Magic School Anime Tropes

Date: 7/6/2021

My brain structured this dream like an anime. Setting is a school of the magic arts, protag is a girl who is simply Bad at Magic. No natural talent for it. Young teacher with natural born talent (was a child prodigy) and rebellious attitude problems but a golden heart actually. He pushes her harder than anyone else bc he wants her to succeed so badly. They both have a fiery, stubborn, defiant punk personality and butt heads all the time. On a particularly important assignment, she gives him attitude, so he changes the rules for no one but her and raises the required passing score for her but no one else. It has the opposite effect though; this one is too harsh and he ends up crushing her confidence instead of pushing her to go farther. End up in a meeting with other teachers and the headmaster over it, both going thru various punishments for comedic effect. Sensei's emotion breaks a little. Tearful speech. "I was the only one sticking up for this loser! At least a cockroach knows that after getting stepped on, you avoid the shoe! But she just kept getting squashed over and over again, and going right back to the middle of the floor to get stomped down again. She could make it! I know she could make it! It if she just learned the common sense to avoid the damn shoe!" Finally, she breaks and declares she's just gonna drop out. "If I'm just born bad at magic there's nothing anyone can do to change that, so what's the point of wasting everyone's time here?! I might as well quit and find something better to do with my life! Are you happy, sensei? I sure am, because you no longer have any authority over me to boss me around! I'm so happy I could cry!" All the teachers are reminded of the most important thing to thier jobs, and her sensei is most heavily aware of it. Turnaround. The headmaster reprimands HIM in front of everyone. "As teachers we have one job that is more valuable than simply showing students the techniques. It is to encourage them. To instill in children the desire to try, to find out how far they could go if they give it thier all. Although your actions came from a desire to see her succeed, they have had the opposite effect." He is well aware. This hurts him more than anyone else. He publically apologizes and admits his wrong to the student. She appreciates it, but is still dejected. Talking privately with sensei, she says she'll probably still quit. Sensei's thought bubbles: "...Yup. That /sucks./ I know it's not that simple...It isn't something thag can be fixed with a public apology. Once a child's confidence is broken, it can take years to heal that break and build it back up. ... Man. I fucked up today." Spoiler alert, she doesn't drop out. The whole rest of the anime would then be about subverting the theme of being hard on students in order to help them, illuminating via contrast the value of understanding support in helping a traditional "problem student" heal thier sense of self-worth, and how that helps them succeed much more than further pressure and reprimand. They still fall into that trap of harsh-teacher- rebellious-student, but when they utilize that form of understanding support, they make huge breakthroughs and achieve shounen-level greatness. Honorable mentions include: The bitchy roommate which then mercifully changes to a different roommate who is rly nice and becomes a good friend. The campus being dug up by an infestation of giant moles The difficultly in hopping on the bus/trolley thing and the nice driver who helped Otters..? were somehow involved Rly elegant beautiful campus with touches of whimsy. Gorgeous lighting, rich colors