English Dub Review: Isekai Cheat Magician “Turning Point”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Taichi gets into a magical brawl.

Our Take:

Cassim finally reappears and challenges Taichi to a one on one. And Taichi agrees, for some reason.

Let’s talk about setting and payoff again. So Cassim isn’t exactly just some rando to Taichi, he has fought with, been beaten back by, and almost lost to Cassim before. Their animosity is also nothing new, as Cassim has noted multiple times over the course of the series to feel resentful over losing to Taichi, and losing an arm in the process. Although he was initially loyal to Crimson Pact, and still is, he follows around the master for the hope of getting to fight Taichi again. However, most of his time following around the leader is just that, following. We don’t really see him do anything to further his revenge besides watch and do things off-screen, I guess. Contrast this with Grammy the mercenary who got a taste for a challenging battle against Mueller and Rin, and actively goes out of her way to help them, even if it is to her detriment. Grammy actually does things and follows up her wants with action to prove it, while Cassim sits around and looks surprised. Even if we were told that Cassim is resentful of Taichi, there’s no reason why we should believe it, at least not from what’s shown on screen.

Cassim finally breaks down exactly why he’s so resentful of Taichi, and it comes down to a talent vs hard work thing. Taichi is inherently talented with magic, vs Cassim who had to struggle to get to where he is. Cassim despises Taichi for having it so easy, for being able to wield power that was basically gifted to him, while Cassim has to rely on cheats and the background to get a fighting chance. The talent vs hard work argument is nothing new, especially for someone like me that watches a lot of sports anime, but we don’t see any of Cassim’s hard work. We don’t know how Cassim got his powers at all, we don’t see any of his training, we’re just expected to believe it. So what reason do we have to care, if we don’t empathize with his struggle? Hint: we don’t.

What this show loves to do is throw in tropes without the background necessary to make the audience invested and instead say no, we promise, it’s very interesting actually. Well, it isn’t. Cool that I finally remembered this guy’s name ten episodes later, if that doesn’t say something about this cast’s memorability.