1. MC gets off on the wrong foot with a fiery redhead ... certainly familar, but I liked it because
- It appeared MC had a plausible chance to lose, both from the action and from his appearance of concern - so he's not ridiculously OP from the start the way Irregular's MC was.
- They allowed the redhead to show a range of emotions, all in ep1 (good job by the seiyuu) - sincere gratitude for retrieving the precious handkerchief, righteous wrath at the invasion of her privacy, grudging acknowledgement of a debt for the rescue ... and then seeing her go supernova with anger at the other guy's taunt, hinting at a serious backstory - this is all better than what we usually get, which is either mindless rage (*cough* Louise *cough*) or weakly motivated stirrings of love right from the get-go (Testament or Rail Wars come to mind.) So, cliche but bearable ... I will be happy if they stay uneasy rivals/allies for enough time for development.
- The MC is neither a complete sap nor a complete wise-ass (nor a complete perv) - he knows he offended but doesn't go right to groveling because it was truly an accident, and he doesn't treat it as a lucky break.
- The MC doesn't fall for the redhead the instant he sees her undergarments - but when he sees her in battle mode at the end, you get the feeling that his interest has just jumped up several notches. I think that admiring her abilities is a much better springboard for any development they have in mind.
2. MC will have other potential romantic interests but this wasn't too bad because
- The blonde SC president is great comic relief because of her constant trolling -
"my soul is blacker than ink distilled from charcoal" or whatever
- Because of that, MC can't completely trust her apparent advances. Is she just manipulating him, trying to get his libido to motivate him to compete? If it's sincere interest, why so sudden?
- So far, it's just the one possible rival. (Again, I'll enjoy it more if they don't immediately ramp up to 5 or more.)
3. The magical battle scenes were dazzling - I loved the visual effects and the flower imagery accompanying the spellcasting. That already has left a bigger impression on me than anything I remember from Irregular, for example.
4. The MC's motivation is certainly familiar but I liked the way it was presented.
- The opening scene was dramatic by itself, but we're left to guess for quite a while that it was his sister. (We can guess once we hear has name, if we remember what her dying words were ... but it isn't spelled out until the SC president drops some hints.
- There's still a lot of mystery about what's going on. How and why did she die? Why the cover-up? Who was that assassination attempt during today's due aimed at?