Literature / The Irregular at Magic High School

"Magic" is a product of neither legends nor fairy tales. It has become a technology of reality for nearly a century. Various countries in the world are locked in a race in nurturing "Magicians".

Tatsuya Shiba is a reserve student without magic capability at First High School, a magic high school, along with his sister Miyuki, who happens to be the top student among the freshmen. What will happen to him, and how will he live his school life where he is one of the many reserves in the school looked down upon by the chosen magical students?

The Irregular at Magic High School (Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei) is a Japanese light novel series written by Tsutomu Satou with illustrations by Kana Ishida . The series began as a Web Serial Novel on the site Shousetsuka ni Narou on October 12, 2008. It then became the second web novel after Sword Art Online to be commercialized and published by Dengeki Bunko in July 2011. The series would be released 4 years later by Yen Press in North America.

The web novel consisted of only 6 web chapters written covering the First Year arc completed on March 21, 2011, and the author has already planned for a total of 15 web chapters to cover the entire three years of Magic High School. Included also is a series of side stories, Mahouka Koukou no Shounen Shoujo (loosely, "The Boys and Girls at Magic High School").

It has been adapted into a manga by Hayashi Fumino with Kitaumi Tsuna as the artist. The light novel is published by ASCII Media Works in Dengeki Bunko while the manga is published by Square Enix in GFantasy.

An anime adaptation by Madhouse began airing in the Spring 2014 anime season. A second season began in Fall 2020, covering the Visitors Arc. A third season is set to begin airing in Spring 2024.

Other media includes:

Anime & Manga

• The Honour Student at Magic High School/Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei (JP:2012-, EN: 2015-): A manga spin-off focusing on Miyuki that began serialization in Dengeki Daioh with Mori Yu as the artist. Like the parent series, the spinoff and its main character received huge praise from American and Japanese critics.
• The Irregular at Magic High School: Get to Know Magic Studies! (2014): A webseries of Chibi shorts from Aniplex.
• The Irregular at Magic High School: Yonkoma-hen (2014-): A Yonkoma Parody series.
• The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Calls the Stars (2017): A movie released by 8bit. A manga adaptation was serialized in Dengeki Daioh from July 2017, and ran for 12 chapters until June 2018.

Light Novels

• The Irregular at Magic High School SS (2016): A collection of four Short Stories previously released in Dengeki Bunko Magazine as well as a new short story, "Temptation of a Rose".
• Plan to Assassinate Tatsuya Shiba (2018-): A web novel series that focuses on Hashibami Yuki.
• Maidens of Cygnus (2020-): A spinoff series that focuses on the Muggle-raised friends Iba Alisa and Tookami Marika.
• Magian Company (2020-): A sequel of the main light novels after graduating from High School.

Video Games

• Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax (2014): A Crossover Fighting Game from Sega. Miyuki was chosen to represent The Irregular At Magic High School, where she mostly casts ice spells to fight (Except when she performs Inferno); her brother Tatsuya was later introduced in the Ignition Updated Re-release, from that moment, both characters can be chosen as playables, or support characters.
• The Irregular at Magic High School: School Magicus Battle (2014): A Japanese role-playing game for mobile by Mobage.
• The Irregular at Magic High School: Lost Zero (2014): A card battle mobile RPG developed by BeXide and published by Square Enix.
• The Irregular at Magic High School: Out of Order (2014): A 3D Fighting Game for the Play Station Vita by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
• Dengeki Bunko Crossing Void (JP:2018, EN:2019): A turn-based RPG developed by Sega.

Other

• The Irregular at Magic High School Web Radio Full Bloom! Bloom Broadcasting Committee (2014): An internet radio show hosted by Sora Amamiya and Yuiko Tatsumi.
• The Irregular at Magic High School (2014): An Audio Drama based on the Recollection Arc.

All spoilers for volumes 1-11 are unmarked and all character tropes should be moved to the proper character page.

