With the new arc in full swing, it seems like Mahouka has been taking itself less seriously. The last the two arcs never had this playful nature with the characters; most of the time it was rather long-winded and explanation heavy. Compared to now, it seems like there is a sense of comfort in how characters are presented -- for both the serious and comical moments. Really it's a nice new spin on an arc that will be most likely be grand, considering it is the last arc of this season. With that said, lets jump into the episodes.
The opening scene was probably the most memorable of the episode because there was some informational bits and we also see Tatsuya and Mayumi in reversed roles. Mayumi usually tries to create sexual tension with Tatsuya, but he is too stoned faced to actually have an interesting reaction. This time around Tatsuya was the one to play on that dynamic and push Mayumi to react and the result was glorious. I never though this type of character interaction would happen in an anime like Mahouka, but I was proven wrong.
However, before that back and forth between Tatsuya and Mayumi, the conversion was more about the Thesis Competition. A discussion of the similarities and differences of Rin and Tatsuya of their reason for wanted to build this Gravity Control-type Magic Sequence Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor. More of less it had to do with lifting magic from being used as a weapon and utilize it for other things -- in this case economic.
Building these types of technology does come with its repercussions, and the majority of the attacks came from the espionage side. Cracking into computer, trying to tamper with data, and spies sent to look in on the students of First High. The bright side of all this spying was that Erika and Leo ended stopping one of them and siphoned out some information.
What I got from the information was that the people he is working for, the Great Asian Alliance, are trying to stop any production of advanced technology and magic. That alone seems people illogical, but thinking about it more it seems like this alliance is all about control. If there was some new technology or magic, that would be something that they couldn't influence without information. So to prevent losing the power they currently have, the alliance will stop any attempts at progress that will even implicitly step on their toes.
The last thing about the female spy is the mention of revenge. I'm assuming that it has to do with Tatsuya, because pretty much everything ends up tied to him, but for what I wonder. Seeing as she wears the same school uniform, I can assume she is a student of First High. Other than that, I'm not quite sure what she wants or why she wants to get back at Tatsuya.
We have some pretty amusing fronts coming from one source, but have their own motivations. I'm curious if there will be more lively interactions of characters because this makes the characters way more memorable. And with this serious story to ground these conversions, it makes the anime more enjoyable to watch.
Pretty much right off that bat we discover who this mysterious female spy -- who wants revenge on Tatsuya -- is. With the name "Hirakawa Chiaki" I didn't have much of a reaction because I never remember smaller characters. However, later on in the actual interrogation, we found out she is the younger sister of the girl who went into shock after her CAD malfunctioned during the student competitions. And as a small side note, Chiaki's hair style reminds me of Emiru from the manga Nozoki Ana and me calling Chiaki "Emi" was short-lived as her real name was revealed pretty quickly.
Not going to lie, the anger toward Tatsuya that Chiaki has seems very much justified. The reason being, Tatsuya knew something was going on with the people working inside of the student competition, yet never actually took action until it involved Miyuki. However, the actions Chiaki is taking is too extreme and that reminds me of Mibu when she was working with Egalite. Those parallels are pretty fascinating since Mibu was the one to stop Chiaki but Chiaki is too caught up in her emotions to really think straight.
After that interaction there seemed to be this paring off of people into a pseudo-romantic couples. One is for a legitimate reason, that being Erika is teaching Leo a secret and deadly technique. Them being absent from school sparked the rumor of them possibly dating, but they aren't -- or they don't seem to be. And the other pairing was random mainly because I thought Mikihiko had a thing for Erika and now he seems to have switched to Mizuki. These two seem more like a cliché romantic comedy couple than anything else.
To wrap up, this episode is the setup for something big coming considering the mysterious man at the end of this episode. There is a lot of thing to keep track of as these character split into different groups. It also seems that Tatsuya is taking the back seat in terms of focus. I wouldn't say that this was that great but it was bad either. I'm waiting for actual conflict to start, however I am enjoying what is happening at the moment.
