The Irregular at the Magic High School - light novel volume 1

I looked into this because I watched the anime on Crunchyroll. It is a fun show, but I got the sense that I was missing a lot of content. It was in the way events were presented and exposition was delivered, they hinted at much more. So, I picked up the first volume out of curiosity.  I was right. There is a lot more going on than the anime shows. 

The anime shows the events that take place and the outward relationships between characters. It doesn't show all the world-building and magic theory that the author, Tsutomu Sato, put into the light novel. Just as an example of the former, Tsutomu Sato uses several paragraphs to describe the evolution of the train system in Japan, and the effect this has on human life and relationships. The magic system gets even more space. 

Indeed, one could say that this story is not so much about the Shiba Siblings as much as it is about this modern magic system that Tsutomu Sato has devised. Chapter 0 is entirely about magic, and various points about it and its terminology are re-iterated to enforce understanding or introduce something new. The Shiba Siblings, standing at opposite ends of this magic system, serve to illustrate various mechanical and social effects of it. 

Overall, I found this to be a somber and technical story. It doesn't have many highs or lows, simply progressing at an even pace. Even fight scenes are like this. It is kind of like Tatsuya Shiba's mood, stoic-leaning-dour. It is a very interesting story, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. Then again, this is the Enrollment Arc, and this arc isn't as much fun in the anime as the following arcs are. I'm thinking the next volume I read will be the start of the Nine Schools Competition arc. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Irregular at the Magic High School -  light novel volume 1" an A

Click here for my next book review:  Princess Juniper of the Anju

Click here for my previous book review:   Tasha's Cauldron of Everything - Dungeons and Dragons 5E (read for fun)

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.