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The Irregular at Magic High School provides examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Their only real limitation is that they can't recruit course 2 students. Played straight after the student council president election, when this limitation is removed as Mayumi's final act as president.
• Actionized Sequel: While the original TV series is based on the novel and is more inclined to multiple conversations and politics, the film sequel is a full-fledged action movie with a minimum of dialogue.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Miyuki is deeply in love with her brother Tatsuya, but he sees her only as his younger sister, albeit in a rather peculiar manner. At the same time, Masaki is in love with Miyuki, but she is completely indifferent to him. Mayumi, Honoka, Ayako and perhaps Erika are also in love with Tatsuya, but for a number of reasons, he is unable to reciprocate their feelings.
  • Of all of those, Miyuki's the only one with a chance. Not only she is engaged to Tatsuya, but he has promised to learn to love her as a woman and, in the sequel series, he kisses her casually on the lips.
• The Ace: Miyuki and Tatsuya to damn near everyone who isn't already an experienced, certified badass.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: At the start of anime episode 20, flirtatious Mayumi keeps Tatsuya company in an archives cubicle and gets more or less dejected by him not making any move on that front. Cue loads of blush and blunder when Tatsuya promises all the difference should her offer ever come in a place not watched by security cameras.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Magic usually trumps combat, magic is determined by one's genes, and the setting is a futuristic one where genetic engineering and soldiers bred from birth are entirely acceptable if one has the right connections. The result is a society with an arms race, Arranged Marriages and aristocratic cold war.
• Badass Family: In Japan exists the "Numbers": families who bear the character for a number in their name. They're ancient clans of magicians who specialize in various forms of magic, and were rewarded with a name and with recognition for their success. To wit, there's two strata of these "Numbers":
  • The first Twenty Eight Families, whose surname contains a number from one to ten. They are the greatest results of the human experiments carried out in the ten most advanced and important magic research institutes, which is from where their number comes from. Every so many years, ten of those families are chosen by committee to represent all families, and those ten are known for a period of time as the Ten Master Clans. It's normal for some numbers to be missing or for numbers to repeat; the current set of clans already in place at the start of the series is the first time all numbers have been represented in the Ten Master Clans.
  • Each of the Ten Master Clans is an example, but one of the two strongest is the Yotsuba clan. It has one of the strongest magicians in the world, Yotsuba Maya, and Miyuki. Tatsuya, being her brother and bodyguard, counts too. His case is a bit muddier though. ^note  Tatsuya is a Yotsuba by blood, but he doesn't think of himself as part of the clan, and nor does most of the clan. This is because Tatsuya was originally unable to use true magic. (Which turned out to be a rather arbitrary standard that was obviously wrong, especially in Tatsuya's case.) His family rejected him for this reason and many think of him as a fake magician.
  • The other numbers are the Hundred Families—families who bear numbers greater than ten. Their skills and abilities are generally no match for accomplished members of the Twenty Eight Families, but their lineage and those trained by them are still superior to most magicians from outside the Numbers.
  • The number has absolutely no relevance to power level—clans with the first number, like Ichijou, are not the strongest clan (that would be the Yotsuba), just like clans with the character for one thousand are not stronger than one with the character for one hundred.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Quite often happens in the series because of the rather strongly cynical personality of the protagonist. For example, it is because of the villainous plan that their aunts Tatsuya and Miyuki become at least formally romantically involved, being a biological brother and sister, and precisely because of the aggressive actions of Americans and Chinese, the first is forced to be in the center of a morally contradictory national conflict.
• Balkanize Me: Like Expanded States of America, a consequence of World War 3. Happened mostly in Africa and South America (except for Brazil).
• The Baroness: Maya Yotsuba, Tatsuya and Miyuki's aunt, the devilish current head of the Yotsuba family who has her finger on the pulse of the world, but quietly sips tea most of the time.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: First High's student government has this dynamic. Diplomatic Student Council President Mayumi serves as Beauty, Mari the aggressive strategist who heads the Disciplinary Committee is the Brains and the intimidating Club Group Leader Katsuto is the Brawn.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After the events of Dahan, the Yotsuba wished for the birth of a magician so powerful none would ever be able to threaten them again. Such a one was born, namely Tatsuya, and they were so terrified of him that most of them argued in favor of killing him while they still could. It took Maya and Miya's staunch refusal to prevent it. They still devised other ways to control him.
