Review of Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor

Cliches sometimes lives or dies whether the cliches it's riding itself on can differ from itself, Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records one such that's on thin ice, good or bad. Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records is another staple of the magical school with the superpowered OP protagonist but with a slight twist to itself that has diminishing returns. Well what does LA mean by that?, well first and foremost, Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records has your typical standard magical school anime with the OP main protagonist that is an utter constant in this anime, it's in it's execution is slightly differs such as ourmain OP protagonist Glen Radars voiced by "Soma Saito" being a lazy narcissistic substitute teacher for the Alzano Imperial Magic Academy and he "at first" is a horrible magician AS well as being weak...but that's soon changes the more you watch of Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records. As carry on watching the anime, you start to see that Glenn slowly but surely changes into the expected OP main protagonist and is cleverly masked through other characters arcs along with his own hidden backstory as well and by all means developing others as well as the mysterious main protagonist is fine and all and even better since we're expected him to be OP as hell but at the start but he's clearly not and slowly getting used to him as a karmic savant main male protagonist being a magical teacher. But from all that, it seems especially with Glenn's writing and development in this anime that he quickly changes into the thing he was expected to become in this anime, this is probably LA's biggest gripe with the anime though there are more problems along with Glenn in the process of it all.

With that said, the characters in this anime is vast yet somewhat lacking as the plot's focus has a typical character focused arc feel to it with the added hints to Glenn's backstory in the process. The characters that get the most focus from this becomes Glenn himself due to him needing to be introduced with his cliched with a twist introduction as well as his development into being the badass he's expected to become, Rumia Tingel voiced by Yume Miyamoto, best friend of Sistine and her having a mysterious backstory to her and being the damsel in distress for the majority of the anime, though she was LA's favourite character in all this as she was your typical nice girl to Sistine's tsundereness and was a constant support to Glenn throughout the entire anime even if she was being a damsel in distress, the aforementioned tsundere Sistine Fibel voiced by Akane Fujita being the typical tsundere to Glenn as well as his minder yet the constant support of her class away from Glenn's affairs. One of her major problems is exactly that, she for the most part is the support to her classmates but at first was the cliched tsundere to Glenn and not much else and considering she's one of the defining main characters in this anime, she had more of a hand in the background than the major plotlines until it was her arc and even then her focused arc had more to do with Glenn than herself, she's "nearly" wasted potential but thankfully this anime actually paid her mind and remembered to even give her an arc that ties into Glenn. Finally we have Re=L voiced by Ari Ozawa, one of Glenn's old college's who might as well be part of Glenn's harem, though her arc did make her more than that. From this, the rest of the characters, from the harem nanny of Celica Arfonia voiced by Eri Kitamura (and LA's favourite minor character) to the many classmates are satellite to supporting characters to the 3 main leads who have arcs to them. The only other character problem LA had with Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records is the most obvious one...although this anime does become unpredictable at times the one constant is that the expected villains in this anime are stock mad crazy psycho magicians but the only defense to that are that finding out who will either become really easy if you pick up the hints or some will be really unpredictable.

In terms of animation by LIDENFILMS, it's expected of them to have some stark and unique character designs and they really do pop out at you (thus why LA really liked Celica), ohh and before LA forgets and this is an obvious point but "yaaaaa school uniform looks like a sailor fuku stripper" schtick...LA didn't really care but yes...the uniform design is weird in this one, moving on please. The magical fights are entertaining to watch and some fluidity to them albeit they fall into the "rune spamming" notion but that's the magic lore of the world of Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records at hand, nonetheless the magical battles are decent enough to watch and this anime doesn't skimp on the bloodlust either....hmm they still haven't gotten that off since Schwarzesmarken haven't they.

And here we go, LA had been thinking about the voice work for this anime for some time especially one seiyuu but that will be a bit down the line. Soma Saito as Glenn was decent enough keeping to his character of the lazy karmic teacher who happens to be a badass but Soma Saito prideful tone can be a bit irritating at times but LA thinks that the point of that. LA really liked Yume Miyamoto as Rumia vocals overall and she had the wide range of emotions minus the annoyance that LA needed to make her easily LA's favoruite seiyuu of this anime. As for the other voice cast, LA really liked Eri Kitamura's femme fatale harem nanny-esque vocals as Celica though LA wished LA saw more of Celica in the first place and seeing Yoko Hikasa doing the psychotic villain vocals was a fresh breath of air for LA from her but again like Eri Kitamura, LA wished LA saw more of Yoko Hikasa's character. Now to the seiyuu your expecting LA to talk about...Akane Fujita...LA actually liked it very much (what with LA being a fan of anime tsundere's) as her tsundereness though brash and abrasive though with ALOT of restraint even at her worst, Akane's deredere vocals do come and balance things out and it's not just all tsun vocals from Akane. To be frank, Akane's role as Sistine is LA's most tolerable role from her for Spring 2017...but LA's said most tolerable not the best from her but nonetheless from ALL of this, the voice cast is decent albeit LA would have wanted other seiyuu's to shine in this anime.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records is a case of where an anime diverts your expectations greatly but it loses steam VERY slowly before it turns into the thing it was trying NOT to be like and this easily manifests itself into our main protagonist Glenn but just with this does it make Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records horrible?...well LA isn't giving this anime any grace and even then LA thinks there are much bigger fish to fry than Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records, it's harmless at best for LA, trying to be something new....then loses it soon afterwards from both tone, plot and characters and at worst it's trying to sell you light novels under the guise of it being a fresh and different magical school anime with an OP protagonist with some credit to itself.

"Expectations may vary to change" will be a very solid statement to Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records if anything.