Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records: A Review Im going to preface this review by saying that I find ecchi humor awful. Its such lowhanging fruit and its so easy to just give a character big boobs and make fifteen jokes about them in the space of two episodes that only a true degenerate would unironically enjoy. Ratings Premise: 3/5 There isnt anything particularly interesting about the premise of the story classic magicschool bastard teacher kind of stuff. In fact the biggest reason I wanted to watch it any earlier than any other anime is because I found this scenehttps://www..com/watch?v=zjNLjfbAJzk on Reddit and found it kinda funny. Story: 2/5 Again nothing very special about the story. Its sometimes predictable and sometimes not. There is a fair amount of character development mainly for Glenn and Rumia but there could definitely be a little more for Sistine outside of I love Glenn. The characters are... interesting to say the least. Glenn despite having a good heart and some cool magic has a tendency to be a little bit of a pedo which is disappointing considering he seems to have some interesting history that isnt visited much in the anime and a lot more potential as a character. He talks a little bit about the importance of responsibility with power but it isnt exactly allegorical or even that deep its more of a cheap attempt to show that he isnt as bad as he was at the start. The only truly respectable characters in the series are Albert and Re=L but the former is sidelined so hard that I couldnt remember his name without looking at the Anilist page and the latter doesnt really do a lot outside obsess over Glenn or stab Glenn. The first half of the series is a lot better than the second its paced as well as I can expect from an average anime and it doesnt feel like theyve cut too much from the source material although I wont know until I read the light novels but it often feels like there could be more explanation about magic and its rules in the world. I suppose they were waiting to do it in a sequel season that never happened. The second half however is less good. Not quite a carcrash but when you pack two arcs and 3 volumes worth of content into six episodes its a recipe for rushed plot and skipped details. Again I cant do a very good comparison without reading the light novels but Ive seen this kind of thing in my favourite series Toaru Majutsu no Index and its painfully obvious how much they skipped. As a side note theres some really creepy sections I dont want to get too deep into it partially for spoiler reasons partially because Id just rather not but Sistine a fifteenyearold girl nearly gets red by an older man and they try and play Glenns reaction off as a joke. Granted the series doesnt get like that again but the fact that it even occurred is enough for me to knock off a point as well as take a long shower. Music: 4/5 Perhaps the most special category for me this series has some good music. The battle soundtracks are dramatic and underscore whats occurring on the screen more than well enough particularly memorably in the final battle of the series where the track takes a cool heavy metal tone. The ambient tracks are about as good and theres even some good sad music that evoke more emotion than such a series probably should. As for the OP and ED I was super disappointed to find that neither was on Spotify as both of them slap and this is one of few series where I sat through both the credits almost every episode. Nothing much more to say. Execution: 3/5 Like with anything else in this series I didnt expect much more than the average from this anime in terms of its animation. The only other Liden anime Ive watched was Koi to Uso whose animation I didnt really remember and the animation here isnt very memorable here. There arent any moments where it was bad but it isnt groundbreaking either. As for the voice acting they had some pretty good talents Sistines seiyuu worked on Railgun Rumias was in BanG Dream and their work was definitely believable but again nothing historic. Enjoyment: 4/5 I wish I could give this a 5/5 because I thoroughly enjoyed this anime but doing that for such a weird anime would probably give people the impression that I like this kind of thing for what it is. Allow me to explain when I say I enjoyed it I mean that there were so many awful jokes and creepy moments mostly related to Glenn but I found that I could laugh pretty hard at just how awful the anime was willing to go in order to get a laugh out of people who unironically laugh at these things. In those terms it was brilliant. It also makes me realise that maybe Im not so detestable after all comparing myself to the animators who were willing to animate a fifteenyearold get touched up and nearly red by some magician then get married off a few episodes later for the plot. Overall: 16/25 Best Character: Celica Arfonicahttps://anilist.co/character/123990/CelicaArfonia 220http://pm1.narvii.com/7723/92e0653ed385a80921881f64aca459d6c53f49d5r1298414v200.jpg 220https://64.media.tumblr.com/1cfd3e61e9ba1bc64daa96e721503b28/tumblroo9lyqF19l1up5qwko3500.png 220https://pbs.tw.com/media/DcEoNCLUQAAVIPQ.jpg Honestly the bar for character quality isnt particularly high as the only real competition she has is a morally bankrupt lazy teacher who masks his deep care for his students with pedophilia and apathyhttps://anilist.co/character/121638/GlennRadars the worlds most obvious waifubait who somehow falls in love with her detestable teacher and mostly just does normal tsundere thingshttps://anilist.co/character/121639/SistineFibel a consistently useless damsel in distress who seems to be the sole target of every enemy in the serieshttps://anilist.co/character/121640/RumiaTingel and a few side characters that nobody really remembers. However Celica seems to be one of the only characters who isnt morally deep in the red and also has actual power and usefulness. Whether she really does anything in the anime is a question for another day. Anyway shes also one of the very rare legal characters in this show and Im not going to gush over a child/cat/witch girl any time soon. Favourite Scene: Magic Duel: Glenn Radars vs Sistine Fibel Outside of my deep disappointments when it comes to the characters a lot of the scenes in this anime were really enjoyable. The first that comes to mind is Sistines duel against Glenn its the first time we see Glenns skill as a magician and it introduces an interesting concept the manipulation and omission of words in a magic chant to change the effects of the spell. Of course the actual battle isnt that interesting as its a studentteacher duel but I can overlook that considering how much I enjoyed seeing Glenn put some effort into what hes doing and gain the respect of his students. Summary My final words as a repeat of what I said in the summary I really enjoyed watching this show. Sure its objectively far from being a masterpiece and laughably cringey throughout but in the end thats the kind of anime that I like to watch. Something that can make me laugh with some of its jokes and laugh even more at the cringefest that it is is something that I can get behind. I feel like RokuAka suffered from the same pitfall that Toaru Majutsu no Index did as a light novel adaptation there were bound to be pieces of worldbuilding and character development missing but the main difference between the two is that the formers compression is noticeable without even reading the source material. What I do have to say is that considering the kind of anime it is theres a surprising lack of ecchi humor theres one typical walks into the girls changing room moment towards the beginning as well as a beach episode but even then its only a small part of the show. To contextualise my feelings about this anime heres a quote from the series itself: The ones who accomplish true greatness are the foolish who keep pressing onward. The ones who accomplish nothing are the wise who know when to quit. Celica Arfonia Put simply I feel that the series was great and I regret nothing about watching it but it was probably foolish of me to continue watching or even start in the first place. Altogether if youre looking for a highquality anime with thoughtprovoking discussion of the responsibilities associated with the attainment of power articulated through the lens of magic and fantasy this isnt the anime youre looking for. But if youre looking for cool fights cringe comedy and some very uncomfortable scenes I would give this a try.