Literature Could have been better
So, the series was an interesting concept and look at a magic-driven future world. The problem is that the execution is flawed beyond belief. Tatsuya is supposedly flawed because he can't do ordinary magic or match his peers in High School, which would be a great story if it was about him wanting to rise through his own means to becoming equal to or surpass his loving but much more talented sister while assisting the other Course 2 students in breaking down the barrier of discrimination in their school...
Except for the series to be about the Irregular at Magic High School he has very little invested in it. Tatsuya has so many abilities and qualities that he honestly doesn't qualify as an underdog. And he doesn't care about much other than his sister, so he doesn't really mind the discrimination to begin with nor try and change it.
It'd be one thing if he was good at simply analyzing magic and then coming up with a counter strategy that his teammates can use, like at the tournament, but lacking the other high-level magic abilities he pulls off. Then he really would be an irregular and would have a reason to involve himself better. But instead he's so powerful that he's considered a national asset to their country and could be considered a strategic nuke, and he's smart enough to be the first one to create Flying Magic despite being a high school student when people have been trying the world over to do the same.
When you take these into consideration, he honestly has no business being in the school at all beyond protecting his sister, and she can take care of herself. He's not an irregular so much as he dumbs himself down to be in the same place as his sister. It's telling that his classmates are more interesting than him, such as the Spirit Body user, in that we see them actually struggling and training to make a difference.
Overall, they put him into a position of being too good at too many things while leaving him so detached from the premise that he doesn't feel like a character that lives in the same world as his peers. He's better than most of the people around him and knows it, so what's the challenge he has to face as an "Irregular" at Magic High School?
Literature Squandered potential.
(Review is up to Chapter 9 of the light novel, so spoilers.)
Satou does a good job of developing the magitech world, particularly how the various aspects of modern life are affected by such a power. It's especially rare to see so much world-building in a medium that tends to not explain the background as much. That's where my compliments end, though.
Firstly, Tatsuya isn't a believable character. At all. He's pretty much an Invincible Hero: although the concept of using analysis and speed to overcome a lack of natural talent is interesting, he curb stomps two characters that are stated to be top-level in the school (Hattori and Kirishima) without breaking a sweat. His personality is rather bland and nonreactive to boot - I ended up reading almost all his lines in the same disinterested monotone - and the only true weakness he has with schoolwork is a non-issue. Miyuki is too entangled in Tatsuya's character to be interesting in herself, and there's a dose too much of Incest Subtext to be comfortable. (The whole "let me strip for onii-sama!" scene comes to mind.) Meanwhile, the more intriguing characters (Hattori and Mizuki) don't get nearly as much focus or development. Finally, there's an absurd lot of Techno Babble, which albeit being essential to the series is shoehorned in so badly that it breaks the flow of reading.
I want to like this series. I really do. The world is engaging enough that you want to see where Satou goes next. However, the characters are doing a good job of ruining it for me, and I hope that it improves soon.
Literature One of the Best Light Novels Ever
I have Read many Light Novels but this is the cream of the Crop right here
Story: This is a great story for anyone who Enjoys shonen/Tech Savy/Strategic Tropes. But in many ways, this story even has the potential to be a lot more popular than it already is. It is rare for any story to get overpowered done right but Mahouka does it perfectly. The novel takes a good look at the relationship between the weak and powerful, and it does well to create a world with a complete history. The explanations can get a little bit lengthy, but the complexity behind the magic theory adds a depth of reality to it all. I don't recall another supernatural action setting with such detailed, consistent, plausible explanations for supernatural combat techniques. If you read this for a volume or two, you should be impressed, as well as Intrigued to learn about the various spells and technologies/abilities.
Art : Like the saying goes "A picture speaks of thousand things" the LN's are subjected to 2-3 illustrations of important plot points throughout Volumes, M Kn R does a fantastic job in this department, the Artist has beautifully crafted the imagination of the author and blessed it with a touch of Life, It has a Mix of Shonen(ish)+a bit of Moe added in there...all in all Perfect Character Design that matches well with the tone of the story
Characters: One of The strong point for me in this Novel are it's Varied and Vast Cast of Characters, The MC (Tatsuya) isn't a Social Outcast or Weak as the Title would suggest...he follows his own Established Code mixed in with Mary Stu syndrome and yet ends up flashing the "Anti-Hero" persona, Miyuki his younger Sister suffers from Bro-Complex without any Sexual innuendos but in a more Cutesy fashion...all the Supporting Characters play relevant roles in driving the plot forward and more and more of their Background are revealed as the series progresses.
Overall: 10/10 With each installment my Enjoyment factors keep on rising, this is one of those rare cases that gets better and better with each passing chapters...i have re-read each arcs TWICE and i experience the same outburst of Emotions the 2nd time over...I Recommend this series to all who likes a bit of "Action+(H)Romance+Mystery+ Futuristic World-Building" mixed in to culminate a Masterpiece of it's Genre...
Literature I liked it
Now let me explain myself. It's by no means perfect and definitely not for everyone. Tatsuya is the most OP character ever, the incest teasing is just ... I don't even have words for it and Miyuki can be rather annoying.
However, as someone who does not mind characters being stupidly over powered as long as they have some sort of personality flaw or something similar I didn't mind Tatsuya's OP-ness. There are actually things he can't do ( like being completely unable to relate to his classmates because of his lack of strong emotions), those things just doesn't have anything to do with combat. I still think it's entertaining to watch him curb-stomp his enemies because the interesting thing isn't if he's going to win, it's how he's going to do it (it's the same thing as in No Game No Life). The action is also great.
And while I find Miyuki annoying and the incest teasing unneccessary I can overlook them both because the elements I enjoy are just too good. Also the incest is entirely one-sided and really just teasing as far as I've understood it.
Now I've only seen the anime (and read the mangas) so I can't say anything for the light novels but this is how I feel from what I've seen so far.