenes. Mahouka cant even do THAT. Its a bevy of mismanaged priorities and things people like stuck in a perpetually constant status quo with protagonists that have such a foothold over everything else that theyd be great villains in another work. I try to imagine the visions of the creators and theres nothing here. A super serious science anime with botched attempts at political drama thats also stuck with incest pandering fanservice and childish comedy. It wants to be everything at once but throughout the 4 and a half hours accomplishes nothing. Appeal exists in media even bad media but Mahouka stands as a narratively backwards empty shell only notable by its ineptitude.