English Dub Review: The Irregular at Magic High School “Visitor Arc V”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Mayumi is in charge of tracking down the parasites using the tech Tatsuya gave them, and while she’s glad to have the support she can’t help but think he’s using them somehow. But she’s also looking forward to giving him bitter Valentine’s Day chocolates so…there’s that? After the intro sequence Shizuku calls the Shiba residence to report to Tatsuya her discovery about the micro-black hole experiment. Tatsuya goes into full string theory mode by suggesting that these wavers in the walls between dimensions are what allowed the parasite to break into their world in the first place. Soon afterwards, a parasite makes its way onto First High School’s campus, setting off magical alarm bells in the senses of Lina, Miyuki, and Mizuki. Tatsuya and Miyuki (who are just hanging out with Honoka on the roof for some reason?) leave to investigate, as do Erika, Mizuki, and Mikihiko. Lina is the first to the scene, where she meets with Mia, her colleague who’s been stationed at the university. Unfortunately, it isn’t a simple rendezvous between the two U.S.N.A. representatives: Mia has something off about her. A fight breaks out as the parasite reeks havoc on campus, and all of the students who’d sensed the intruder wield their powers against it, while the interdimensional being attempts to seek out a new host.

Our take:

Finally, an almost entirely action-focused episode! The beginning had me a little worried, since apparently Valentine’s Day is coming up and this is a series centered around high schoolers who are supposedly super attracted to the weird dude who only has eyes for his sister, so to instead have a plot focused around fighting the parasite was a nice surprise.

Getting some interdimensional theorizing accompanied by some truly trippy visualizations was also pleasant, if slightly unexpected. “Gravity is magic” is not a take I was expecting from this anime (or from anywhere, really) but I’m also not 100% against it. The explanation of magic as energy pulled from a different dimension is not too far fetched if you buy into string theory, although it did seem a little drawn out for how little it served to explain. Ok, the parasite is an interdimensional monster, who isn’t, amirite? Hopefully this will set the stage for additional explanations about how to defeat the creature, or allow the source of magic in this world to maybe tie in to more traditional folklore explanations, but we’ll see.

While the reveal that the parasite has possessed another one of Lina’s contacts brings up some serious questions about how the U.S.N.A. is handling this shit, the showdown between the main crew and the parasite is where this episode really shines. We’re treated to the longest showcase yet of the character’s full fighting styles. We’d seen Erika break out her sword to face off against Lina in the park, but her facing off against Mia is the first time (this season, anyways) that we really get a sense of how LEEROYYY JENKINS her approach tends to be. Mikihiko has also shown off his talisman magic to a certain extent, but when he’s show to be using it to protect Mizuki, it takes on another level. Mizuki, for her part, seems to be the only one able to spot the true threat, which seems to indicate she’s a stronger magician than first indicated. Lina and Tatsuya are just going to forget their problems and blatant breach of Lina’s secret identity from last episode to team up against this more serious threat, although they’re clearly not on great terms? I have to wonder about Tatsuya’s motivations here. Does he really want to do the right thing, and protect everyone? Is that why he’s keeping Lina/Angie’s secret? Or does he just not care? Also, is he the magician behind “scorched Halloween”, or are we just shrugging off that part of this arc’s plot?

For all the questions this week’s episode raises, it still manages to explore the more interesting parts of the series (while mostly avoiding the weird/gross aspects, which I always appreciate.) I don’t get the supposed attraction these various female character have towards Tatsuya (is it…just because he’s tall?) and am not looking forward to the inevitable Valentine’s Day drama. But I’m hoping that this week’s action-packed offering will set the tone for the rest of this season.