• Beach Episode: During summer break. It didn't make it into the anime, likely due to time constraints, but generally, the only thing non-readers of the Light Novel missed out on, aside from the obvious Fanservice, is Honoka's Love Confession to Tatsuya and subsequent rejection.
• The Beautiful Elite: Most young people who study in a magical school are beautiful boys and girls with a bunch of talents, so their birth is the result of almost a century of positive eugenics and genetic manipulation. It especially concerns children from 10 leading magical clans like Mayumi, Masaki or Miyuki. Tatsuya was also supposed to be one of them, but because of his inability to control magic and having the usual appearance, the clan perceives him as a "broken tool".
• BFS: Some of the Chiba family's secret techniques require these for their best performance. ^note  A shining example is Orochimaru, which was made specifically so Erika, the only member who can actually use the secret technique Yamatsunami ("Landslide"), could bring out the technique's full power to bear.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Yotsuba clan. They are extremely wealthy and incredibly powerful. They are known for being prone to going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against anyone who crosses their family, which earned the entire family the nickname "The Untouchables". ^note This behavior is noted because of the incident known as "The Nightmare of 2063", where the current head of the clan, Yotsuba Maya, was kidnapped by the Dahan government in order to experiment on her and produce strong magicians. Among other things, they devastated her... in many ways. The subsequent rampage resulted in the deaths of several Yotsuba clansmen. However, Dahan as a country collapsed due to the sheer number of casualties, "mysterious disappearances", assassinations, and murders, and after floundering and struggling, was reannexed into the Great Asian Alliance.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Heavy Incest Subtext. Miyuki is serious about her complete desire for Tatsuya. It's often lampshaded by those around them and they even play with it for fun at times. It becomes reality when they get engaged in Volume 16 and in the first volume of the sequel series, Tatsuya casually kisses her on the lips. ^note Given Tatsuya's emotions have been nearly wiped and the only true feelings he has left are his love and care for Miyuki, this may be Enforced.
• Character Shilling: Almost every character in the series has at least one scene with this when it appears in the story, but the Shiba siblings themselves have such huge doses of this that each new volume has several scenes where their friends praise and protect their talents, and the enemies discuss how much they are dangerous.
• Chekhov's Gun: During the first 15 volumes, the author regularly draws attention to the fact that although Miyuki and Tatsuya are certainly brother and sister, they are externally completely different from each other, and some features of Miyuki have no analogues among their relatives. Subsequently, in the 16th volume, it turns out that she was created artificially and her body was genetically modified so that she could restrain her brother's strength and, if necessary, stop him. Thus, since their genes are different, Tatsuya and Miyuki can theoretically become a couple and have normal offspring, even remaining at the same time fully blood-related siblings.
• Central Theme: Has a few. First of all, this is the study of the social and philosophical aspects of genetic modifications and social Darwinism, especially on the example of how society and family relations will develop because of this in the future. And of course, the main focus of the series is the idea that a talented person can be underestimated by other people due to the fact that the existing system simply can not measure his unique talents.
• Coming of Age Story: Each volume shows how Tatsuya and Miyuki study at the Magical High School, try to solve the old problems of their childhood, understand their feelings and relationships with their overbearing family, become adults and find their place in life. Moreover, through the whole work runs the theme "Should parents determine the future for their child, or does he have the right to determine himself when he becomes an adult?", which is frequently relevant for Japanese youths.
• Competence Porn: The Yotsuba clan is a rare example of the "shadowy crime family that controls an entire country" trope that is just as badass as they are said to be if not more. Inter-clan conflict is the only real obstacle any Yotsuba character faces, and even then it doesn't stop them from accomplishing every goal they put their mind to- including enslaving a Physical God.
• Complexity Addiction: The leader of the Blanche terrorists tries to conceal the activation sequence of the spell cast by his left hand by using extreme theatrics and throwing his glasses high in the air with his right hand, trying to divert the attention there. He could achieve a similar result with much less effort by just casting with his hands behind his back, concealing the sequence not through a ruse people like Tatsuya could see through, but using an actual physical obstacle. Then again, his target being Tatsuya, it was unlikely to work anyway.
• Crazy Workplace: The eponymous NGO was created by someone who might be uncharitably referred to as a "demon lord" (he's certainly killed enough people to qualify), and employs several troubleshooters to fight against terrorists and thieves trying to steal the MacGuffin that fuels company operations. It also teaches people how to make magical nuclear reactors.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: "Regrowth". It allows its user to reverse any injury that has occurred within the past 24 hours, in exchange for experiencing all the previous pain that injury caused in a fraction of a second.
