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[Flying Dice]

Yugi wasn't a Mary Sue, Yami/Yugi was a Mary Sue. Individually they had flaws.

Flaws don't define a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is defined by the character's relationships with others. What you need to ask is if any reasonable, not-whiny characters dislike Yugi/Yami and how many characters are filled with unending love for Yami/Yugi.

As an alternative to giving TVTropes traffic: http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm

[Neonivek]

The thing is that a Mary Sue isn't necessarily a bad thing... well in my mind (by some definitions it can only be a bad thing)

But I mostly put it in the "Are their skills, luck, or abilities unearned either personally or narratively?"

And yes... Yami Yugi's abilities stretches the story's credibility with the garbage he pulls. He definitely counts.

For example... Yami has the power to

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Draw any card he wants at anytime and see into the future to see what cards will be drawn... and he ALWAYS had this.

[Reelya]

Since watching Mahouka, I can't help thinking of Our Lord And Savior, Shiba Tatsuya every time I hear Mary Sues come up in anime.

It's almost like the writer went through a Mary-Sue checklist and made sure his hero ticked all the boxes. I would not be surprised in the least if this guy got his start by writing fanfics for other light novels or mangas.

First up, the name. It's basically a slight distortion of the author's name, Satou Tsutomu. Dodgy name : Check. Blatant author self-insertion: check. And the whole plot basically reads like the disenfranchised misunderstood highschool boy gets one over on the popular boys, and gets all the girls fawning over him. And even that comes across a bit lame: "Haha all the girls want me, but I'm too cool to even react: how's that feel now, highschool girls who ignored me?" While simultaneously showing up all the adults in the world, and being an unsung genius at everything.

Just to make it extra-clear that he's above everyone, the author decided not to have him challeged by any villains stronger than a wet paper bag. But he has basically God-like powers to nuke entire cities just by looking at them and literally raise the dead without limit. (The author explains why he doesn't use the raise-dead ability all the time to save people with the most infantile reasoning ever: each time he raises the dead he feels 150 times the pain of that person. But he's not even shown blinking any time he uses it, so this excuse is just plot convenience as to why Tatsuya only uses it to help his friends, and not humanity as a whole. Basically he doesn't like pain, so refuses to use his Jesus-power on anyone except his pals. it's pretty much logic a 12 year old would come up with as to why the hero isn't sharing his power in a logical fashion)

Hell, he has the ability to automatically heal ANY wound he suffers instantly. So he's basically immortal, and in a world full of powerful magic. For any remotely competent writer, this sort of power would be invoked all the time, so that the hero could take on supernatural enemies, take massive damage but keep fighting.  But not in Mahouka. No, this writer can't even tolerate his IMMORTAL hero taking any damage in a fight. He needs to use this ability exactly one time, and it's to avoid him losing a friendly sporting match so his school can get a trophy.

You'd be hard pressed to write a more blatant Sue story deliberately.

[JoshuaFH]

Mahouka is on Netflix, and I'm tempted to watch it just out of morbid curiosity. I'm scared though, that it'll be a repeat of my experience reading My Immortal, which legitimately made me illiterate for a week after I binged the entire thing.

[Neonivek]

Don't forget Reelya that Shiba is severely disadvantaged... which translates to him being more powerful then everyone else.

But as I have said several times about Mahouka... is that it is probably the greatest parody ever written... except it isn't a parody.

[Reelya]

Watch the first Arc of Mahouka, it's episodes 1-7. Then watch a little of the next arc, at least up to the getting-on-the-bus episode.

After that the lulz dry up. There are a couple of stand-out moments but not enough to recommend watching past about episode 8 or 9.

[Trapezohedron]

Well, how about someone write a fanfic of it, concerning how to break Shiba Tatsuya for as long as it takes.

SCP use allowed.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Well, how about someone write a fanfic of it, concerning how to break Shiba Tatsuya for as long as it takes.

SCP use allowed.

*Cracks Knuckles*
Is this allowing 682?

[JoshuaFH]

I watched the first ep of Mahouka, and literally from the very first words out of our MC's mouth he's grating on my nerves as an obvious Stu. I feel I'm in for some punishment, but I guess I asked for this.

[Reelya]

Episode one has that great typing scene. The girls are all amazed at how fast he can type and ask what he's doing. "Checking the curriculum and enroling for classes" I believe was the response. I mean, c'mon, the guy literally can't fart without at least 4 girls commenting on how much better her does it than other guys. Mahouka sets new standards for Stu-ness.

The whole bloom/weed thing is handled really badly too, and inconsistently. Only male blooms are assholes, and all their rage is aimed at Tatsuya from the first moment they lay eyes on him for no reason at all, yet none of the other weeds get any of that treatment. And all females fawn on him from the first moment too, regardless of this supposedly ingrained two-tier system. My bet is that the writers ego is so fragile that he couldn't bear having his author-insert character mocked by a woman. Hell, none of his favorite characters ever get so much as a scratch, let alone die, but he kills off evil mooks and entire towns of people left right and center. The whole thing is just so amateur that the miracle is that you're watching it on TV.

[JoshuaFH]

Talking about farting, he thinks to himself in one scene "she's hypersensitive to [his] magic particle emissions" and it was one of those moments where I wanted to lean in and ask 'what the hell are you talking about? Are you farting out magic sir?'

Though in the first ep, he actually does lose an inconsequential fight against his martial arts master, however superficially not hurt and we didn't even see the final blow connect (the camera panned away, it was just implied he got hit) his perfect face is scruffed up for a moment.

Though I'm wondering if he has any range of emotion outside of 'completely calm and aloof'.

[Reelya]

http://mahouka-koukou-no-rettousei.wikia.com/wiki/Shiba_Tatsuya

I lost all of what you could call feelings of love. They weren't sealed, so they can't be released. They weren't broken, so they can't be fixed. That which is lost, cannot be recovered.

This quote is from volume 5 of the novels. According to this whiny emo bullshit he'he's always calm because of his tragic backstory where when they put the special magic sauce in it deleted his ability to feel. I didn't go looking for this quote. Fans of the series decided this is the signature quote to put at the top of his wiki page. So this is by definition the best quote of the novels. It kind of makes you wonder what the shitty quotes are like.

Just be aware of everything you see, he has sealed powers in addition to everything you see, and they get unsealed in episode 24.

One of my favourite parts is the love confession one girl makes to a guy in I think, episode 7. You'll know it when you get to it. It's a classic love scene.

[JoshuaFH]

So he's basically Ichigo, who IIRC had several layers of huge pools of hidden strength just piled ontop of eachother thanks to his BS heritage, but Shiba has the added trait of complete emotionlessness ontop of that.

[Reelya]

I don't think it's comparable to a typical overpowered shonen. Because those scale up the threats and powers together. Mahouka doesn't do that.

It's not really like he gets more powerful at combat or gets new "moves" either. It's harder to describe. I think you'll see what I mean when he beats the baddies in episode 7. It only gets easier for him after that.

[JoshuaFH]

I don't know if I'll make it to ep 7. I'm on 3 and this dialogue is just straight up unbearable to listen to. The masturbation over Shiba is so intense, it's impossible to take anything seriously.