This episode featured the Nine Schools battle known as Monolith Code. This fight was amongst the first year students and pitted the favorites - Third High School's elite players vs. a replacement team of the three main male characters in the series. Tatsuya, Leo and Mikihiki were chosen as substitutes after the original First High team was injured by a sabotaged device.

Ichijo Masaki of Third High is one of the strongest magicians of his age. He and his friend Shinkuro Kichjoji, who is the strategist plus another unnamed team mate were the heavy favorites to win. They were following the engineering skills of protagonist Tatsuya Shiba throughout the competition and were somewhat disappointed when they found out that he had nothing to do with the Monolith Code battle they would participate in. It was figured that they would beat the First High team, but First High only needed to take second place to take the over all first year's division, considering how well the women did.

Tatsuya is incredible at what he is good at, but not fast at all in terms of practical application of magic. This fact places him in the "course two" group of students - the back ups, if you will. what he is good at, however is the disintegration of magic being formed by the other guy. he uses that skill, along with other special abilities to fight what even he thinks should be a losing battle.

More below the fold...


I was very impressed how the authors portrayed the fight. It was as faithful to the novel as it could be while making it work in the anime medium. This is the pattern so far in this Nine Schools Competition arc. They cut what could be cut without taking so much away from the story that the viewer has to piece stuff together. As an example: Tatsuya takes advantage of a distraction to close in on Misaki.  Misaki, who has a soldier's instinct, went to set up an attack, but did not adjust it to be safe under the rules of the event. It would be a fatal shot if it hits, and he knows it. The way they is portrayed it could be interpreted as either he is upset that he committed a serious infraction and he may have forfeited the match, or that he realizes he may have killed a guy who was not a real enemy, or perhaps both. We don't know what he is thinking, as it is left up to our interpretation. Also (and I don't think this was in the novel) other first high team mates are shown recognizing that it was an illegal attack, and are astounded more at the results than they are at the seriousness of the hit.

Next week should be the episode where we witness the only thing that can make Tatsuya lose control. There is a good reason for his reaction. Thgat event and this event are the two that i wanted to see the most. So far I am very pleased with this series.

Judging from the OP, we should see the next important arc, which is a science competition that ends with the audience seeing the best of both Tatsuya's and His sister Miyuki's best abilities. Their "full reveal", if you will.

Posted by: topmaker at 03:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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