The Irregular at Magic High School Season 1 (Complete Series Blu-ray Box Set) Unboxing

The Irregular at Magic High School (魔法科高校の劣等生, Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei), also known as Mahouka in short, is a 2014 television anime series based on Tsutomu Satou’s light novel series of the same name with illustrator Kana Ishida. The series was directed by Manabu Ono and produced by studio Madhouse, with script writers Munemasa Nakamoto, Yukie Sugawara & Yukito Kizawa, character designer Kana Ishida and music composer Taku Iwasaki. The series first aired in Japan in April 2014.

Background:

“Magic – A century has passed since this concept has been recognized as a formal technology instead of the product of the occult or mere folklore.

At the National Magic University First Affiliate High School, A.K.A Magic High School, students are divided into two distinct groups according to their academic performances. The “Bloom,” who demonstrate the highest grades and are enrolled in the “First Course,” and the “Weed,” who have a poor academic record and are enrolled in the “Second Course.”

This spring, a very peculiar brother and sister enroll as new students. Older brother Tatsuya is an underachiever with some deficiencies and enrolls as a “Weed,” while his younger sister Miyuki is an honor student, who enrolls as a “Bloom.” Ever since these two have entered through the gates of this prestigious school, the calm campus was beginning to change…”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, October 2018.

It’s been over a decade since The Irregular at Magic High School first aired in Japan and to no one’s surprise it was very popular over there. The light novels were on-going and Madhouse adapted the anime which at the time had a pretty strong track record for producing quality adaptations. Around the same time, it was also one of the first light novels Yen Press licensed for their English releases alongside Sword Art Online, coincidently both series were distributed by Dengeki Bunko in Japan who published a lot of other popular titles including A Certain Magical Index and Shakugan no Shana.

This was also the time where isekai wasn’t as commonly known and the main theme for many adaptations had been power fantasy with battles set in schools and also harems whether it be adapted from visual novels or light novels. Aniplex was also ramping up their game with Sword Art Online exploding in popularity beforehand so adding The Irregular at Magic High School to their roster was a smart choice.

Despite that, availability for the series is a weird one. Aniplex of America acquired the English license but only for United States and Canada, leaving the United Kingdom & Ireland out from being able to legally watch the series at all until it was added onto Netflix by Aniplex in January 2018, which eventually delisted. So, to this date, there is still no current legal access to either owning the series on home video or streaming it in the UK. I pretty much waited 12 years to finally be able to own and watch this series. Plus, the series did not receive an English dub at the time.

The first season of The Irregular at Magic High School was first released across three volumes on Blu-ray in June to December 2015, with each volume covering a story arc. For context, the light novel features dozens of story arcs and the anime’s first season adapted the first three; Enrollment Arc (episodes 1-7), Nine Schools Competition Arc (episodes 8-18) & Yokohama Disturbance Arc (episodes 19-26). These were not cheap releases and had eventually sold out, even I couldn’t get my hands on them at the time.

Eventually, Aniplex of America in a rare case, were able to re-release the first season in a complete series Blu-ray box set which mirrors the Japanese Blu-ray Disc Box release from May 2017. Now, remember I mentioned earlier that the series didn’t receive an English dub at the time of airing? Well, surprisingly Aniplex of America did in fact go back and produce an English dub AFTER releasing this box set, which launched on Hulu in January 2022, however, that dub has yet to receive a home video release.

Box Set Contents:

This is Aniplex of America’s second release for The Irregular at Magic High School Season 1 and while it’s a ‘standard edition’ in the traditional sense, their model is still treated as limited editions, but as long as they continue to sell then it will be reprinted (I assume as it’s been around since 2018).

As mentioned earlier, this complete series Blu-ray box set mirrors the Japanese Blu-ray Disc Box release which means you have pretty simplistic artwork despite a nice rigid slipcase. Instead of digipacks that are used for the Japanese release, we have three clear & slim Amaray cases; one per story arc. All of the discs are the same ones used for the limited edition volumes so you’re not missing out on any on-disc content. There’s no physical additions here which makes sense but it’s a good alternative for anyone who wanted to own the series without having to spend hundreds going after the individual volumes.

The rigid box artwork has information and specs on the back cover. Aniplex are fairly random when it comes to presenting their specs, they either use a o-card strip or just shove them on the back cover. The complete series Blu-ray box set was released for an SRP of $169.98.

I acquired a bundle of The Irregular at Magic High School releases altogether from a private seller for a similar price to what would it cost to purchase them altogether from the Crunchyroll Store (excluding postage).

Physical Contents:

Rigid Box with clean artwork on the front & side, information on the back
Amaray case packaging

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 16th October 2018

The complete series Blu-ray box set release for The Irregular at Magic High School Season 1 contains all 26 episodes across seven Blu-ray discs; two for Enrollment Arc, three for Nine Schools Competition Arc, and two for Yokohama Disturbance Arc. The discs were authored and encoded by Aniplex of America.

At the start of each disc, it will automatically play the episodes so you’ll want to select the Top-Menu to access the Main Menu and the other options. The set includes the original Japanese audio with English subtitles only. As mentioned, an English dub does exist but it was produced after the home video releases and up to this point, has yet to be released in any shape or form for home video.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the Blu-ray discs are region accessible to players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese
Audio	Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	7 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

Textless Opening 1 “Rising Hope”
Get to Know Magic Studies! Episodes 1-3 (03:12, 03:23 & 03:40 runtimes respectively)
Trailers and Commercials (10:11 runtime)