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EP. REVIEW: Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc

The statement, that he doesn't care about his friends and only uses them is blatantly false. He does care about him and he doesn't use them. Hell you see this pretty obviously in this episode alone, the only reason he starts making a move on the parasites is because his friend Leo gets hurt and makes it point for Shizuku to keep herself safe since there is a similar situation happening in America. I don't know who told you this or where you got that assertion from, but it's wrong.

Miyuki is indeed the most important to him and he can only feel his strongest emotions in regards to her, but his emotions and relationships towards his friends aren't fake.

T.Silver wrote:

The statement, that he doesn't care about his friends and only uses them is blatantly false. He does care about him and he doesn't use them. Hell you see this pretty obviously in this episode alone, the only reason he starts making a move on the parasites is because his friend Leo gets hurt and makes it point for Shizuku to keep herself safe since there is a similar situation happening in America. I don't know who told you this or where you got that assertion from, but it's wrong. Miyuki is indeed the most important to him and he can only feel his strongest emotions in regards to her, but his emotions and relationships towards his friends aren't fake.

Thats more or less what I came in to say as well. He can't feel EXTREME emotions. He feels and understands emotions, he just doesnt get really anything. I think he likes his friends; Some of them became Miyukis friends because they were friends with HIM first. He does a lot of things he doesn't have to do for the people he likes, and you see that at many points throughout the seasons. He isnt emotionless, just emotionally muted.

You know, the problem I had with the first anime was not that the MC was OP, but the constant verbal beating other characters (and himself) applied to him.

We couldn't go 5 mins without the MC or somebody else remembering us how useless and weak he was.... meanwhile he is a super handsome magical ninja engineer millionaire gunslinger detective and member of the student council with women coming out of his ears who fall for him for no actual reason besides how super special he is.

This disconnection between what we are told and what we are shown pissed me off a lot.

Minos_Kurumada wrote:

You know, the problem I had with the first anime was not that the MC was OP, but the constant verbal beating other characters (and himself) applied to him. We couldn't go 5 mins without the MC or somebody else remembering us how useless and weak he was.... meanwhile he is a super handsome magical ninja engineer millionaire gunslinger detective and member of the student council with women coming out of his ears who fall for him for no actual reason besides how super special he is. This disconnection between what we are told and what we are shown pissed me off a lot.

Then you weren't really paying attention. The "disconnect" was the whole point of the first arc. That, despite his abilities as a 'magical engineer detective," his value, as it was seen by both the academic standard and ruling government body was below average, simply because of his limited base output (explained by story reasons later).

And so the entire first cour deliberately introduced characters, who shared both a more open mindset and willingness to accept, as a minority of a younger generation of that larger system of evaluating magicians's role in society. Compounded by the fact that he himself is a genetically engineered illegal government human test subject to create super soldiers for the purposes of national military strength.

For instance, imagine a story where the world is constantly telling the MC he can't play volleyball cause he's short, or telling the MC he can't cook cause he was never classically trained, or he'll never be a great ninja cause he sucks.

And only 3 girls of like 15, actually have romantic feelings for him. I don't get where people are constantly getting the "women coming out of his ears" or the equivalent, when criticizing this series. Goes to show, a lot of people build an opinion without actually knowing anything.

Which it's born from the real problem the show has: it refuses to properly explain anything. The anime never takes 5 mins to explain the families nor the chaste system nor what are the technology they use to simplify the use of magic, you had to go and read the webpage for that.

If you pick the Manga it explains you a lot the anime refuses to explain in the first 10 pages, but I found that out after watching the thing, which is why I only mentioned the show and it's problem.

As to the other topic on hand about Tatsuya only using everyone... He went on a murder spree more than once in the original series simply because his classmates were injured or endangered. They went out of their way to show how much he cares so I agree Richard had an odd take on this one.

AholePony wrote:

As to the other topic on hand about Tatsuya only using everyone... He went on a murder spree more than once in the original series simply because his classmates were injured or endangered. They went out of their way to show how much he cares so I agree Richard had an odd take on this one.

Tbf the reason he killed them all was because they targeted Miyuki, if they didn't he would have probably left most of them alive to be arrested by other members of his unit.

Still there's enough evidence in that arc that shown he cared for his friends and such. Just look at the moment when Mari got hurt, her life wasn't in danger and the paramedics could of handled the situation, yet he rushed in and carried her over to the hospital and gave the doctors the diagnosis so they could properly treat her. Or how much he did for the girls he was in charge of, he went above and beyond to make sure they could preform at their best and watched over them all carefully in order to prevent them from getting sabotaged. And speaking of the sabotage, he was the one who led the investigation for it, if he was really only focused on keeping Miyuki safe he didn't have to go that far, which goes to show he also wanted to prevent his friends and classmates from falling victim as well. Now to my last example, the plot with his friend Mikihiko. The guy was going through a rut, he was once a prodigy, but after an accident he fell off and just couldn't get back to who he use to be. Then once again, here comes Tatsuya helping Mikihiko overcome these mental barriers by giving him advice and letting compete with him on the big stage to prove his worth and instill in him the confidence he once had. Hell by year 2, spoiler[Mikihiko improved so much, they advanced him up to course 1.]