• Disintegrator Ray: Decomposition magic, which is Dispersal-type magic that breaks down matter to the molecular level. Magic that works on the information body and the physical plane to this degree is possible in theory, but is actually impossible for anyone to perform due to the extreme requirements in calculation ability it would demand from the magician—one would have to have been born with the specific ability to use Decomposition at the expense of practically everything else. It just so happens that this is the case for Tatsuya—it's his ability to use "Decomposition" and its counterpart magic "Regrowth" that renders him unable to properly wield magic like other magicians do; the magics are so stupidly complex and difficult to perform that it's only with the addition of an artificial magic calculation zone that he can barely wield "proper" magic.
• Decon-Recon Switch: The author first deconstructs the standard settings of Wizarding School and Battle Harem (The value of magical talent becomes the reason for the emergence of positive eugenics, and the school literally prepares children of wizards for a future military career and deadly danger), putting the traditionally optimistic genre in a conditionally realistic Crapsack World, and then reconstructs it, filling the classical tropes with a more serious rationale or playing with them.
• End of an Age: The narration makes clear that the events of "Scorched Halloween" signify the turning point in history where nations acknowledge that the power of Strategic Class Magicians has surpassed that of conventional Weapons Of Mass Destruction. As a result, a new arms race appears to have begun, with magicians increasingly being seen as weapons rather than soldiers or even people.
• Everyone Can See It: The Incest Subtext between Tatsuya and Miyuki is so damn obvious it might as well be text, even before it becomes text in the sequel.
• Evolving Credits: In episode 19, after Erika ties part of her hair back, the ending credits reflect this new hairstyle.
• Expanded States of America: One of the consequences of World War III.
• Fantastic Nuke: The magical equivalent of these are the Strategic-Class Magicians. They are People Of Mass Destruction who have the ability to cast a specific magic with extremely destructive capabilities—enough to serve as deterrents against war and/or invasion towards other nations. Examples include Angelina Sirius' "Heavy Metal Burst" ^note  Which breaks down metals into a super-condensed, continuous and malleable stream of plasma , Itsuwa Mio's "Abyss" ^note  Which manipulates bodies of water in order to generate a localized whirlpool capable of extending up to several kilometers in radius—essentially creating a gaping abyss on the sea. This may also be used on underground bodies of water to directly affect the earth above, provided prior knowledge of the body of water and its exact coordinates are known. and Tatsuya's "Material Burst" ^note  which takes the target's mass and converts it to energy according to Einstein's E = mc^2 formula. The resulting emission of energy—that is, a GINORMOUS explosion— utterly destroys everything in range. Its target can be anything. Anything at all. Something as minor as a 50 mg water droplet on the outer hull of a ship thousands of miles away was enough to destroy it and devastate much of the surrounding terrain, as well as create tsunami aftershocks. Since we haven't been told the limits of its capabilities, it is possible that Tatsuya could potentially DESTROY THE WORLD on a whim if he actually cared enough to do it.
• Fantastic Racism: The course 1 students in general view the course 2 students with a lot of contempt, and feel they're leagues above the latter group. While 1's are generally considered pretty powerful, Tatsuya is considered a 2, yet manages to defeat the Vice President in the blink of an eye during a mock battle.
• Fantastic Slurs: The course 2 reserve students are referred to as "Weeds" by some course 1 students. As it turns out, the only real difference was a mistake in their uniforms when the school doubled in size and they didn't change them.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: The Maya plan in Volume 16 is essentially a simulation of this.
• Foregone Conclusion: Vice President Hattori feels his mock battle with Tatsuya is going to be this, with him defeating the lowly course 2 student and putting that guy in his place. Then he gets knocked out by the latter in less than a second after the battle starts...
• For Science!: Yotsuba and other Master Clans. And Tatsuya. Besides Miyuki, all he ever thinks about is how to make new applications of magic and invent new magics while he's at it. Just read 9-school competition arc for more details. Which is hilariously lampshaded when Erika notes he'd be a great Mad Scientist.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Averted in the case of Shiba siblings, when Tatsuya turns out to be a genius, despite the fact that others regard him as only a stupid older brother of an ideal younger sister. At the same time, it is played more directly in the case of Kuroba twins, when Ayako is portrayed as more wise and mature than her more naive and simple twin brother Fumiya.
• Four Is Death: The Fourth Institute of Magician Development was the Institute least concerned with human life and magicians' rights. By extension, the Yotsuba family, who ran the institute and have the number four in their name.
