Magical Warfare (魔法戦争 / Mahou Sensou) is a Light Novel series written by Hisashi Suzuki and illustrated by Lunalia, which was published from 2011 to 2015 for a total of 12 volumes.
The story revolves around Takeshi Nanase, who—his rather dysfunctional family aside—is an Ordinary High-School Student. His life changes completely when a mysterious girl named Mui Aiba collapses in front of him on his school grounds. She turns out to be a magician from another world and she is involved in a conflict against a group known as Ghost Trailer.
A manga adaptation by You Ibuki was serialized in Monthly Comic Gene from 2013 to 2015, and its six volumes are available as English ebooks through Kadokawa's Book Walker service. A one-cour anime adaptation by Madhouse aired in January 2014, was simulcast by Crunchyroll and is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Sentai Filmworks.
Magical Warfare provides examples of these tropes:
- Academy of Adventure: Subaru Magical Academy. As you might have expected, our hero, his girlfriend, and another friend transfer there.
- Accidental Kiss: Mui and Takeshi received their first kiss from each other in this fashion. Kurumi is not pleased when she finds out.
- Becoming the Mask: Isoshima's relationship with Takeshi started as just an act to drive off stalkers but by the series' beginning she's in love with him for real.
- Breast Expansion: How Isoshima discovers that she is a magician; her first transformation is here.
- Cast from Hit Points: It's noted at one point that Takeshi's mother is wearing a ring that amplifies her abilities at the cost of her life force, but we never see any indication that this is the case and it's never brought up again.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Takeshi's power is "Evasive Magic".
- Easy Come, Easy Go: The only thing necessary to obtain magic for an adolescent is to come in direct contact with magic. The only thing necessary to lose magic is to use it directly against another magic user in the real world. Although it was heavily implied that, should a magic-using adult lose their magic, it will be lost for good.
- Gainax Ending: The anime ends with Takeshi and Gekkou getting caught in a massive magic explosion, and Takeshi apparently waking up at Subaru in 1998.
- Improvised Weapon: The only weapon Takeshi can find to fend off the attacking Ghost Trailer members is a broom. Averted in the anime as he has a shinai with him at that time.
- Left Hanging: Pretty much every plot twist in the entire show. Takeshi's mother using a ring that amplifies her powers but drains her life force in order to train him? Never brought up again. Wizard Brace being accused of historical war crimes? Never brought up again. Ida's sister being kidnapped by the freaking magical FBI? Never brought up again!
- Love Triangle: Both Kurumi and Mui have feelings for Takeshi. The pretend relationship between Kurumi and Takeshi adds a wrinkle.
- Meet Cute: Takeshi and Mui's first meeting is him finding her passed out on school grounds.
- Named Weapons: Takeshi's sword is known as "Twilight." He also gives its consciousness a more personal name, "Towa."
- Playing with Fire: Ida's power is centered around using fire.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Takeshi gets pissed when Gekkou's attack almost kills Kurumi, his powers reach new heights, and he starts decisively beating Gekkou in his berserker rage.
- Say My Name: Takeshi does this quite frequently. Taken up to eleven in the finale where practically every other word out of his mouth is someone else's name, usually "Gekkou".
- Skewed Priorities: In the first episode, Isoshima is more concerned with her pretend-boyfriend calling a girl she doesn't know by her first name than she is with the muscle-bound lunatic with a massive sword who's attacking them.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Mui gives a big info dump in the first episode while she's sitting down talking with Takeshi. The people chasing them don't catch up until she's finished.
- Theme Naming: The major characters have kanji numerals in their names:
- Nanase (七瀬) has 七 (seven).
- Mui is written as 六 (six).
- Isoshima (五十島) has 五 (five) and 十 (ten) (when put together as 五十, it's "fifty").
- Kazumi (一三) has 一 (one) and 三 (three).
- Tsuganashi is written as 十 (ten).
- Shijou (四条) has 四 (four).
- Touched by Vorlons: This is how all magicians gain magic; they came into contact with magic from another magician. Takeshi, Kurumi, Kazumi and Futaba all get magical powers after being attacked or accidentally attacked by magicians. In the manga, Gekkou claims he gained his powers by touching the mirror Kurumi used to portal back home.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Takeshi, Ida, and Kurumi with the usual issues of friendship and rivalry.
- We Used to Be Friends: Momoka and Washizu were school friends.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Among other questions the anime leaves unanswered: what happened to Ida's sister, who was taken by Wizard Brace's secret service?
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- A Big Bad who leads a faction full of magic-wielding supremacists with the goal of conquering non-magical people, then suddenly disappears for more than ten years, awaiting his revival? Sounds a lot like Lord Voldemort.
- A subset of humanity with fantastic powers fearing persecution. One faction wants to live peacefully with norms, the other wishes to dominate them. Where have we heard this before?
- Wizards' War: As the name implies, the series takes place in the wake of a war between Wizard Brace and the Ghost Trailers. The Ghost Trailers' objective is to revive their leader and start a second war, and Wizard Brace's objective is to stop them. They fail, and the Second Great Wizard War is the focus of the anime's final episode.
