The Honor Student at Magic High School

Episode 12

“In which no one questions how new military-class magic ended up in the hands of a high school girl.”

For the most part, this week's The Honor Student at Magic High School follows the story seen in The Irregular at Magic High School beat for beat. Oh sure, we get an extended look at Miyuki's first flight and get to see the whole CAD tampering revelation from Miyuki's point of view instead of Tatsuya's, but there's no new problem that Miyuki and the other girls have to solve while Tatsuya does his thing. Instead, the bulk of the new stuff comes from the Third High girls, who provide us with the best parts of the episode.

After Miyuki's first flight, Airi is left to grapple with the fact that she and Miyuki are no longer operating on a level playing field. Miyuki is the first person outside of the military to use flight magic. No one in the competition, not even Airi, can achieve what she has done.

But rather than being disheartened, Airi steps up her game. While Miyuki crushes her competition thanks to the fact she never has to touch the ground—and thus has double the time to smash the targets—Airi has an even more commanding win using nothing but the old jump spell and her own speed magic. With this, one thing becomes clear: without the use of flight magic, Airi would have dominated Miyuki; it wouldn't even have been close. It's only with flight magic that Miyuki is anywhere near Airi's level.

All this is building towards an excellent climax to the story. Which young mage will win: the one who has mastered the new magic or the one who has mastered the old? Unfortunately, the simple existence of The Irregular at Magic High School robs us of this battle between our heroine and her rival. In the original plot, the flight spell is leaked to the other schools before the final and so the same must happen here. Ironically, this all but assures Miyuki's victory.

Over the course of a single night, every girl in the competition gives up on her original strategy and switches to flight magic. With everyone flying, even Airi's super speed won't be able to keep up simply because the number of targets she can reach before another player becomes so much more limited. Thus, she has no choice but to use the flight magic spell as well despite knowing the obvious: a person who just started using a new form of magic hours before has no real chance against someone who has spent days or weeks practicing it. Sure, Shiori is there to help Airi tune her CAD and brainstorm a few tricks, but Airi is now the clear underdog and much of the tension for the impending finals is already lost.

When it comes down to it, this is the first time I wish The Honor Student at Magic High School had made a major deviation from the original and not had the flight spell leaked to the other competitors. A master of flight versus a master of jumping/super speed is far more interesting than a master of flight versus a novice of the same magic. It all feels more than a little anti-climatic—which is not how it should feel heading into the long-awaited battle between our two prodigies.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• This episode takes place during episode 17 of The Irregular at Magic High School.

• The use of flight magic in this event has always bugged me. The sport is clearly designed around jumping and hitting the targets. Rather than allowing flight magic and leaking the spell to everyone, the judges should have banned it altogether and redo Miyuki's qualifier again. Then, they could decide whether to fundamentally change the nature of their sport after the tournament ends.

• Airi got 108 points in her round of the qualifiers. Miyuki got 90 points (though she only flew in the second half).

• You know, I don't remember this series ever telling us how the qualifiers work. Is it only the first-place holder that moves on to the finals, or the highest scorers across all qualifiers?

• Miyuki's costume design in this is so much better than the original. Rather than looking like a Card Captor Sakura cosplay, it's closer to gymnast or ice skater attire.

• Miyuki's face really resembles Tatsuya's this episode when she's competing. I think it's because of how she changes her eye shape when she gets serious.

• There's an awful lot of Miyuki butt-wiggle in this episode.

The Honor Student at Magic High School is currently streaming on Funimation.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.