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

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Colonel Virginia Balance claims Tatsuya is the magician behind Scorched Halloween, and orders Lina to take him out with her new weapon, “the Brionic”.

Back at school, the class has noticed there’s something weird going on with their robot, Pixie. The android apparently attempted to access the student records overnight, all while smiling creepily. Upon seeing Tatsuya, Pixie remarks “I’ve found you”. She then jumps at him for a hug, much to Miyuki and Honoka’s annoyance. Further investigation by Mizuki determines that the parasite has possessed the machine. At this point, the creature begins to communicate with the group telepathically. Erika and Miyuki restrain Honoka as the parasite reveals that it’s been awakened by Honoka’s deep love for Tatsuya. Honoka’s humiliation expands as the robot explains its newfound purpose in wanting to serve the elder Shiba sibling.

Tatsuya drops Miyuki off for her piano and etiquette lessons and waits at a cafe, psychically scanning the area. He spies the USNA’s planned attack from the Stardust Unit and makes short work of the squad, noting that they’ve been enhanced beyond their physical limits. Lina appears as Angie Sirius, fires at him, and lures him to Ueno park. She gives him the chance to surrender. He refuses, and manages to take her down instead. The two attempt to report back to their respective superiors. Tatsuya succeeds, while Lina fails, but has a shocking realization.

Our take:

A deeply weird episode, even for this series. Colonel Balance making some bold claims and sending Lina to kill her classmate seems like it could have used a touch more build up, rather than just the subtle foreshadowing in the intro and last episode’s offhand comment.

Also, are we going to see Lina do anything other than just get her ass kicked? Aside from her first appearance, there’s been little indication that she’s powerful enough to really be the USNA’s “secret weapon”. I get that Tatsuya’s crazy overpowered, but c’mon now. He’s able to identify her brand new weapon, comment on it’s Celtic inspiration, and dismantle it all in the first fight? Where’s the fun in that?

Other notable weird parts include: Miyuki and Honoka being obviously jealous of Pixie (the haunted robot), Tatsuya and Miyuki’s wholly unnecessary conversation outside of her finishing school/Piano and Etiquette Lesson Emporium, and Tatsuya treating Miyuki to some head pats, which push their interactions solidly into the “ew” territory for this week. It’s also just a touch cringeworthy for award-winning voice actress Kimberly Woods be relegated to squeaky “so embarrassed!” noises rather than actual lines. At least her Onyx Equinox character, Xanastaku, gets some depth while allowing her to show off a different (mostly lower) part of her range.

Between the rushed plot revelations and newly conscious android addition to Tatsuya’s harem, it really seems like this series isn’t sure what to do with itself. There’s plenty of potential: exploration of the meaning of conciousness and self through Pixie’s storyline, political and military intrigue based around USNA’s actions, a whole sci-fi style delve into the ethics of human experimentation. The possibilities are endless! Unfortunately, this potential is squandered to instead just fill the time between weird interactions between Tatsuya and, uh, everyone.

I will admit it’s rare to see a story where even the main character seems as uninterested in the subplots. Maybe I’m missing something, but it just seems odd to have the majority of the screentime focused on romance for such a decidedly unromantic character. Despite the weird pacing and my personal distaste for the relationship focused storylines, my main hope is just that this series goes ahead and wraps things up.

If there is one bright spot in this series, it’s the soundtrack. Taku Iwasaki’s dubstep bangers give the action scenes, however brief, some serious gravitas. I’m pretty sure the track playing while Tatsuya’s fighting off the Stardust Unit is “Code Break”, which is definitely going on my playlist.

Overall, this episode manages to be more of the same for this series. It seems like this series is at least 50% filler, despite the lack of true filler episodes. Are any of the more compelling mysteries solved yet? No. Thankfully, only a few more have cropped up. I’m hoping these new questions will be answered as quickly as Tatsuya was able to wrap up his battle. Will they satisfying answers? Unlikely, but only time will tell.