Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon (対魔導学園35試験小隊, Tai-Madō Gakuen 35 Shiken Shōtai) is a 2015 television anime series based on Tōki Yanagimi’s light novel of the same name. The adaptation is directed by Tomoyuki Kawamura and produced by studio Silver Link. Staff credits also include writer Kento Shimoyama, and music composed by A-bee. The series first aired in Japan on October 2015.
Background:
“Takeru Kusanagi is captain of the 35th Platoon, dedicated to hunting down witches and protecting people from spellcraft. Of course, that all SOUNDS good, but in truth the 35th is nothing but misfits. The sniper is easily flustered, the tech is problematic, and Takeru always insists on bringing a sword to a gun fight.
It only gets worse when the director shunts ex-inquisitor Ouka Ohtori onto the team for being a little too trigger happy around witches. But despite the chaos and lack of cohesion, Takeru cares about his team and mission. Can he soothe Ouka’s rage at her past and pull the team together?”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, February 2022.
I remember when the Autumn 2015 anime season was airing, there were numerous people comparing three shows for having similar concepts – The Asterisk War, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, and Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon, and out of the lot neither of them stood out too much other than Asterisk War due to Aniplex trying to make it the next Sword Art Online. While Chivalry of a Failed Knight had some fanfare, though streaming availability did affect its popularity, Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon was pretty much left to the side despite being available on Crunchyroll.
Now later on we did find out that Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon was in fact licensed by Crunchyroll so nobody would have released it on home video or dubbed it unless Crunchyroll handed it over to Funimation which never happened at all. Instead, Crunchyroll passed the series alongside a bunch of other titles over to Discotek Media for release on home video in 2020, about five years after its broadcast. Anime Limited had a similar deal and picked up Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon for the UK in 2021.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Similar to Big Order, Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon also received a fairly barebones package for the UK release, probably due to lack of materials as well.
The package is presented as a rigid box with an Amaray Blu-ray case to house the disc and alongside the case are 7 art cards.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99. A standard Blu-ray was also released a few months later.
The series was one of the anime titles made available for a discount during the Summer sale (£29.99).
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 7 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 28th February 2022
The collector’s edition release for Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon contains all 12 episodes on a single Blu-ray disc, with the encode and authoring produced by MediaOCD & Discotek Media. As there was no English dub produced for the series, the only audio option available is Japanese with English subtitles.
The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Japanese |
| Audio | Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-50 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
- Premiere Event
- Promos
- TV Commercials
- Clean Ending “Calling my Twilight”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired on Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications. A cheaper UK standard edition Blu-ray is available to order on Amazon UK.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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