I'm going to preface this review by saying that I find ecchi humor awful. It's such low-hanging fruit, and it's so easy to just give a character big boobs and make fifteen jokes about them in the space of two episodes that only a true degenerate would unironically enjoy.
Premise: [3/5]()
There isn't anything particularly interesting about the premise of the story; classic magic-school, bastard teacher kind of stuff. In fact, the biggest reason I wanted to watch it any earlier than any other anime is because I found this scene on Reddit and found it kinda funny.
Story: [2/5]()
Again, nothing very special about the story. It's sometimes predictable, and sometimes not. There is a fair amount of character development, mainly for Glenn and Rumia, but there could definitely be a little more for Sistine ~~outside of 'I love Glenn'~~.
The characters are... interesting, to say the least. Glenn, despite having a good heart and some cool magic, has a tendency to be a little bit of a pedo, which is disappointing considering he seems to have some interesting history (that isn't visited much in the anime) and a lot more potential as a character. He talks a little bit about the importance of responsibility with power, but it isn't exactly allegorical, or even that deep, it's more of a cheap attempt to show that he isn't as bad as he was at the start. The only truly respectable characters in the series are Albert and Re=L, but the former is sidelined so hard that I couldn't remember his name without looking at the Anilist page and the latter doesn't really do a lot outside obsess over Glenn or stab Glenn.
The first half of the series is a lot better than the second; it's paced as well as I can expect from an average anime, and it doesn't feel like they've cut too much from the source material (although I won't know until I read the light novels), but it often feels like there could be more explanation about magic and its rules in the world. I suppose they were waiting to do it in a sequel season that never happened.
The second half, however, is less good. Not quite a car-crash, but when you pack two arcs and 3 volumes' worth of content into six episodes, it's a recipe for rushed plot and skipped details. Again, I can't do a very good comparison without reading the light novels, but I've seen this kind of thing in my favourite series, Toaru Majutsu no Index, and it's painfully obvious how much they skipped.
As a side note, there's some really creepy sections; I don't want to get too deep into it (partially for spoiler reasons, partially because I'd just rather not) but Sistine, a fifteen-year-old girl, nearly gets r-ed by an older man, and they try and play Glenn's reaction off as a joke. Granted, the series doesn't get like that again, but the fact that it even occurred is enough for me to knock off a point, as well as take a long shower.
Music: [4/5]()
Perhaps the most special category for me, this series has some good music. The battle soundtracks are dramatic and underscore what's occurring on the screen more than well enough (particularly memorably in the final battle of the series, where the track takes a cool heavy metal tone). The ambient tracks are about as good, and there's even some good sad music that evoke more emotion than such a series probably should.
As for the OP and ED, I was super disappointed to find that neither was on Spotify, as both of them slap, and this is one of few series where I sat through both the credits almost every episode. Nothing much more to say.
Execution: [3/5]()
Like with anything else in this series, I didn't expect much more than the average from this anime in terms of its animation. The only other Liden anime I've watched was Koi to Uso, whose animation I didn't really remember, and the animation here isn't very memorable here. There aren't any moments where it was bad, but it isn't groundbreaking either.
As for the voice acting, they had some pretty good talents (Sistine's seiyuu worked on Railgun, Rumia's was in BanG Dream!) and their work was definitely believable, but again, nothing historic.
Enjoyment: [4/5]()
I wish I could give this a 5/5, because I thoroughly enjoyed this anime, but doing that for such a weird anime would probably give people the impression that I like this kind of thing for what it is.
Allow me to explain; when I say I enjoyed it, I mean that there were so many awful jokes and creepy moments (mostly related to Glenn), but I found that I could laugh pretty hard at just how awful the anime was willing to go in order to get a laugh out of people who unironically laugh at these things. In those terms, it was brilliant. ~~It also makes me realise that maybe I'm not so detestable after all comparing myself to the animators who were willing to animate a fifteen-year-old get touched up and nearly r-ed by some magician, then get married off a few episodes later for the plot.~~
Overall: [16/25]()
Honestly, the bar for character quality isn't particularly high, as the only real competition she has is a morally bankrupt, lazy teacher who masks his deep care for his students with pedophilia and apathy, the world's most obvious waifu-bait who somehow falls in love with her detestable teacher and mostly just does normal tsundere things, a consistently useless damsel in distress who seems to be the sole target of every enemy in the series and a few side characters that nobody really remembers.
However, Celica seems to be one of the only characters who isn't morally deep in the red, and also has actual power and usefulness. ~~Whether she really does anything in the anime is a question for another day.~~ Anyway, she's also one of the very rare legal characters in this show, and I'm not going to gush over a child/cat/witch girl any time soon.
Outside of my deep disappointments when it comes to the characters, a lot of the scenes in this anime were really enjoyable. The first that comes to mind is Sistine's duel against Glenn; it's the first time we see Glenn's skill as a magician, and it introduces an interesting concept; the manipulation and omission of words in a magic chant to change the effects of the spell. Of course, the actual battle isn't that interesting as it's a student-teacher duel, but I can overlook that considering how much I enjoyed seeing Glenn put some effort into what he's doing and gain the respect of his students.
My final words; as a repeat of what I said in the summary, I really enjoyed watching this show. Sure, it's objectively far from being a masterpiece, and laughably cringey throughout, but in the end, that's the kind of anime that I like to watch. Something that can make me laugh with some of its jokes, and laugh even more at the cringefest that it is, is something that I can get behind.
I feel like RokuAka suffered from the same pitfall that Toaru Majutsu no Index did; as a light novel adaptation, there were bound to be pieces of world-building and character development missing, but the main difference between the two is that the former's compression is noticeable without even reading the source material.
What I do have to say is that, considering the kind of anime it is, there's a surprising lack of ecchi humor; there's one typical 'walks into the girls' changing room' moment towards the beginning, as well as a beach episode, but even then, it's only a small part of the show.
To contextualise my feelings about this anime, here's a quote from the series itself:
“The one’s who accomplish true greatness, are the foolish who keep pressing onward. The ones who accomplish nothing, are the wise who know when to quit.” – Celica Arfonia
Put simply, I feel that the series was great, and I regret nothing about watching it, but it was probably foolish of me to continue watching, or even start in the first place.
Altogether, if you're looking for a high-quality anime with thought-provoking discussion of the responsibilities associated with the attainment of power articulated through the lens of magic and fantasy, this isn't the anime you're looking for. But if you're looking for cool fights, cringe comedy and some very uncomfortable scenes, I would give this a try.
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