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.)