English Dub Review: Isekai Cheat Magician “Crimson Pact”

Overview:

The enemies in the grove reveal themselves.

Our Take:

This is such a shonen fight it hurts.

To be fair, not all shonen fights are a bad thing. In fact, in recent years, especially in new blood coming out of Jump, such as My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer, fights can actually be quite engaging, even if they do follow a formula. There’s a combination of quick pacing, action, and unpredictability that can make a fight fun, even if you know that the heroes will ultimately survive in the end.

However, these feel like a callback to 90s shonen, all the bad parts of 90s shonen. Extremely long, drawn out fights, monologues, you name it. The trio go up against two enemies, one a combat master and the other able to summon elemental spirits. And both of them, ignoring the fact that they can talk in the middle of hard combat at all, everyone announces what they’re going to do. There are long speeches in the middle of the fight. You think it would be more efficient for the enemies to keep silent on what their abilities are and how they work, but no, everyone explains in-depth about what’s happening. What element of intrigue? None of that is necessary.

When Muller had the element of surprise against the swordmaster, and she decided to instead to throw that away by yelling some sort of inspirational thing about teamwork before landing the blow, I knew I was done.

Also, can we stop having the thing where women are threatened with sexual violence and that incites the main male protagonist to look deep inside himself and find the power to get stronger and defend them? I get what they’re going for, but it just feels so so tired.

As I mentioned last week, the animation here is very sloppy. The fights are long and drawn out, and combat takes up most of the episode, so this becomes even more distinct. There are more still frames than animated ones, and what is put together is so very obviously rushed. The facial expressions all feel off, and the movements are stiff. What’s supposed to be an impressive fight instead feels dry, and that’s the exact opposite reaction to have. Magic spells and especially magical fights are supposed to feel fun and daring, not counting the clock down to see when the scene will end.