English Dub Review: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor “The Fool and Death”

The spell you make is equal to the spell you break.

Spoilers Below

Having rescued Sistine from her would-be molester, Glenn updates Celicia on the situation. He recognizes the tattoo on his captive as belonging to the terrorist organization “Researchers of Divine Wisdom”, a bunch of really nasty evil mages. Since they’ve gotten past the defenses, it’s also likely they’ve shut down teleportation into the school to prevent the backup from arriving. He’s going to have to rescue Rumia by himself. Well, himself plus Sistine. As they are about to head out, the enemy boss summons a bunch of bone golems in to attack them. Glenn can beat them, but he needs time to cast the spell. He instructs Sistine to extend the range and duration of a wind spell, and she figures out how to on the fly, admixing mnemonics into the spell based on the qualities of people in her life. The result works like a charm as a distraction. While the skeletons are held back, he casts a huge attack spell, wiping them (and a chunk of the building) straight out.

While he tries to recover his spent mana, another of the terrorists arrives, attacking with flying swords. Glenn’s “Fool’s World” may be good at canceling spells being cast, but does nothing against existing spells. Radars duke it out but ends up impaled with many blades. This, however, is a ploy. Sistine casts Dispel Force, removing the enchantments from the swords and making them work for Glenn. He kills the terrorist but passes out from pain, blood loss, and lack of mana. He wakes up after Sistine’s healing, but the toll of that healing magic konked her out, too.

He continues on to the tower where Rumia is being held by the big boss, a former teacher at the school… No, the very teacher Radars was hired to replace after he left! He has a very special set of spells set up for Glenn. One, Rumia is behind a powerful, and multilayered barrier that cannot be dispelled normally. Two, a sacrificial spell was placed on the teacher. Should he die, the spell will turn all of his energies into a bomb to destroy the school. Glenn sets to work unwriting the sigils for the barrier, using his own blood as a medium. Each layer takes more out of him until his lack of mana threatens to kill him. Rumia, however, pushes her hand out of the barrier enough to donate her power to him, giving him just enough to unwrite the final barrier and knock the baddie out. With that, the day is won, and the school is safe.

This episode had a good amount of action, and as magical battles, the action was mostly cerebral. Each fight had Glenn and Sistine working together to figure out the spellwork necessary to beat the current problem. Sure, it’s a bunch of made up mumbo jumbo, but the universe has a concrete cosmology and a set way that magic works, cutting down on the handwavium needed to get through the problems. After seeing Glenn’s trump card (literally) in the last episode, we are introduced to all of its limitations in this one. Because of those limits, we get to see a few of his other abilities. Sure, he knows how to cast amazingly high-level attack spells, but his mana reserves are smaller than the girls’ uniform at this school. No, seriously, is there no parent in this town that questioning why, if their daughter is passing the town prostitute in the street, the hooker is wearing more clothes?

Another bit I found neat was their communications. Glenn has an enchanted bracelet that functions as a phone, while Celicia has a similar earring. I’m really glad to see this sort of thing because it’s an element in fantasy anime (or fantasy in general) that is never really covered. Any civilization that uses magic enough will eventually understand it to the point that magic is a science. From there, magical technologies can be made, such as these pieces of phone jewelry. When you look at most fantasy, it has these people in a magical world that is no different than a medieval village. People are always looking for labor saving devices, and when you have magic, labor saving becomes mana saving. The industry should build around making mystical items that use magic more efficiently, or without the power of the user. Instead, these stories have everything stagnant. It makes no sense to me. This world, with its spellwork system and magical “tech”, just makes sense as a setting

I found the animation to be more than passable, with tons of magic glowing circles and martial arts action flying around. I liked seeing Sistine construct the spell, watching as the circle morphed and altered to reflect its changed effect. It was a nice detail that they didn’t have to put in. Sadly, I could spot a good amount of little errors throughout, primarily in in-between frames of the animation. Things like wonky shapes to mouths, oddly placed eyes, things like that. Whoever they hired on to do these frames isn’t quite up to the snuff of the key animators. The voice acting was fun. Rachel Messer (Sistine) did a good job with her lines. She cusses well when the situation calls for it and has a solid punch to her “Son of a B****” that I enjoyed.

I think this anime has definitely picked up compared to the first episode. We started with what seemed to be a bunch of anime tropes and some fanservice. Now we have a serious contender for the action of Full Metal Alchemist, and I would hope that the plotline and heart pick up to the same level as we go. This show has the potential to be that if they really try. In the meantime, this episode is action-packed, and a kick in the pants to get the story started already. I give it eight floating swords out of ten.