Synopsis
Sometime into the future, humanity has evolved. Several people especially among the youths have gained superpowers of sorts. And you know what people like doing with superpowers? They like to use it to fight. And so several “educational” institutions have been set up in order to “house” these kids with powers.
Enter Ayato, our main character. He’s one of them kids with powers, and he just transferred into Seidoukan, one of the six schools for superpowered kids in that island. But in anime world all transfer students must have some sexy accidents…
He tries to return a handkerchief that flew outside a window by jumping up and entering a window. Kids, don’t try that at home. One thing leads to another. Misunderstandings are formed, and soon a battle challenge is given out by Juris, the pink-haired girl whom Ayato “accidentally” peeked at.
Juris starts the battle by flame throwing, all of which Ayato ably blocks or evades. The battle gets interrupted shortly after when someone tries to snipe Juris (Ayato saves her) and the student council president (sort of) puts a stop on the match.
Here now begins a series of info dumps where Claudia, the student council president, explains to Ayato how their world works and Yabuki, Ayato’s roommate, shares to him all his scoops as a member of the newspaper club. Don’t you just love it when those around you are just there to explain everything to you?
Anyway, ultimately the point of the episode is to have Ayato, a skilled fighter who lacks motivations save for a minor hope to find clues about his missing sister, meet Julis, a flame-based fighter who is passionate about a certain unspecified goal (for now).
Review
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk doesn’t rock the boat that much. It knows what it’s trying to do and it focuses on just doing that properly. And on that account, it does those things sufficiently.
In its core, the show is a battle tournament anime, so the fight scenes are the lifeblood of the show. Only the skirmish between Julis and Ayato has been shown so far, and Julis flames are fancy enough, and Ayato’s footwork fancy enough to tide us over. I actually really did dig the focus the show gives to Ayato’s footwork.
A secondary theme of the show is its harem fanservice. It’s… okay I guess. The fanservice is pretty standard so far, either in the form of accidents or teasing. Maybe it’ll get better. Maybe it’ll get worse. Can it service the fans enough? Probably if you like the standard staple of fanservice.
But like I said, the core is the battle and that’s good enough. Sure, the episode did show us some backstory about a missing sister, but don’t expect that plot line to be developed anytime soon. That only gets touched upon way later in the original light novels.
Waifu Index
One of the main goals of the show, I believe, is to bless us with waifus. And so they did.
Juris is your standard tsundere princess waifu. Actually, I think she’s the weakest waifu of them all.
Claudia is prime waifu material. She’s sexy, sultry and scheming. And trust me she’s really strong. What more can you ask?
The next few episodes will introduce us to a childhood friend waifu who likes big-ass guns, and a cute kouhai swordsgirl waifu. Then way into the future, there’s a mad scientist waifu, a psycho vampire waifu, and a pop idol waifu. What more can you ask?
It’s a waifu gold mine, people.
3 Comments
Infinite Stratos w/ Magic.
Check out Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut which is scheduled to have an anime soon. That’s the more apt “Infinite Stratos w/ Magic”.
Assterisk* :^)