• Functional Magic
• The Gadfly: Tatsuya has his moments of trolling people. Mayumi shares this trait, which leads to hilarious exchanges where they try to out-troll one another.
• Gambit Pile Up: The entire Visitor arc. Let's just say everyone wants a piece of the Parasites.
• Gorn: The anime is largely devoid of this... until the final battle, when Tatsuya and Masaki defend themselves against the terrorists in an incredibly brutal fashion.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Despite the rather dark tone of the series, the majority of Gorn usually remains behind the scenes and the reader learns about them from the author or characters. Subverted in the anime.
• Guinea Pig Family: Every Master Clan came from a (now-defunct) national research laboratory about magic and genetics.
  • Tatsuya's mother and aunt experimented on him to see if they could make him into an "artificial magician". It had the unintended side effect of removing his stronger emotions, except for fraternal love. It worked... but not very well.
• Hand Behind Head: Done by Kirihara, when he's released from hospital with Sayaka Mibu and she basically confesses her romantic feelings (courtesy of Erika).
• Hard Truth Aesop: The main idea of the series is the worldview of Tatsuya. In particular, according to his philosophy, if a person does not have a clear talent in the chosen field, then he must compensate for this weakness with achievements in other areas, as he himself did in his time, self-educating in many other areas except for the modern magic that he has trouble using. On the other hand, people who do not make an effort to improve themselves, but only complain about their own plight, are perceived by the author and Tatsuya as only having themselves to blame for their problems.
  • In addition, the series teaches that people should not be used as tools to achieve any goals, but at the same time that people who risk their lives and health should receive a full reward and privileges for this.
• Hate at First Sight:
  • How Course 1 students typically view Course 2 students. They even label them as "weeds", while considering themselves "blooms". In the anime a lot of Course 1 students openly display scorn and contempt when they see Course 2 students around and can't figure out why Miyuki, a "bloom", wants to hang out with lowly "weeds" such as Tatsuya.
  • Downplayed with Erika and Leo, who instantly dislike each other when they're first introduced. They nearly get into a fight until the bell rings and others ask them to back down. Ultimately, they find some common ground and their animosity never goes beyond witty banter.
• Hidden Depths: Everyone. If you have a name, you have your own goals and agenda.
• Hypocritical Humor: Miyuki bluntly asking Erika if the latter has a brother complex in the fourth novel.
  Erika: I don't want to hear that from you! You bro-con queen!
• I Am Not Left-Handed: At the beginning of the novel, Tatsuya was shown as a badass who could read the Activation Sequence of magic (thus allowing him to counter them) and use multiple CADs to fight. These abilities are amazing In-Universe, yes, but nowhere near as powerful as what he's concealing.
• Incest Subtext: Often parodied by Tatsuya in the background of openly one-sided incestuous feelings Miyuki has. At the same time his is too tender in his demonstrations of "brotherly" feelings toward Miyuki, often getting labeled by others as having a defiant sister complex. Together with that, his regular thoughts of her outstanding beauty and willingness to become her husband for the sake of her happiness, even if he does not see her as a woman on this moment, can be labeled as a big subtext or even as a text by many fans.
• Intimate Lotion Application: Miyuki sees a couple applying sunblock on a beach — a sight she has a lot of complicated feelings about because she's just entering puberty. It contrasts greatly with her behaviour a few years later, when she calmly enjoys the same thing with her Love Interest.
• Invincible Hero: Played with then subverted: While Tatsuya is uncommonly powerful, he fully understands he is nowhere near invincible and makes up for it by being crazy-prepared. This also shows in his reluctance to take over the Yotsuba family by force, which would leave him, and by extension Miyuki, vulnerable, instead preferring to create his own web of allies like his army connections.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • Ayako, the second cousin of Tatsuya and Miyuki, has quite obvious unrequited love for him.
  • Subsequently, in 16th volume, Maya claims that Tatsuya is her own son, so that through this deception he could marry Miyuki, nominally becoming his sister's cousin. Thus, to the people around them, their engagement looks like this trope.
• Loophole Abuse: Miyuki insists that Tatsuya be brought onboard on the student council as well when she's offered a spot. However, she's told that there's a rule that Course 2 students aren't able to join the student council unless the entire student body votes for that. Which considering how Course 1 students view Course 2 students with a lot of contempt, isn't likely to happen. However, Mari states that there's no rule that a Course 2 couldn't be appointed to the disciplinary committee, and asks that he join. Even Mayumi thought that was a nice loophole they should exploit.
• Lost in Translation: Each of "Numbers" badass families' name starts with a kanji of a number. "Shi" is both the reading of "Director" kanji in Shiba, and an alternative reading of Japanese kanji for "Four" in "Yotsuba". Knowing that much provides a solid mnemonic to Shiba siblings' situation — they're removed, but not very far, from the Yotsuba family. It's too far-fetched for villains investigating the siblings at one point in the story to consider.
