With the season finally over, it’s time for the inevitable review and impressions!
To be completely honest, Mahouka’s Visitor Arc feels more like a setup than a proper sequel to the first season even in the novels. The story didn’t add anything new except for a minor boost to Tatsuya’s character development and showing that he is not as all-powerful and omnipotent as season 1 has portrayed.
That’s probably also due to the amount of content they never adapted. Subplots involving Erika and the Chiba clan were left out, as well as many scenes showing how the Yotsuba clan worked from the shadows. And the relationship between the ten major families, particularly the Saegusa and Jumonji clans, was not explained properly.
Even the original anime-only mini-arc which was introduced in the last two episodes didn’t add much, and all we got was another display of Tatsuya’s godlike powers.
As far as character development goes, only Tatsuya and the new girl, Lina, got most of it. Here we finally see Tatsuya pitted against opponents which he could not defeat by himself and required his strategic mind to defeat, something we’ve already seen in season 1 but was never really prominent until now. And this has an effect that improved his character. We see him relying more with his friends and sister, and even showing a lot more emotion than before.
Meanwhile, Miyuki has remained more or less the same, though her obvious crush to her brother has developed into a full-blown forbidden and illicit feelings. However, this arc has also given her something she lacked that would hopefully make her an interesting character: an actual rival.
Enter Lina, the girl who could rival the two Yotsuba siblings both in power and personality. She’s fun, cute, and zealous over her duties. But what made her truly interesting was the fact that behind all her confidence and ruthlessness hid a low self-esteem, especially after her encounters with the siblings. Moreover, her life is similar to Tatsuya in the way how they are both trained as living weapons at such a young age. But unlike Tatsuya who has someone to protect and thus accepted his fate already, Lina is all alone despite being surrounded by her subordinates who doubled as her friends.
Her introduction in this arc and resulting adventures served to steer her character away from that, and we slowly see her develop after being in a healthy rivalry with Miyuki. But with how the arc ended, we might not see her again for a time, which is slightly disappointing.
In terms of pacing, Visitor Arc suffered from a lot of skipped scenes that would have made the adaptation much better. It is not bad per se, and there are several good moments. But with just 13 episodes, 2 of which are anime-original, this season didn’t match the excitement present in the first one.
Lastly, the animation is average at best. The fight scenes are okay, but nothing too phenomenal. To be honest, none of them really matched the ones seen in season one. However, that didn’t mean they were bad. And one can still enjoy them.
Overall, Mahouka’ season 2 is a nice sequel, but don’t expect something mind-blowing and epic this time. There are quite a few interesting characters who were introduced, and the plot in itself is okay, but those are the only things this season could offer. Definitely a 7.5/10.