English Dub Review: ISEKAI QUARTET; “Pinch! Test of Learning”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

It’s time for a big test! Everybody studied except for (expectedly) Aqua and (unexpectedly) Ains. But Ains has god-tier magic, so he’ll figure something out. 

Our Take

There’s a big test coming up and everyone is worried about it. I find it interesting that they would have a test as a topic for an episode in a high school comedy where the actual classes are never shown. I guess it makes sense if you’re just going to milk every possible type of plot out of this setting. But what are they even learning at this school? From what little we see of this test, I think it’s actually just standard school subjects, which is bizarrely mundane. 

Out of all of the students, it is oddly Ains that is the most concerned. Evidently, he never even graduated from middle school, which is kind of mind-boggling. Maybe completely neglecting one’s studies is how you get so good at video games that you become an omnipotent undead lord in your next life. 

Ains makes an off-handed, unoriginal comment about how Aqua is dumb, to which she replies by challenging him to a contest of who will get the higher grade. Following this, everybody else then takes the opportunity to make fun of Aqua and comment on how she will almost certainly lose. We’re four episodes in, and it looks like it’s still dunk-on-Aqua-o’clock. The writer(s) just seem to love tossing her into every situation and watching her cry and flail, because she’s been a key player in every episode so far this season. I wonder how many more times this water goddess can be unceremoniously slammed against the wall before something gives.

While everyone takes ample time to study, Ains apparently wasted all of it, as when the day of the test arrives he’s completely hopeless. Left with no other recourse, he casts a high-tier time stop magic spell to cheat off of other people’s tests. 

What he didn’t account for though, is that Aqua is immune to the effects of the time stop spell because she is a goddess. This looks like the only time her supposed divinity has actually come into play for her benefit. Not one to foolishly pass up an opportunity like this, Aqua foolishly begins cheating off of other people the way Ains was about to. Not wanting to get caught stooping to her level, Ains sheepishly pretends to remain still. 

That felt like the punchline to this time stop joke, but there’s more. Tanya is also immune to time stop magic for some entirely convoluted reason and reprimands Aqua as if that weren’t already pathetically easy to do. Subaru is also immune to the magic for a reason, which I imagine is probably no good reason.  All of this is done to stack up some more laughs on this already overflowing miserable pile. 

Feeling equal parts guilty and baffled, Ains gives up and cancels the time stop magic. Aqua is the only one egregiously out of her seat when it ends, and is promptly caught and punished. But you probably saw that coming two or three jokes ago. Heck, maybe you even saw it coming two or three episodes ago because that’s how strongly Aqua’s blatant incompetence has permeated this season so far. 

The test ends with Ains doodling a face on his scantron sheet and getting a perfect score. I guess that was the real high-tier magic. Or perhaps that’s just the lazy writing. Neither would be surprising at this point. 

This episode is admittedly an improvement over the last two, but only slightly. We got to see a lot more characters contribute, as well as some magical antics take place. But the common denominator is still Aqua, and that needs to change.