• Love Confession
  • Honoka to Tatsuya. Tatsuya turned her down sincerely because he can't return her love with his lack of nearly all "strong" emotions. She says she'll like him until she finds someone better.
  • Miyuki to Tatsuya later on in Volume 16. Although he does not see a woman in her and initially finds the idea of ​​their engagement unpleasant, after her recognition, Tatsuya "accepts" her feelings, warning her that he does not love her and sees her only as his sister, but he will try to fall in love with her for her happiness.
• Little Sister Heroine \ Cool Big Sis: Miyuki and Mayumi are fairly classic example of the use of this trope, especially in the context of their interaction with the main character.
• Mad Scientist: His friends and acquaintances occasionally joke that Tatsuya is one. His habit of creating new weapons "for fun" and solving impossible magical conundrums out of boredom helps. He may be this trope for real, given that when he was 13, he field-experimented a new magic theory (Material Burst) and vaporized thousands of armed troops.
• Magical Accessory: The CAD (Casting Assistant Device).^note Also known as Device, Assistance, Houki. They vary greatly and exist in two types: general purpose and specialized. Activated in order to cast incantations and charms, mudrā, magic spells; an alternative to the traditional techniques and means found in magic textbooks, it's an essential device required in order to master modern day magic. Activation ritual speed, and amount of information deploy-able, is decided by the CAD's hard disk ability; just how much the refinement and effectiveness of activation can be expanded by is dependent on the performance of the software built into the CAD. Even an inferior performance CAD, by simplifying the activation ritual, can increase the power of the magic processing section, but that is a high level skill and in general, the processing power of the CAD is the primary constraint on how fast magic can be activated. The general purpose CAD places emphasis on diversity; regardless of the combination of systems it can install up to 99 kinds of activation rituals. The bracelet form is the most widely used, but mobile computer type ones are also in circulation, and they are preferred by senior magic masters who dislike having both hands occupied while operating. Specialized CADs emphasizes speed at the expense of diversity, and aiming support integrated subsystems are mainstream. The specialized type allows activation sequences for 9 different rituals of similar archetype to be stored. They often take the form of handguns and rifles. In the barrel where ammunition would normally go auxiliary sighting systems are incorporated, and CADs with extended "barrels" have had their auxiliary sighting function enhanced. The one possessed by Tatsuya Shiba, a tuned up Silver Horn model "Trident", is one of these.
• Magitek: Of which Tatsuya is a world-renowned pioneer, under the alias of Taurus Silver.
• Meaningful Name
  • 'Miyuki' means 'deep snow'. She specializes in magics that involve creating ice and freezing things. Although it is only her derived power.
  • 'Tatsuya' means 'master' but can be written to mean 'dragon'. His JSDF codename, Ogura Ryuuya, means "Great Black Dragon". Wonder where they got that from...
• Mundane Utility:
  • Using magic, Miyuki cleans dirt off herself and Tatsuya in the aftermath of his martial arts training.
  • Using magic to make ice for iced coffee, then casting a pocket of cold air on the cup to prevent the scent from escaping.
  • Using "Mist Dispersion" to get rid of sweat on a hot day, or to remove dirt from clothing.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Gyobu Shoujo Hanzou Hattori, the vice-president of the student council.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Tatsuya:
    • "Mahesvara": Given by soldiers of the Great Asian Alliance after the Okinawa incident. Refers to the Hindu deity Shiva said to be the god of destruction and reforming. ^{Novel Quotes} "Three years ago, an unidentified demon smashed them at Okinawa. Among the soldiers who returned through a prisoner exchange, none dared to utter that title ("Mahesvara"). The upper echelons of the Great Asian Alliance military officially denied his existence. They forbade the soldiers from mentioning that name. It was a nightmare better left buried. Yet, no matter how they denied him with their lips, the nightmare had become reality and was baring its fangs at them." | "Three years ago, soldiers from Hong Kong used English phrases to get around the gag order from above. Today, that term spread like wildfire through the invading forces. — Mahesvara! — Their morale drowned in a rising tide of horror."
    • "Oguro Ryuuya": Tatsuya's JSDF Code Name. Means "Great Black Dragon".
  • Lu Gonghu: Better known by his nickname "The Man-Eating Tiger", Kokonoe. He's on par with his teacher in non-magical martial arts, but his teacher still wins with Supernatural Martial Arts. Kokonoe is one of only two people shown who's able to do so.
• Not So Stoic: Happens for both of stoics. Shizuku is adorable. Tatsuya is scary.
• Numerical Theme Naming: Magicians with numbers in their family name are of superior magic bloodline, they are known as "Numbers."
• Person of Mass Destruction: The Strategic-Class magicians, who can cast at least one spell equivalent in power to a nuke. There are more than 50; those publicly known are called the Thirteen Apostles.
