Review of Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor
TL;DR – Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor starts off decently enough that you might think to stick around to see if it gets better. It never gets better. On the list of things the world is lacking, another fantasy high school light novel must rank pretty high. Fortunately, Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor (AroBMI) – so called because Brilliant Bastard wasn't cumbersome enough – is here to provide. Sistine & Rumia are two friends on their way to the first day of class at the Alanzo Imperial Magic Academy when they have an only in anime collusion with some guy. Said guy turns out tobe Glenn, a right bastard who mocks their apology & behaves in such a way that means Sistine must yell “baka!” & shoot magic at him. As if the day couldn't get any worse, Glenn turns out to be their new teacher & not only is he a bastard, but an idle one at that.
Cliche beginnings aside, the first episodes of AroMBI showed promise. Glenn, pronounced Gülenn in this universe, being a teacher rather than a student immediately stands out as somewhat of a novelty, though his appearance makes it hard to tell how much older than its students he's supposed to be. Though his cocky & abrasive, not to mention lazy, attitude rubs everyone up the wrong way at first, he soon reveals himself to be much more capable & reliable than he seemed.
The episodes that focus on him as a teacher are the strongest. Taking a Great Teacher Onizuka approach to schooling – even using a similar title at least once – his unorthodox teaching methods gradually win over his students, even if he is openly disdainful of magic as a tool fit only for harming others. Eschewing the conventional methods of rote learning & memorisation, Glenn instead emphasises practical application & experimentation as well as encouraging each student to excel at what they're best at, rather than relying on the top students to carry the rest of the class. The potential was there for the series to at least offer a somewhat novel spin on the genre, even if Glenn still had the usual cliché past & an evil organisation to fight.
Unfortunately, what potential it had is soon squandered by its inability to adapt genre conventions to the new status of its protagonist. It soon becomes apparent that, although a teacher, Glenn is still very much a light novel protagonist. Events all revolve around him, he is the solution to every problem & people just can't help but like him, think about him, or at least blame him for all their problems. Worse is that, while Sistine is your typical tsundere heroine, she is also your typical light novel love interest. There is some effort to explain Glenn's apparent closeness to her as being because she reminds him of someone he used to know. But by the time she's daydreaming about him defeating her plot convenient fiancé & proposing to her, it feels very awkward.
As does Glenn's constant need to rescue his harem...sorry, students with non-brown hair. Normally you expect a teacher character to encourage their students personal growth & ability to stand up for themselves & that does happen with the class as a whole. But when the evil mages show up to cause trouble for the main female characters, it's all on Glenn to save them, once just in time to stop Sistine from being raped.
Rumia is supposed to be some sort of unique magic user, her power to amplify others magic apparently a cause both for her being hidden away by her royal mother & also why the evil mages keep attacking. But it's never established why her power, in a world full of magic, causes that, or why amplifying power is a bad thing while nobody bats an eye at Glenn's power to nullify magic or Sistine's power to drain it. It's just a thing the plot needed to have, really. When another character from his past, Rel (spelled Re=L) joins his class as a transfer student who openly professes her devotion to him, it only furthers the sense that ARoBMI is unable to think outside the box.
Speaking of that near-rape scene, its narrow avoidance leads into another issue with the series: it's terrible sense of comedic timing. Sistine's assault is built up for well over a minute, with her calls for help becoming increasingly desperate as more clothes are torn through. But almost as soon as Glenn strolls through the door the tone does a 180 & witty banter ensues. Even in regular exchanges, jokes often fail to hit the mark, either due to excessive repetition or punchlines taking too long to deliver. It's alright when it's not trying to be funny, but it's almost always trying to be funny & is only made worse by the OST, which uses a cuckoo clock sound effect in the “funny scene” music.
There is also a frustrating lack of continuity & consistency between the three main arcs of the series (one for each girl). The first two build up an evil maid character to be the series' main antagonist, being involved in both Rumia's & Re=L's stories. But the final arc almost completely ignores her so Glenn can do battle with another guy from his past that we haven't been introduced to. It seems pretty basic to think that they would have to fight against the maid henchman before revealing a new, higher ranking enemy, or at least have him say “you sit this one out, I got this.” But that wouldn't fit Sistine's marriage fantasy that's the core of the final arc, with all the unhealthy student – teacher relationship implications that has. By the final episode it's almost like they're flinging whatever they've got at the wall in the hope that twenty minutes of material sticks.
There are issues in the small details as well. For the first half of the series, the setting seems a fairly typical fantasy one, with magic & swords & carriages. But then in Re=L's arc there's suddenly a high-tech laboratory & Glenn's former special mage forces partner Albert hands him his old revolver. It's the only firearm in the series, which begs the question: why are there firearms in a world with knights & magic? The answer is because the director thought having Albert hand Glenn his old gun to symbolise their reuniting for one more case would make a cool scene, implications be damned. It's not the only time where something that worked in a different film is used to poor effect.
As to what the Akashic Record is, well you'll just have to read the novels to find out.
The production of AKoBMI follows the tiresomely familiar pattern of starting with its best foot forward & only getting worse as the series goes on. Putting the usual light novel inevitabilities aside – like silly uniforms & character designs taken from the beginners guide to archetypes – everything seems to look & move fine, with some eye-catching animation sequences in the first few episodes. But things become gradually more static & stuttery as the series progresses, with a notable decrease in the amount of detail put into character art.
There are also a couple of annoyingly obvious continuity errors. A minor but unmissable one is when Glenn has very clearly been stabbed through the lung, complete with bloody wound to mark the spot. But his bandages mostly cover his abdomen instead of his chest, presumably because it looked cooler. A more glaring & irritating one comes later, when Glenn punches an opponent into a wall. When the dust clears, he's in a Jesus Christ pose that the camera is really keen you get a good look at, only for him to be sprawled on the floor in the next cut, no falling animation or even a sound effect. It's eye rolling at best & likely to cause viewers to yell at expletives at the screen for how pretentious it is.
AKoBMI is hardly the first light novel to start with an interesting premise, only to become increasingly unfocused & reliant on overdone tropes & clichés as it progresses. But there have been so many of them, which becomes increasingly unforgivable as each year also produces more shows that buck the trend. The first 5-6 episodes that focus on Glenn becoming a teacher & Rumia are okay enough that they might be worth watching on their own if you're a big enough fan of the genre. But if you really want to watch a light novel adaptation about a magic bastard instructor, just watch Alderamin on the Sky.