Aimless Wanderings 13: A Tit Nipply Outside

Good (insert time period you are reading this here)! Today, I write from my desk at my home in [REDACTED]. You’ll be glad to hear that I’ve spent my mini-vacation from my course in [REDACTED] at [REDACTED] University relaxing and spending time with the family. I suppose the best part about living in [REDACTED] is the vast array of wildlife that are unique to this area. Creatures like [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and the majestic [REDACTED]. Watch out for the [REDACTED] though, because if you make eye contact, you can’t look away or they’ll break your neck.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei takes place in the year 2095, after magic has been invented and, as such, it has quickly become a major component of human life. Naturally, institutions began cropping up to instruct young people on the proper use of their abilities. This particular story follows two siblings, Tatsuya, the elder, and Miyuki, the younger, as they get accepted to First High School, a prestigious academy that caters to the top class. Within the school, the 200 students are divided into two classes, simply named 1 and 2. Students in class 1 have the strongest magic and are given the top class personal training and tutoring their ability demands, whereas students in class 2 are simply placeholders: a spare for the class 1 students if they get injured, as magic is a dangerous thing to practice. Unless an injury occurs in the class 1 students, being class 2 is effectively pointless, as there is no hope for advancement in the field. Miyuki has been placed in class 1 due to her extraordinary ability performing highly complicated spells in a practical setting. Shiba was not so lucky; despite his extremely high marks on the written and physical exams, he is next to useless when it comes to practical applications of magic. The brother and sister have entered their freshman year at the school; will they be able to remain close, despite the forces that work to tear them apart?

The short answer to that is no. Despite the admittedly ridiculous class separation, the world that the light novel/manga was created in feels very real and believable. The author made a nice sidestep of the explanation of how things actually work by using the “Technology got so advanced it might as well be magic” excuse, and it works wonderfully here. There is some weird one-sided more-than-siblings affection going on that may turn some people off, but it goes nowhere and is used for little more than comic relief. This series is especially nice because the characters are fleshed out properly, if not in this series, than in one of the many(read: 2) spinoffs to it. One thing I don’t really appreciate is the fact that a disturbing number of the class 1 students are twats, there’s no other word for it. More often than not, class 2 is treated like second-class citizens, and I don’t think that people are like that. But that’s for a different time, when I delve into my strange, convoluted, and often contradictory personal philosophies.

Kasuga Haru couldn’t have asked much more from his life. He was appointed to the royal guard, and not only that, he was given the responsibility of guarding the princess herself! Except that the princess is a hikkikomori who locks herself in her room and works on computers and plays video games all day. NEET Princess Terrass tells the story of when the queen, her mother, gives Haru a very special mission: Make the princess into a proper lady that the kingdom can be proud of. The biggest problem is that she barely let’s Haru into the same room as her, so the first hurdle is getting her to tolerate him before he can even think of getting her to tolerate others.

This is simply a wacky gag manga that I came across while perusing my completely legal scan website that I, for reasons, cannot disclose at this time. If you’re looking for an in-depth story, go somewhere else, but if you enjoy watching a man struggle to change a hopeless recluse, this is the series for you.

This week, Ore ga Doutei wo Sutetara Shina Ken ni Tsuite is the favorite of this article, despite the relatively short description, as it contains one of my favorite bits of storytelling: the grey area. Ichijo Kazuya was under the impression that he was dead, before he woke up as a high school student 15 years before then. He soon finds out that, in his maybe-dream, that it was his best friend in high school that did the future killing (that may or may not have happened). So, as his high school self, he must endeavor to prevent the maybe-future from happening by manipulating the events in the past.

I won’t go into the exact details, as they are convoluted and weird, but trust me, if you like time travel stories, or stories that fall into a moral grey area, or stories in general, you will want to read this manga. I suppose the main point I’m trying to make is that this is the best thing I’ve read in a long time, so if you trust my opinion on things, you NEED to check this one out.

I realize this was a little late, and for that I apologize, but things happen sometimes that I have no control over (as hard as that is to believe) and things get delayed.

…

banana-hammock.