In Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, the protagonist is Ayato, a dark haired boy going to magic school to fight and win its annual fighting tournament for reasons. Due to circumstances, he ends up walking in upon a half naked, flame wielding pink haired tsundere girl, Julis, who calls him out for a duel to restore her honour. They fight, he wins, stuff happens and they fall in love while working towards the tournament together.
In Rakudai Kishi No Cavalry, the protagonist is Ikki, a dark haired boy going to magic school to fight and win its annual fighting tournament for reasons. Due to circumstances, he ends up walking in upon a half naked, flame wielding red haired tsundere girl, Stella, who calls him out for a duel to restore her honour. They fight, he wins, stuff happens and they fall in love while working towards the tournament together. Wait, where did I hear this before?
Yes, these two series, both of which were aired during the Fall 2015 anime season, at first glance look so similar it’s possible to set the ending theme of the first to a scene from the second and not look out of place. They’re so similar that even where they break from cliche, in resolving the sexual tension between the male and female lead, they do it in a similar way. A cynical person would explain this similarity by noting both are adaptions from a light novel series, light novels of this type being notoriously rife with cliches. Aimed at younger readers, they’re sort of a cross between fan fiction, illustrated stories and young adult fiction, with many of the faults of these media. Over the past decade or so they’ve become an important source for anime adaptations and every season has at least one fantasy/sci-fi light novel adaption starring a bland dark haired guy, usually teamed up with a red haired tsundere and one or more other potential hair colour coded love interests.
But there’s one small difference between the two series. In Rakudai Kishi No Cavalry the tournament is based around solo fights, which each participant having to fight their way towards the final alone, but in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk the fights are based around two person teams. A small difference, but it matters a lot for how its show treats its love interests. In Cavalry, Stella’s fights are never shown as the focus is squarely on how Ikki progresses; because in Asterisk Ayato and Julis are a proper team, she gets to do a lot more. She’s much less of a damsel in distress or trophy than Stella gets to be in the later half of Cavalry, more of an equal partner, making Asterisk ultimately the better series of the two.
(Post expanded from this comment over at Fantastic Memes.)
Wikki
March 22, 2016 at 12:15 amHave you seen Digibro’s Asterisk War sucks series? It is a huge analysis on the show and at the last episode (12) it compares it to Cavalry, stating that Cavalry is better for many small reasons that add up. Could be interesting having your opinion on the analysis (or only ep 12) since you reached such a different conclusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV9pd0C-Z4s
I only watched Cavalry, and I don’t think I agree with your statement about how Stella is a damsel in distress and a trophy character. But I can’t really expand on this since I’m not sure what do you mean with these terms, so I would be glad if you could elaborate more on them.
Martin Wisse
March 28, 2016 at 1:07 pmI’ve seen the series Digibro did, yes and I agree with a lot of his criticism. His comparison between the two series was spot on, save for the fact that in my opinion, Cavalry lost out in the later episodes because Stella was sidelined in a way Julis wasn’t in Asterisk. I got annoyed a lot in the later episodes of the former because Stella just didn’t have anything to do but make eyes at Ikki and look vaguely supportive.