English Dub Review: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor “The Magic Competition”

Yeah, mind control is supposed to be creepy and wrong. That guy? He’s a whole new kind.

Spoilers Below

The queen is off to the Magic Academy, officially to witness the yearly magical competition. Unofficially, she’s there to check up on her long-lost daughter. Yes, she knows full well that Rumia is alive and staying with the Fibels. Though she can’t let anyone know of their connection, she longs to see her daughter again. At the Academy, Glenn comes up with a winning lineup for the competition, assigning particular roles to each student with uncanny insight into his students. He even picks one girl out for a skill she didn’t even know she had! Of course, he only does this because he didn’t know how other teachers set their teams up. All the other classes put only put forward their best students, and have them perform multiple events. But, after Sistine talks him up to the class, he can’t go back on his assignments now. He’s just going to have to train them that much better! He goes so full tilt that he even makes a hasty bet with another teacher. Class 2 is going to beat Class 1. Three months salary has been bet on it!

The day of the competition and nerves are running high. On the positive side, despite the naysayers (even those on his own team) Radars’ plan seems to be working. His class places in the top five every time. Their training and his coaching have pushed them beyond the limits of what they thought they could achieve. For the final event (of the episode at least) Rumia is up for Mental Fortitude. For all you Potterheads out there, it’s the Occlumency event! Rumia is hopeful. Next to her, a big bruiser of a boy whose team is in second place. If she beats him, then her class goes up. One of the professors steps up to the plate, using spells designed to cloud, disturb, and shock the mind into unconsciousness. Problem is… Well, just look at that picture. He’s a pervert. The headmaster bemoans the fact that they should fire him, but the event continues. Her strength is incredible, due to the things she’s already survived up to that point in her life. It all comes down to her and the bruiser. The perv launches his strongest attack, and she falters, dropping to her knees. Glenn jumps in to withdraw her from the fight, but… what is this? Is her opponent already unconscious? Catatonic on his feet! Rumia has brought her team up to second place, possibly saving Glenns salary. All while her mother watches her. Though, she’s also being watched by two mysterious figures from the shadows.

I’m really glad I stuck with this series. It’s far more compelling than I thought it would be and has shed a few more tiresome tropes and cliches that haunted it at the start. There’s enough going on to keep me entertained throughout, and a good amount of mysteries surround the characters to keep me paying attention to the little things. The animation is quality still, especially in the competition montage. I’m glad that they didn’t have the levitation challenge be on broomsticks. The kids are literally flying around with a spell circle attached to their finger. There were a few errors here and there during talking portions, where the faces didn’t move properly with the heads, but these were minor and not disturbing. The dub direction definitely made good choices for actors on this series. They all feel very rooted in their role, so I can easily believe them as characters. Perhaps the queen should have been handled by someone with a deeper, older-sounding voice, which would have made her feel more the age she is. She seems like she’s a teenager or in her early twenties. Since we’re going on numbers, I give this episode seven pervy professors out of ten.