Seikoku no Dragonar, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, and Gokukoku no Brynhildr 1st Thoughts

It’s time to tally up the important aspects. Will I be watching these three or dropping quicker than flies. If that makes any sense

I thought that instead of waiting for all these shows to air and inevitably have earlier released shows stack more episodes on top of what I have to do, I think taking them down group by group is an optimal way of doing things. So let’s get into the two shows that aired its first episode on the 5th of April: Seikoku no Dragonar (Dragonar Academy) and Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Irregular at the Magic Academy) I’m not going to bother with summarizing the first episodes since if anything, the first 1-3 episodes are for me to see if I really want to see them or not.

Dragonar: The entire thing is basically reminds me of Unbreakable Machine Doll. Let me list some examples:

1. MC suffers a traumatic accident with basically him being the guy who “benefits” from it. A freak accident has the young MC and girl unconscious. MC has one of his arms torn apart but a dragon restores it for him. He wakes up on a bed and is basically told by a mysterious but attractive lady that he will be entrusted with something. That turns out to be a girl at the end of episode 1. Unbreakable Machine Doll has Raishin’s family killed and Shouko gives him Yaya.
2. Characters are in a -insert plot device that attempts to differentiate itself from other series- school/academy. First dolls, now dragons.
3. The MC is an outcast. Dragonar works off a system where students have a connection to their “dragons” by a symbol on their body (usually the arm or hand). Dragonar’s MC has his on his entire arm that was restored in the beginning of the episode. Raishin is a full out outcast because of his nationality.
4. Similar to Point 3, our MC’s are unique. Dragonar MC can control other dragons while Raishin has Yaya who happens to be “overpowered”. Rather, she’s specially built.
5. MC has some fiery attitude in wanting to fight people.

While some of those points might apply to a lot of cliches/tropes in general, those were what I found. Suffice to say, I did end up liking Machine Doll more than I thought I would so..I guess I’ll how Dragonar ends up. That being said, however, I like Machin Doll’s art/style over Dragonar. Judgement: I don’t really need another series to awkwardly cover. It also doesn’t help when it resembles another series too much. Dropped.

Moving on. I have some history with Mahouka. My good buddy Light (remember he existed?) had raved about it for the longest time. He enjoys his badass protagonist and I do too but then he told me of Mahouka’s protagonist. He then wouldn’t shut up about me reading it even though I recommended Jojo to him. I mean, where else to turn to for a constant stream of badass protagonists than JJBA right? Suffice to say, I read the first chapter and I wasn’t impressed after all that hype. Granted, it’s as understandable as him hating the first episode of Phantom Blood but if anything, that just builds huge emotion for the bout to happen with DIO. So to get his side of the story down, I’m going to watch Mahouka not out personal interest, but to see if it is good. By the way, Light finished Phantom Blood but he didn’t even bother finishing the series and watching Part 2, where Joseph has infinitely more badass points than Jonathan. Anyways…

My judgement is a huge bias because of the dilemma with Light here. There’s a humongous emphasis on the relationship between Shiba Tatsuya and his sister, Miyuki. I know for a fact that this element of the series will not stop. Hell, I can tell it’s going to be somewhat of a harem. Light novel like interior monologues exist in the series so before engaging in coversation, Tatsuya here will have a brief mental quip before addressing anybody. That being said, nothing exactly big happens in episode 1 than a slight bit of info and expositon. Tatsuya is designated as an inferior student but of course, he’s going to be overpowered as hell once we see get into the fighting bits.

Judgement: I would have dropped it but I will continue to watch not out of actual interest but to get back at Light. Watching

Brynhildr: Two kids want to learn more about aliens. Bot get into a freak accident and only the one of them end up surviving. Skip a few years and our survivor-guilt-ridden MC has some attitude toward girls. Like any other series that sets itself in a school, a catalyst in form of a new transfer student surpries our MC. The girl he used to know was named Kuroneko and the transfer student not only looks like her but is named Kuroha Neko. Skip around a bit and she turns out to have superpowers and affiliated with a shady group.

Judgement: It wasn’t painfully interesting and while it is different from Dragonar and Machine Doll, I think Machine Doll wore me out on the usual setting of kids messing around with superpowers with a large female cast that probably won’t give us a definitive ending. Unless of course we get on the light novels but since I’m on the western hemisphere, fat chance of that happening. Dropped.

Mangaka-san to assistant and Black Bullet are the ones up for judgement so far and more series to follow. See you then