English Dub Review: Isekai Cheat Magician “A Hint of Schemes”

Overview:

Taichi and Rin discover a plot right beneath their feet.

Our Take:

Taichi runs into a pretty girl, Anastasia, who it turns out was the assassin he spared and brought to the guild. Considering that she would face death upon returning, due to failing the terms of her contract, she decided to take up the guildmaster’s offer and joined the guild for good. Her skills of infiltration can now come in handy, now that she’s on Taichi’s side, and she makes breaking into places a far easier feat than what Taichi could manage by himself. Thing is, her personality seems so different than the assassin we saw before. She’s cute and seems like fun, but this seems like a complete 180. It’s a little jarring.

The two from before are shown to be working for a shady organization, the Crimson Pact. The mage is a direct subordinate of the leader, where the warrior is a hired hand. In order to make sure that she doesn’t betray her, the leader puts a spider seal on her that… does something. It’s unclear, but it’s at the very least obvious that it imposes restrictions on her. Crimson Pact’s goal is to unleash buffed-up goblins through the city, causing havoc. They don’t really explain why they want to cause destruction, but it might be revealed next episode. They’re likely responsible for the murder that kickstarted the series too, but that’s still unconfirmed. Either way, I’m unimpressed so far. They seem to be doing more filling evil group tropes than actually standing out as a force to be reckoned with. If there is to be tension from an enemy, they have to convey a sense of danger to the audience. When I was watching this, I kept thinking that I’ve seen this kind of story done before, just better.

Rin gets a little more screen time this episode, taking it upon herself to go save a captured Mueller by herself, and manages to do so. Most importantly, she does so without taking any lives- she may be trying to help her friend, but she isn’t trying to become a murderer. It’s good to see Rin get her moment in the spotlight, especially on her own, but the good old shonen tropes come back to haunt us again. The Crimson Pact leader and the summoner give a fairly long monologue from the entrance of the building and Rin… doesn’t blast them for some reason. She’s definitely fiery enough to, and it doesn’t have to be lethal. Come on, Rin. You don’t have to listen to them give a speech and then just let them walk away without any issue.