Driven off the land by the ongoing threat of magical armored insects, humanity has taken to the skies and now live in aerial floating cities. Their main defense - aerial combat mages who fight the insects with magical powers.
On the floating wizard academy city of Mistgun lives Kanata Age, a young man who was once celebrated as the "Black Master Swordsman", the elite ace of the S128 special team. Unknown circumstances however, have made him despised as the "traitor of the special team". One day, he is assigned as the instructor of E601, a team that has suffered 10 consecutive defeats. E601 has three girls — Misora Whitale, Lecty Eisenach, and Rico Flamel — with one or two peculiar quirks.
Sky Wizards Academy (Kūsen Madōshi Kōhosei no Kyōkan, lit. "The Instructor of the Aerial Combat Wizard Trainees") is a Japanese light novel series written by Yū Moroboshi and illustrated by Yuka Nakajima, which was published from 2013 to 2017 for 14 volumes. There is also a manga adaptation which was serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from 2014 to 2016 and compiled into four volumes.
An anime adaptation by Diomedea aired in the summer of 2015, and ran for 12 episodes.
Sky Wizards Academy contains examples of:
- Action Girl: The female aerial wizards are all capable combatants, and girls actually seem to outnumber the guys in the academy.
- Action Mom: Misora's mother, Socié Whitale, was an ace Sky Wizard who often had to stay away from home to defend the city and ended up dying in battle when Misora was still a child. Misora wants to become an ace sky wizard in her memory.
- Action Prologue: The anime begins with a battle in the sky between a legion of insects and Kanata's former squad.
- All of the Other Reindeer:
- Platoon E601 is looked down upon as failures due to their 10 consecutive defeats.
- Kanata is despised by almost everyone due to his status as a "traitor", with only Chloe and Lloyd still being willing to talk to him.
- Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate: Freon and Chloe have this dynamic, with Freon being a stern, arrogant and serious commander to Chloe's cheerful, friendly and easygoing attitude. It's one of the reasons they don't see eye to eye on Kanata's status as a traitor.
- Ancestral Weapon: Misora's Magical Canon Swod, Rangrid, passed to her after her mother's death.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Why Kanata refuses to go into combat anymore. He was "Chosen" by the bugs and now wields the same type of magic they do; presumably, that's how he survived the You Shall Not Pass! moment in the prologue.
- BFS: The Magical Canon Sword is a giant sword that doubles as a BFG, being capable of shooting large magical laser beams by charging up.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The E601 trio: Lecty (Blonde), Rico (Brunette), and Misora (Redhead).
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In episode 8's opening narration, Kanata preemptively declares his team's victory against Yuri's. Yuri then tells him to stop messing up the narration.
- Broken Hero: Kanata been showing signs of PTSD (or at least something very similar to it); his room's an absolute pigsty, keeps a friendly but aloof attitude towards people (including his old friends and squadmates), and has been known to go for long hours without sleeping or eating. Obviously Something happened during the prologue that left him rattled, but exactly what it was is one of the big questions that drives the plot.
- Bug War: The series is premised with humanity defending itself against a seemingly endless onslaught of magical armored insects that constantly invade and ravage their settlements.
- Childhood Friends: Chloe and Kanata have been close friends since they were seven years old, and it's one of the reasons Chloe is one of the only people in the academy that still remains his friend after he became a traitor.
- Cowardly Mooks: The smaller devil beetles flee from battle if the commanding Chimera is defeated.
- Crash-Into Hello:
- Kanata first meets team-leader Misora in the classic Late for School scenario of this trope. Unfortunately, her toast with jam lands on his crotch jam side down, creating the initial trigger of his series of Accidental Pervert encounters with the other main characters.
- Real and Yuri first meet when she ends up running into him at the academy. He gets a massive crush on her, but she barely remembers him afterward.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The incident that led to Kanata being labeled a traitor is never elaborated on, although it's heavily implied to involve his devil beetle powers.
- Decapitated Army: Among the Devil Beetles, a Chimera commands swarms of Archenars. Killing the commanding Chimera will cause the Archenars to retreat, and hence in the event of an attack, the Sky Wizards focus on finding and terminating the Chimera.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Surprisingly, the first team that E601 beats ends up cheering for them in the tournament finals.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening "D.O.B" is sung by Rico Flamel's voice actress Iori Nomizu.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- Although Kanata and his team managed to defeat the Chimera, there were no witnesses and they are at risk of being disbanded if they don't win the tournament.
- It mixes with Dude, Where's My Reward? after they win the tournament. They are denied the promised ranking and the prize they get was charred in the previous fight.
- Eccentric Mentor: Kanata's training exercises for team E601 can sometimes be very odd, and sometimes he has them do odd tasks just so they can work on their odd personality traits or bond as a team. Yuri mentions she also endured some odd training when he was her mentor.
- Fanservice: The series has tons of gratuitous fanservice, all of it reserved for the female characters:
- Rico Sleeps in the Nude in several scenes, with only her hair or her fluffy plushies preserving her modesty.
