English Dub Review: Isekai Cheat Magician “Commencement of Battle”

Overview:

Both sides start engaging in combat.

Our Take:

While I still am not really enjoying this show, at least this episode is trying to follow up on pre-established things. This is low hanging fruit, but they do pull it off and I won’t pretend they don’t.

Taichi and Rin both feel very uncomfortable about participating in a civil war, especially one where they have to kill human beings. As they note, their world, our world, is relatively peaceful. Not universally, but modern Japan for two young high schoolers is a place where they wouldn’t be seeing war or combat. To their credit, the two of them aren’t wrong. Monsters are monsters, they can be dehumanized, but it’s a lot harder to dehumanize fellow people. If they were super gung-ho about killing people, that would be pretty concerning and say more about their individual issues than society’s.

Taichi and Rin having a moment of vulnerability together was also fairly cute. While I think they’re still not well-written overall, they’re still the most expanded upon characters in the series, and definitely flourish more than the majority of the cast. They do care for each other, and being able to voice their deep doubts when they don’t really discuss them with anyone else does make a lot of sense. They’re not fighting in this out of obligation, not really, but more because they at the very least want to support and protect each other. That feels a lot more realistic than people who want to eagerly leap gung-ho into battle for the sake of war. Their interests are smaller and more personal, and that is usually what drives people to fight. Also, the confirmation that Mueller might have romantic feelings for Rin is definitely a plus in my book.

I do wish that the other side wouldn’t just be made up of all evil people who are obviously selfish and evil for the sake of being evil. This series doesn’t have stellar writing, but I guess it’s much easier to stomach kids fighting in a war when the other side has no redeeming traits at all. Everyone is out for glory or to backstab each other. Is anyone actually interested in what the opposing side has to say, or belief in its ruler, or is being evil just the endgame here. I suppose adding nuance to enemies would make it harder for people to pick a single side. Better to stick with cartoonishly evil ones.