• Post Modern Magick: The dominant (or "Modern") magical system of the setting is this, crossed with Platonicism because of its use of words like Eidos (Idea) and Psions. However, modern magic isn't the only Functional Magic; Ancient Magic still exists, and is actually more powerful than modern magic, but takes longer to cast.
• Post-Soviet Reunion: In the aftermath of World War III, the Russian Federation had reabsorbed at least Belarus and Ukraine and became the New Soviet Union^note Yes, the "New" is canonically part of the official name., one of the four superpowers of the post-WW3 world order.
• Power Incontinence: When Miyuki gets emotional, sometimes the surroundings get frozen over. Explained further in the LN: Miyuki is using 50% of her power to suppress Tatsuya's magic. The moment she releases the seal, she gains full control of her magic.
• Power Limiter: Mizuki Shibata wears glasses to reduce her magical sensitivity to tolerable levels. ^note Due to magic, wearing glasses is rare. It's hinted that those wearing them mostly do so for the same reason Mizuki does.
• Properly Paranoid: In the recent volumes, everyone is this to the Yotsuba Clan.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Anything Tatsuya says and does is right by virtue of him being the protagonist. Anyone who disagrees with him is either mistaken and will come around soon or is a bad guy and must be stopped. In particular, in one of the scenes, Tatsuya is persuaded Lina to leave the American army while he remaining the active Japanese military, despite the fact that earlier he had spoken directly about how enemies use pacifism to weaken someone else's military defenses and this was portrayed as a very vile and insidious action.
• Putting on the Reich: One of the students in the Pillars Break competition wears a Nazi stormtrooper outfit.
• Quick Draw: The Morisaki family is famous for this.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Tatsuya's preferred method of manual input.
• Royal Inbreeding: Maya is going to arrange a marriage between Tatsuya and his sister Miyuki so that he will remain forever in the clan as a powerful magician, and Miyuki's offspring, along with the ideal set of the mother's genes, will also receive the father's unique abilities.
• Red Baron: Tatsuya, who's also The Dreaded and has various terrifying monikers. More directly played with "Crimson Prince" Masaki, who is a model young magician from a good family. Red is even his trademark color.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Blue-eyed, gentle "Snow Queen" Miyuki is contrasted with the red-eyed, cheerful and frivolous Mayumi.
  • The anime version uses it for confrontation between the cold, stoic and rational "blue" Tatsuya and the competitive, quick-tempered "red" Masaki.
• Replacement Goldfish: Miyuki was this for the clan: being a perfect magician and ideal lady, she literally replaced the "defective" Tatsuya as the heir of Yotsuba. Tatsuya notes that members of the clan will no doubt support his sister over him.
• Rule of Symbolism: The ten main magical clans are an allusion to the mafia, and more specifically the Yakuza. In particular, the author and the characters repeatedly hint that these families were initially used by politicians and businessmen to secretly and illegally solve their problems. In particular, the family of Kuroba from the Yotsuba clan have outstanding magical espionage skills including the instantaneous and secretive killing of witnesses. However, they Turned Against Their Masters with manipulation, magic and blackmail, so that the yakuza are now their puppets.
• Science Wizard: In this setting, magic is a form of technology meaning that anyone who uses magic could qualify as a Science Wizard. Tatsuya is a world-renowned pioneer of Magitek under the alias of Taurus Silver.
• Scientifically Understandable Sorcery: Modern freezing spells work by slowing down molecules, and heat spells work the opposite way.
• Secret Test: The patriarch of the ten families does this to the students competing in the upcoming events. Tatsuya notices that something might be off before he first appears when a young lady appears on the stage. Then when the man finally shows up, he says that he cast a wide-area, low level spell in the room, and says that only five of the students seem to have noticed it. And if he were a terrorist with ill intentions, only those five would have been able to do anything, while the rest would either get killed, or at least incapacitated. He then points out that magic is just a means, and shouldn't be used solely as an ends.
• Shrouded in Myth: Due to how secretive the Yotsuba is, not even its own clan members know the extent of its full might and only the Clan Head has access on it. This is also one of the reasons why Tatsuya, even with his abilities, doesn't want to bother rebelling against the clan.
• Space-Filling Empire: A consequence of World War III is that the Mahouka Earth is covered with those. The USA are now the United States of '''North''' America, there is a ''New'' Soviet Union, modern day China devolved into a Great Asian Alliance after conquering most of Asia, India and Iran have united Central Asia, there's a League of Arabian Nations... Europe is a strange mix of this trope and Balkanize Me: while The European Union is now an united federated entity, it splits into an eastern and western halves along the Franco-German border. The only countries mentioned to have stayed more or less the same are Turkey, Australia (which is in isolationism), Brazil, and Japan.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: How magic is treated in this world.
• Superpowerful Genetics:
