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The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13 Review – Quick Summary
In The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13, “I can’t lose,” it’s time for the final Mirage Bat competition between Miyuki Shiba and Airi Isshiki. Both have talent and drive. Both trained relentlessly. Will Miyuki’s raw talent win the day? Will Airi’s commitment to her family drive her to victory? Or will the crime syndicate hoping to stem their gambling losses even allow the competition to conclude?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13
Well, somebody certainly likes their BL! Capture from the Funimation stream.
It seems fitting that Mayumi Saegusa would be in on my favorite quote of the episode. Her well-polished snark was a constant source of enjoyment for me. Towards the end of this episode, she had just disclosed the secret of the difference between Course 1 and 2 students to Mari Watanabe and Azusa Nakajou. They wanted to keep the secret from Miyuki, because she might have blown the school down if she learned of how mundane the situation was and how much she thought it hurt her brother’s reputation. But that’s a separate conversation.
Miyuki asked if they’d seen her brother, and Mari answered that he was outside talking to Katsuto Juumonji. Apparently, Katsuto had wanted to discuss something with Tatsuya in private.
Usually, Mari is Mayumi’s accomplice. This time, it looks like Azusa shared Mayumi’s love of BL, because both of them launched into their interpretation of what Katsuto’s confession to Tatsuya might look like. Miyuki was not a fan.
“Surely not! Brother!” Miyuki cried (19:15), turning and fleeing. Seems she still hadn’t gotten over the shock of First High having so many beautiful women to tempt Tatsuya. She just couldn’t face the idea that her number of potential competitors just doubled!
Best in Show Moment for The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13
Miyuki seemed happy and relieved to finally find someone she can talk to on her level. Well, almost on her level. Capture from the Funimation stream.
Setup: Talent versus Effort
Talent versus Effort
Which produces the best results: Talent or effort? It’s a trick question, of course. All things being equal, it’s easy to see how diligent effort could overcome lazy talent. But the real answer is talent and effort, because a very talented person putting in the same effort as a non-talented person would almost always come out on top.
If we remove Tatsuya from the equation, the conflict between Miyuki and Airi really came down to degrees of talent. Both were talented, but Miyuki was more talented. Both put in significant effort, so the outcome was more or less guaranteed.
Because of that, while the young women were in the bath, Miyuki felt awkward around Airi. Having a lot of talent is harder than it sounds. I didn’t expect this series to trigger memories like this, but it reminded me of junior high and early high school. I’d written my first novel in sixth grade (The Delta Series). I wrote serialized novels (called collectively Death of a Galaxy… Good Lord, how cheesy is that?) in high school. There was a clear expectation among my friends and teachers that I’d be published before I hit college.
Miyuki found it hard to connect to people — harder, even, than the quiet Shizuku. Capture from the Funimation stream.
Being talented means there are few teachers who can do much for you. I wanted to learn from them, but even in college, I ended up teaching parts of the creative writing course I was a student in because I had more experience marketing than my professor. But by then I still wasn’t published. Sometime was preventing me from moving forward. And it was me.
More of a Trick Question: Talent and Effort Aren’t Enough
As I thought about writing this post, I connected some dots that I had not noticed before. In high school, I chose to listen to the wrong people. That’s because I’d been taught not to trust myself, and stupid me bought into that. Instead of listening to professional editors who provided feedback, I listened to others who said to ignore those editors because they didn’t know what they were talking about. At the same time, those same folks told me my style sucked and that I should emulate them.
I do not recommend living a life with no self-confidence. It leaves you open to stupid situations like this. I mean, it’s clear that someone who says “Don’t listen to a professional editor” at the same time they’re saying “Instead, listen to me who has no experience and emulate my writing style!” is a bad idea. At the very least, I should have sought out different opinions. But in my defense, the “different opinions” available to me as a farm boy in the 1970s are very different than the options available to me now. After all, now we have the internet.
I couldn’t finish this review without observing how putting these two together guarantees elevated levels of mischief! Capture from the Funimation stream.
The moral of the story is that you need more than just talent and effort. You need to talent and effort applied in the right direction! That usually means a mentor or at least a willingness to experiment. That situation happened to me back in the late 1970s. It took me until December, 2020 to shake off that influence. That’s with both talent and considerable effort.
Delivery: Miyuki and Airi Come to an Understanding
I saw a lot of my younger self in Miyuki as she sat watching the other young women enjoy themselves. She felt awkward, sitting beside Airi. Miyuki did not want to appear arrogant, which limited what she could talk about. But she wanted to reach out and make a connection to Airi. Talent seeks out talent; there’s a lot they could say to each other, if they discovered common ground.
Fortunately, Airi decided to break the silence by saying (14:00), “I just had to thank you for something… Your sheer talent as well as the overwhelming gap between your abilities and my own…” helped her to improve her own game. The opportunity to pit her talent against someone like Miyuki revolutionized how she saw herself.
Airi went on to say that Miyuki had pushed her to consider using her Jump Spell and the Flying Spell at the same time. “Without you, it never would have occurred to me to try that.” Airi ended by saying that the experience would help her improve even more, so she wanted to thank Miyuki for that.
Airi seemed genuinely happy to have been able to compete against Miyuki. Capture from the Funimation stream.
Just like that, Airi had broken the ice. Miyuki could finally relax and say (14:47), “To be able to think that way… You’re just as amazing as I thought!”
It’s strange how seeing Miyuki and Airi come to an understanding helped me figure out a random bit from my past — a random bit that has a lot of relevance right now, as I’m trying to start a novel writing career. Of all the series I’ve watched recently, this is the one I would have said would be the least likely to teach me the meaning of any significant life event. So even though the show itself covered little new ground, I’m really glad I watched it!
What did you think of the Mirage Bat competition? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!
The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei – Episode 13 discussion – FINAL
- 100 Word Anime: Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei Episode 13 Impressions – An Almost Off-Screen Massacre To Make Space For A Bath Scene
- The Anime Rambler – By Benigmatica: Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei Episode #13
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 1: I’ll Cherish This for the Rest of My Life
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 2: May I join you?
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 3: The Girls’ Detective Club is here!
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 4: Friends
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 5: I won’t let anyone interfere
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 6: The Nine Schools Competition Begins
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 7: Arithmetic Chain
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 8: Hell of Ice and Flames
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 9: Because You Were by My Side
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 10: I Don’t Want to Lose
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 11: Brother, good luck
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 12: I will fly!
- The Honor at Magic High School Episode 13: I can’t lose
