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I touched on adaptations in one of my blurbs on Valkyria Chronicles but I’d like to revisit the topic now. I’m not of the opinion that all adaptations are pointless and you should just enjoy the original. Adaptations can bring a lot to a work—just look to David Fincher’s Fight Club. Quiz Magic Academy commits the crime that so many other adaptations have before: it tries too hard to ride on the capital of the original without justifying its own existence. A good adaptation uses the strength of its medium to tell a story a different way. Quiz Magic Academy barely tells a story. It’s worse than being bad, or falling short of fulfilling its intention. It has no intention, no meta-purpose, and therefore provides no reason for anyone to watch it.

I chose not to do a full review on this OVA because there just isn’t anything there. That’s pretty damning criticism in itself. But despite what I write, this OVA will inevitably find an audience. The kind of person who enjoys Quiz Magic Academy is impervious to what critics have to say about anything. They will glide through life blissfuly unaware of the abominations that show up in all media. And they will also be oblivious of those moments when a piece of art connects—when it just works and others know they’ve seen something amazing. Quiz Magic Academy isn’t good or bad. It’s nowhere on the spectrum, which is why I can’t give it a score. It is a commodity product, about as interesting as a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner. Normally I abhor the cynical, deconstructionist view of media, but I will use it here in the most acerbic way possible: this OVA is just pictures on a screen.

As for site stuff, the Boogiepop Phantom review is a ways off as I have yet to wrap my head around the damned thing. I will continue my Eden of the East write-ups but probably stop on Valkyria Chronicles. Rightning Round 6 will begin whenever I finish Valkyria (the game).

Tags: Quiz Magic Academy