  • Magic talent is inherited. All the magicians who belong to the Ten Master Clans have very good genetic makeup. Accordingly, level of magical talent is often a parameter for dividing people into capable and useless. This trope is averted in the case of Tatsuya, who is by academic standards a Muggle Born of Mages.
  • Since the development and cultivation of magical genes has been associated for 100 years with genetic experiments on Designer Babies, magic talent has become firmly tied to physical attraction, and it is believed that the stronger the person's magical talent, the more physically healthy and attractive he is.
• Superpower Lottery: While most magicians have varying cast speeds or Mana pool sizes, there are also "Born-Specialized Magicians", who are born with unique abilities.
  • Tatsuya was born with the ability to create unique destruction and healing magics that limit his capacity to use other magical abilities.
  • Ono Haruka was born with a unique affinity for stealth magic.
• Supporting Harem: You understand how little chance the other girls have when Miyuki is on 90% of the covers. At the same time, although he does not see a woman in her, she is literally the only person to whom Tatsuya can experience real emotions.
• Take That, Audience!: In one of the arcs, the author introduces Minoru Kudou, a genetically modified mage who was born from parents that were full siblings. Although he is also incredibly beautiful and strong in magic, incest has made his genes unstable, and his health is extremely weak. At this time none of the fans shipping Miyuki/Tatsuya knew about the genetic modifications that protect any children they might have from defects.
• Teen Genius: Tatsuya and Kichijouji both fit this.
  • Tatsuya is the "Silver" half of the genius magic engineer known as "Taurus Silver". He's constantly tinkering, investing, theorizing, or discovering things. He was the first to make Flying Magic using Modern Magic. During the Nine Schools Competition. he created bleeding edge CADs, new magic spells, and calibrated competitor equipment so well most said it felt like they suddenly improved a lot in their magic. His long-term pet project is creating a functional magic thermonuclear reactor.
  • Kichijouji's moniker is "Cardinal George", due to his research and discovery of one of the legendary Cardinal Codes thought only to exist in theory. He's Masaki's primary strategist.
    Tatsuya: There's not a single person who studies Elemental Magic sequences who doesn't know his name.
• Training from Hell: Tatsuya had his strong emotions (only strong emotions, not all emotions) erased from his mind and was subject to experiments run on his body. During the Beach Episode it's told he is covered with scars, except for his head. The narrator lampshades this in volume 10, even calling what he's been through "training from hell".
• Troll: Miyuki sometimes does this; Tatsuya and Mayumi do it constantly, often to each other.
• Trouble Entendre: After the school entrance ceremony, Mizuki concludes that top freshman Miyuki is likely related to Tatsuya. Tatsuya replies that Mizuki must have very good eyes to see such things, startling the girl. Her eyes are later revealed to be quite special, a sought-after asset in magic society, and not something Mizuki ever intended to flaunt.
• The Un Favourite: The Shiba/Yotsuba family in regards to Miyuki and Tatsuya. It's revealed in volume 16 why the family hates Tatsuya so much: he has the power to destroy the world. The true objective behind Tatsuya's operation was to remove his emotions, lest he destroy the world in a tantrum.
• Umbrella of Togetherness: Tatsuya shares an umbrella with Mayumi in vol 18.
• Vigilante Execution: Tatsuya drops by the "No-Head Dragon" criminal syndicate cell to cross it out, and he couldn't care less about their reasons for sabotaging the Nine School Competition. One of their members offers valuable info on a crime lord, but to no avail, as is clear to the military operative witnessing Tatsuya's wrath.
• Weeding Out Imperfections: First High School separates its students into Course 1 and Course 2 categories based on their magical aptitude. Students are distinguished by the presence of a flower (Course 1) or the lack thereof (Course 2) on the sleeve of their uniforms. This leads Course 1 students to call themselves "Blooms" for having superior magical powers and look down upon the "Weeds" of Course 2.
• Will They or Won't They?: The whole romantic line of the series, especially after the 16th volume, is built around the question: "Is the strong incest subtext between Shiba siblings the usual fan-service and temporary deception, or slowly developing mutual love?".
• Wish-Fulfillment: The series is noted in Japan for containing a large dose of this trope, even among current trends in light novels. Our protagonist is only a poor student because the system refuses to recognize how awesome he is. In fact, he is so good at everything, it comes up that the school has nothing to teach him while he revolutionizes every subject he touches. If terrorists attack, the troops and police will be unavailable, so he will solve the problem, even if it is an entire country. All while single-handedly advancing science in multiple fields, charming girls, and proving his political views correct.
• Wizarding School: There are nine in Japan.
• World War III: One of the main events of the 21st century, lasting almost twenty years (2045-2064). One of the greatest consequences of it was the ascension of Magicians as an anti-nuclear force.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Miyuki acts like one because Tatsuya admires refined people.

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