YMMV / Of Science and Magics: The Side Stories

• Base-Breaking Character: Michiko has been seen as this. Her inclusion introduced magic to the story, and the reaction has been fairly mixed. However, there are a number of readers who like her relationship with Jūhō and can see them as a pairing.
• Broken Base: The story for the most part has been well received, but some reviewers have had issues with this story since the writer of this story is not Stormwolfex, and it is a prequel rather than continuing where the previous story left off.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: A fair number of the original characters in the story have gained quite a bit of popularity.
  • Sasaki Ai - She has been well received by reviewers due to her likeable personality and more than a number of them have stated they were saddened by her death scene.
  • Yamasaki Yuudai - Chapters 9, 10, and 11 that were focused on his story were well received by the readers.
  • Jūhō - He has been well received by reviewers due to his abilities and the fact he is far less evil than a majority of the other villains that have appeared in the story. His fight with Touma during Chapters 14 and 15 was well received as well.
• Moral Event Horizon: It has been crossed a few times throughout this story.
  • Aleister Crowley's manipulation in Touma's life.
  • Therestina Lifeline hiring mercenaries to to murder an entire facility filled with Child Errors who would have no ability to fight back.
  • Ketsueki and his gang crosses it when they butcher nearly ever Child Error in the facility during Chapter Three and murder Ai while forcing Touma to watch.
• Tough Act to Follow: It has been difficult for this story to step out of the original story's shadow, but it has received a decent fandom, and some consider it a worthy successor to the original story while others have not.
• The Woobie: There are a fair number of them in this story.
  • Touma is this as well as an Iron Woobie because of how terrible his childhood was along with being forced to watch a number of his friends die. He doesn't know if any of them are still alive.
  • Yuudai he grew up in the Child Error facility without knowing who his parents are (they are later revealed to be dead) and everything he knew in his life was completed destroyed by the Kiharas and Ketsueki's gang. He also knows that Touma, one of his best friends, is specifically targeted by the Big Bad, and he knows there is not a thing he can do to help his friend.
  • Ai's parents sold her to Academy City when she was a little girl and she is raped and murdered by Ketsueki.
  • Jūhō's skin is completely burned because of an accident, and he has to wear his armor to relieve the pain, so he can move around.