- There are many scenes showing the female characters and several extras in the academy's locker room, usually wearing only their underwear.
- E601 has a Public Bathhouse Scene before the tournament, complete with Skinship Grope and lots of Censor Steam.
- The OVA episode has a gratuitous Shower Scene with Freon, Chloe and Yuri. The camera gives each a panning shot. They have their backs to the camera, but are still positioned in such a way as to show a lot of Sideboob. The OVA also ends with a Pool Scene with everyone in E601 and S128 in swimwear, and also having the single fanservice scene with the guys, with both Kanata and Lloyd being Shirtless and ripped.
- Floating Continent: Because of the insect threat on the surface, humanity has had to live in the sky, resulting in aerial floating cities.
- The Gadfly: Both Kanata and Chloe lose messing with people just for laughs, with Yuri usually getting the brunt of their teasing.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Yuri's plan to confess to Kanata with a cake backfires when he opens it in front of the class and thinks the message "I love you" is for one of his students. It's implied he knows, but still enjoys messing with her anyway.
- In the Hood: The mysterious assailant attacking students has a hood covering his race to protect his identity. Which is Real Drunk on the Dark Side after the Chimera core granted him powers.
- It Can Think: At the end of episode 9, it's revealed that the Chimera core is capable of communicating with humans and starts manipulating Real.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Somehow, those killed by insects are forgotten by people who lack magic power. This leads to a lot of angst in Misora's backstory, as her mother was a Sky Wizard who died in battle, which caused even Misora's own father to forget she existed.
- Magikarp Power: The garuda in the OVA starts off as a small chicken that Lecty takes care of, but he soon ends up growing into a full-sized Phoenix-Dragon hybrid.
- Manly Tears: The ice cream man at the end of episode 3 has these when Misora accidentally throws her ice cream to the ground.
- Men Can't Keep House: Misora's parent's gender invert this trope, her mother was a famous Sky Wizard but was terrible as a housewife. Her father on the other hand was an expert.
- One-Winged Angel: Real transforms into a giant purple man with the Chimera core's power for the anime's Final Battle.
- The Phoenix: The OVA episode has the academy dealing with a phoenix-like creature called Garuda, who grows stronger by absorbing magic and is able to revive itself from its own ashes after it's killed.
- Pillow Pistol: Yuri pulls a pistol on Kanata when she finds out she's been undressed and put into an unknown bed and the gun seemingly comes from out of nowhere. Rico later explains that the pistol is hers, and she keeps it under her pillow to defend herself from stalkers.
- Rescue Romance: Yuri began to fall for Kanata after he saved her from being hit by a misfired attacked during a tournament.
- Running Gag:
- Kanata getting mistaken for a pervert happens almost Once per Episode. He also usually frustrates the girls by acting annoyed at their accusation and leaving before they can do an Unprovoked Pervert Payback.
- Kanata has a communication Problem:Kanata: I didn't tell you [X]?
Someone else: No, you didn't!
- Status Quo Is God: At the end of the anime, with E601 winning the tournament, Freon agrees to withdraw her plan to disband them, but refuses to grant them a promotion, citing their victory as paying off the debt due to damages they incurred in the city while fighting the Devil Beetles. Additionally, the weapons they would have won were destroyed in the fight with Real. They do, however, gain Yuri as an associate member.
- Take That!: Episode four opens with Misora talking about how she read in a manga that hard work and effort will always be rewarded, only for Kanata to fire back that those hard workers are often revealed to have special lineages or talents later on.
- Tournament Arc: The Mistgun Tournament, which sees several Sky Wizard teams competing for several prizes. Freon also makes a bet with Kanata that team E601 will get disbanded unless they manage to win the tournament, which they naturally do, against all odds.
- Underdogs Never Lose:
- E601 suddenly starts winning once they participate in the tournament. Taken to extremes when every match between the first and the last is done offscreen. Somewhat justified because as Kanata notes from the first training session, they were powerful all along, but had to overcome more personal issues to make use of their talents.
- It's initially averted in the match right after fighting the Chimera. Despite all the training they've done, E601 suffers yet another defeat.
- Undressing the Unconscious: After Yuri is curb-stomped by a hooded Real, Kanata takes her injured and unconscious body to the room where the E601 members are staying. Later, Yuri is sleeping in bed, while the girls are asking Kanata for details about what happened, when Yuri suddenly awakens and bolts up, startling the girls who rush to cover Kanata's eyes, which causes Yuri to take notice that all her clothes have been removed and that the Modesty Bedsheet that was covering her fell off when she sat up and she has a Naked Freak-Out while covering herself back. Kanata tells the flustered girl not to panic as it was the girls who undressed her because they couldn't let her remain in those tattered clothes, but when she asks if he saw her just now, he avoids answering and just laughs awkwardly before making a hasty exit and Yuri laments she's now Defiled Forever.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Blue, pink, and green all seem to be a common hair colors in this world.
- Zerg Rush: The devil beetle's main form of attack is to simply overwhelm their enemies with sheer numbers.
