English Dub Review: The Irregular at Magic High School “Visitor Arc IV”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Tatsuya blows Lina’s cover by dismantling her Parade spell, he challenges her to a duel saying that if he wins, she’s off the hook, but if he wins, he gets answers to all his questions. Miyuki, who’d come to her brother’s aid along with Yakumo, demands to take Lina on instead. The two face off after Tatsuya bestows an excessively weird kiss on Miyuki’s forehead, allowing her to regain full control of her magical abilities. Lina and Miyuki agree to the rules: continue until one opponent surrenders or is incapacitated, but no killing. Miyuki is confident she’ll be able to end things with one move, but Lina’s strength surprises her. The battle rages on until both magicians are powering up for their final attacks, only to be stopped by Tatsuya. He explains if he hadn’t intervened, they would have killed each other. Lina cedes the match and agrees to answer the duo’s questions, but only in a yes or no format. When she wakes up the next day, she’s distraught at having lost a mere high school student, but Sylvie comforts her while chibi versions of Lina’s emotions pop up around her. Back stateside, Shizuku attends a dance and is approached by some blonde rando who informs her that he might have some information about the parasite. The U.S.N.A. apparently ran an experiment creating micro black holes shortly before the parasite incidents started occurring, and he suspects the two events may be related. In Japan, Tatsuya gathers Mayumi, Erika, Katsuto, and Mikihiko to tell them he’s put a tracer on the parasite, which is on the run from the U.S.N.A. army. He has no further instructions for them, but gifts them trackers to help capture the entity.

Our take:

Things are getting…Sirius. Unfortunately, despite some quality action scenes set to an A+ soundtrack, there’s also increased time spent on Tatsuya and Miyuki’s consanguineous interactions, which continue to be a major block for me buying in to this series, like, at all. In addition to just being gross, it seems unnecessary for there to be such a heavy emphasis on romance, especially between siblings, when there’s so many other areas of focus this story could lean into for interpersonal intrigue.

The drastically different motivations and technique behind Lina’s fighting style vs. Tatsuya’s when she faces off against him in the park, and even more obviously, between her and Miyuki during their duel could easily be used to explore cultural differences and social norms in America vs. Japan. Comparing and contrasting cultures, both as they currently stand, as well as any predicted changes in this fictional future, is not only more interesting, but lends considerable depth to these characters. Creating multidimensional heroes and villains lets the audience empathize and attempt to understand both sides of a conflict, and generally leads to richer storytelling. Incest, on the other hand, is an instant “STOP, DO NOT COLLECT $100, GO STRAIGHT TO JAIL” no matter what technicalities are introduced later to make it ok.

I unfortunately know that, since this is a light novel and the ending has already been written, things are only going to get worse from here on out, but I’m dedicated to bitching about it for as long as I have to watch it. In conclusion, more kickass fights between female characters with drastically different styles and motivations set to intense dubstep with aurora borealis-inducing power ups, less weird sibling interactions, please and thanks.