With all that being said, Tatsuya would have never done all that if he truly only cared about Miyuki and absolutely no one else. Tatsuya is a complicated individual and the anime drops the ball with showing his depth as a character, but i feel even with that being the case it didn't go as far as showing him to being a completely uncaring monster when Miyuki isn't involved.

T.Silver wrote:

AholePony wrote: As to the other topic on hand about Tatsuya only using everyone... He went on a murder spree more than once in the original series simply because his classmates were injured or endangered. They went out of their way to show how much he cares so I agree Richard had an odd take on this one. Tbf the reason he killed them all was because they targeted Miyuki, if they didn't he would have probably left most of them alive to be arrested by other members of his unit. Still there's enough evidence in that arc that shown he cared for his friends and such. Just look at the moment when Mari got hurt, her life wasn't in danger and the paramedics could of handled the situation, yet he rushed in and carried her over to the hospital and gave the doctors the diagnosis so they could properly treat her. Or how much he did for the girls he was in charge of, he went above and beyond to make sure they could preform at their best and watched over them all carefully in order to prevent them from getting sabotaged. And speaking of the sabotage, he was the one who led the investigation for it, if he was really only focused on keeping Miyuki safe he didn't have to go that far, which goes to show he also wanted to prevent his friends and classmates from falling victim as well. Now to my last example, the plot with his friend Mikihiko. The guy was going through a rut, he was once a prodigy, but after an accident he fell off and just couldn't get back to who he use to be. Then once again, here comes Tatsuya helping Mikihiko overcome these mental barriers by giving him advice and letting compete with him on the big stage to prove his worth and instill in him the confidence he once had. Hell by year 2, spoiler[Mikihiko improved so much, they advanced him up to course 1.] With all that being said, Tatsuya would have never done all that if he truly only cared about Miyuki and absolutely no one else. Tatsuya is a complicated individual and the anime drops the ball with showing his depth as a character, but i feel even with that being the case it didn't go as far as showing him to being a completely uncaring monster when Miyuki isn't involved.

To be clear, I'm not saying anyone's interpretation of Tatsuya is "wrong" and I'll be the first to admit that my take on Tatsuya rather extreme. However, it is the way the anime has described it several times. He only feels emotions for Miyuki and no one else--not even himself. Therefore, the way I see it, all the "nice" things he done so far are calculated and logical.

His most general goal is to make Miyuki safe and happy. Therefore I tend to see all his actions through that lens.

He helps other people because:
A) these people will be useful to him (and Miyuki) either in school or in the future
B) it's better in general to make friends than enemies
C) they can give him a perspective or information he can't get on his own
D) if he didn't, Miyuki would be sad--doubly so if her friends were injured or killed.

Tatsuya is always thinking both long term and short term about Miyuki and how to protect/support her. And when bad things start happening around Miyuki, he treats it as if she could be next.

(Of course, his characterization in the novels may be different. I haven't read them. I can only go by what I have seen on the screen and what the anime has flat out told me.)

To be clear, I'm not saying anyone's interpretation of Tatsuya is "wrong" and I'll be the first to admit that my take on Tatsuya rather extreme. However, it is the way the anime has described it several times. He only feels emotions for Miyuki and no one else--not even himself. Therefore, the way I see it, all the "nice" things he done so far are calculated and logical.

Richard Eisenbeis wrote:

Quote:

To be clear, I'm not saying anyone's interpretation of Tatsuya is "wrong" and I'll be the first to admit that my take on Tatsuya rather extreme. However, it is the way the anime has described it several times. He only feels emotions for Miyuki and no one else--not even himself. Therefore, the way I see it, all the "nice" things he done so far are calculated and logical.

It is not at all unusual for a work to describe a character's personality in a specific manner and then subvert that description by the character's actions. This is especially true when the character is described as "logical" and "cold". Also the lack of emotions is mostly Tatsuya's self assessment. Such self assessment is frequently wrong even in real life. Like most people he is willing to defend anything that he thinks is his. His friends, his school, his country, he will not summarily abandon these just because he does not see benefit for Miyuki. Yes he will defend Miyuki above all others but she is not the sum total of his life. What he does lack is not emotions but passion except for Miyuki.

@T.Silver

I can't argue with that. He seems to spend all of his spare time on tech matters. I was thinking about his reactions to others and not his other activities. My take is that his emotions are not so much missing as muted.

I'm assuming you've seen the movie, but ill tag it just in case. spoiler[Remember that scene where the group is deciding to help Kokoa rescue her sisters? Everyone gave their input, except for Tatsuya. He took a moment, closed his, and we were given a flashback of a dying woman with a young Tatsuya by her side. And then opened up his eyes and agreed to help her. You see that woman was very important to him and those girls reminded him of her and shortly after their discussion he and Miyuki are sitting outside alone together, and he basically apologizes to her for making such a decision based on his own feelings.]That a pretty big example that you might have overlooked.

I will say for the most part Tatsuya can be a pretty indifferent individual and is capable of making cold hard decisions, there's no denying that. But he does genuinely care for his friends spoiler[and a few of his family members, that haven't shown themselves yet]. The Vistors Arc does show a lot of evidence of Tatsuya being genuinely kind and caring towards others aside from Miyuki, so hopefully if the adaption doesn't cut to many corners you can see more of it for yourself.