When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace

AKA Deceptive Title: The Anime

Title: Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de (2014)

          When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace

Studio: Trigger

          Licensed By (NA): N/A

                                (Aus): Madman Entertainment

Director: Masahiko Otsuka

                 Masanori Takahashi

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Romantic Comedy, Harem, Supernatural (duh)

Main Cast:

Jurai Andou- Voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto (JP)

Tomoyo Kanzaki- Voiced by Haruka Yamazaki (JP)

Hatoko Kishikawa- Voiced by Saori Hayami (JP)

Sayumi Takanashi- Voiced by Risa Taneda (JP)

Chifuyu Himeki- Voiced by Nanami Yamashita (JP)

Mirei Kudou- Voiced by Kaori Fukuhara (JP)

          Based on the light novel series by Kota Nozomi

          In Senkou High School's Literary Club, the club members receive supernatural powers mysteriously one day. Jurai Andou, with his massive case of chuunibyou, could not be happier, while his harem club mates are disturbed by it. They continue to live their lives as normally as possible, keeping their powers a secret, until they begin meeting other people who also have extraordinary powers.

Writing

         The title of this series is very deceptive; there aren't very many supernatural battles, and they certainly are NOT commonplace. That aside, the story is solid, despite being a little boring. If someone, like me, was drawn in by the title and the genre tags, they would be likely to drop the series within a couple of episodes. Aside from a little peak and explanations of each of their powers, the first seven or eight episodes are set up as a slice of life harem series with superpowers. I'll admit that the end of the series does include some supernatural battles, but if you were looking for an over the top action series from the studio that brought you Kill la Kill, this ain't it.

Everyone should recognize those gloves, right?

          I can't criticize Trigger too much, though: they aren't responsible for the story itself. Maybe it is a problem of pacing, maybe the light novels really started out like this, I don't know. Whatever it is, it doesn't work for me.

Characters

Jurai Andou is our main character. He is your typical harem protagonist (dumb, gets the girls by trying hard, very clueless about the romantic advancements of the girls) except for one thing. He has a major case of chuunibyou, that is to say he imagines that he has supernatural powers. Yeah, he pretends to have supernatural powers even after actually receiving supernatural powers. Tomoyo Kanzaki is your standard tsundere character. Look for angry outbursts towards her love interest (Jurai), extreme embarrassment, and as an added bonus: A-cup Angst. Hatoko Kishikawa is your standard childhood best friend girl next door type. She is the always friendly character that doesn't really understand Jurai's chuunibyou. Sayumi Takanashi is the 'older sister' type character. She is the authority figure of the club, and more often than not acts as the voice of reason. Chifuyu Himeki is the loli character of the harem. She (for some reason) has a innocent (?) childhood crush on Jurai. Mirei Kudou is the outside character that also develops feelings for Jurai. She also is the student council president and first appears to be the typical president of an absurdly powerful student council.

Easily embarrassed when asked about her love interest, check

          The characters in When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace are VERY cliched. All of them fit into your standard archetypes for a harem series, and that kind of disappoints me. There is a positive side, however. A majority of the episodes are about character building and world building, rather than the aforementioned supernatural battles becoming commonplace. That means that there is a lot of character development and depth. EVERY character receives at least some sort of development, and the major characters have entire episodes devoted to them.

Beats up love interest, also check.

Visual

          
          Trigger once again delivers absolutely excellent animation. The animation is very smooth, especially in the (albeit not very common) action sequences. The only thing that I can say is that there are moments when characters will look distinctly like Kill la Kill characters. 

I bet he thought she was Nui (read: crazy bitch) for a second, too.

Audio

          The voice acting of When Supernatural Battle Become Commonplace is well done, but there really are no great stand out voices. Basically, it's not bad, but it's not great. 
          The opening theme is "OVERLAPPERS" by Qverktett: II (Haruka Yamazaki, Saori Hayami, Risa Taneda, Nanami Yamashita), and the ending theme is "You Gotta Love Me!" by Kato＊Fuku (Emiri Katou and Kaori Fukuhara.) 

Personal Enjoyment

          Did I enjoy this series? Yeah, I tend to like slice of life comedies, which is what this really was for most of the series. Would I have continued to watch this even if I wasn't going to review it? Probably. If this were a two cour series, this pacing would have been perfect, but as a one cour series, the pacing was not optimal. It felt as though the series was just getting good right when it ended.

The Final Word

          When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace was based on a light novel series. A series that has NINE novels. If I had to guess, I think the reason why it had such a slow start is because of the novels. In novels, there is generally the luxury of time to develop the characters and have little side stories for each one. In an anime, particularly a 12 episode one, having each of those little side stories be it's own episode tends to make an action series dull. There is always the standard complaint of, "they cut out too much," but the fact of the matter is that sometimes not cutting enough makes a series that has potential be mediocre at best. 

And because it is a harem romantic comedy, here is the obligatory scene where Jurai walks in on the girls changing. Enjoy