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

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Party goers are evacuating in a panic after an announcement by the New Breed Front (a magic supremacist group) that they’ll be detonating a bomb in one hour.

Tatsuya tells Shizuku and Honoka to evacuate with their parents, and hands them two flight cards to only be used in an emergency.

Minami, Miyuki, and Tatsuya head to the bottom floor through an unusual method: jumping. They freefall for a bit, then land gently using some sort of unexplained parachute-like spell. He scans the underground floors with Sight. Minami asks if he’s using visual magic. He says no, but similar.

Just then, the tower is rocked by an earthquake.

Honoka and Shizuku, along with the rest of the guests, are in an emergency elevator.  It stalls between 180th and 181st floor.

Tatsuya worries that the partygoers are still 1000m from the ground. He says they need to get to the control center to restart the elevator remotely. Miyuki points out the terrorists are in the command center, but Tatsuya says they’ll negotiate.

They encounter a small group of guards who shoot at Tatsuya, but see their bullets deflected. He asks for their leader, who comes forward. Unfortunately, he denies Tatsuya access. Tatsuya correctly guesses it’s because they’re using the control center to control the explosives.

Minami and Miyuki step forward, and the two groups face off. Minami attempts to sheild them, but sees her spell disabled. Tatsuya undoes the attack, while Miyuki freezes their attackers solid.

Tatsuya scans the area again, and asks what’s going on. The terrorist’s leader explains that resonance magic was used to ensure the pillars of the building were totally destroyed. He says the destruction can’t be stopped. Miyuki realizes multiple types of magic were being used. Tatsuya explains that it was controlling other magicians to get them to use magic.

Miyuki, Minami, and Tatsuya head to the lowest level to attempt to stop the building from collapsing. Tatsuya goes to work repairing the pillars. Minami attempts to assist him. But the building continues to crumble around them.

The elevator with Honoka and Shizuku in it stops at the 180th floor, and they tentatively step out, only to realize the tower’s coming down.

Tatsuya realizes he can’t stop the destruction without casting Regrowth on the entire building. He worries his brain won’t be able to withstand “such a vast ocean of information at once.” He ponders escaping, but Miyuki steps to his side. He holds her close, remembering his vow to protect her.

He gathers his strength, analyzes the building information, and effectively casts regrowth on the building. Afterwards, he’s exhausted, while Minami is impressed and slightly fearful of the power he’s able to weild.

The episode ends with Tatsuya acting as a guide for the new students. While outside he meets with Saegusa, who’s escorted her sisters there. They tease Saegusa asking who Tatsuya is, and if he’s her boyfriend, which results in her blushing aggressively.

Miyuki greets Tatsuya. They both welcome Minami, who’s officially a new student.

For her part, Minami hands the siblings a letter from “madam.” They read it and realize she’ll be living with them. They officially welcome her as she expresses her gratitude.

Our take:

It’s here! It’s finally here. The long awaited final episode, lucky thirteen, a baker’s dozen. Whatever you call it, it’s over. It’s finally over.

I am weeping tears of joy for being done, at long last, with this series. But it couldn’t just wrap up normally, or even neatly now could it?

A quick review of how this season started: Lina aka Angie Sirius heads to Japan on a secret mission to find the magician responsible for Scorched Halloween. It’s heavily implied this magician is Tatsuya. While there, she’s also told to pursue defectors from USNA’s army, who it’s later revealed have been infected with inter-dimensional beings known as parasites. She enrolls in Magic High school. Shizuku enrolls in America through an exchange program.

So far, Angie has failed her mission and left Japan. Not quite in disgrace, but certainly not with either the magician behind Scorched Halloween or the parasites, although she did straight up murder at least three people. Tatsuya offers to help her stop being a soldier, and Miyuki considers her a (romantic?) rival. It’s all very disappointing, in addition to being weird and gross.

Meanwhile, Minami has been recruited by Maya Yotsuba to serve as an attendant for Miyuki (and I’m sure, eventually a member of Tatsuya’s ever-growing harem.)

This episode, taken alone, is one of the better ones by far. The action movie stylings, the (double!) free-falling scenes are very dramatic, and of course, saving the day from a Titanic-like disaster is interesting to watch.

However, in addition to the usual Shiba siblings weirdness, the problem with accepting this feat as truly impressive is the lack of exposition on how magic works beyond being “science” and “information.”

There’s also the whole mystery of Maya’s involvement with the New Breed Front. Did she…incite this? I don’t even remember if we have details on whether or not she’s a magic user, which seems important.

Overall, this series is not for me. I’m glad it’s over with, and I hope that remains the case permanently. This episode is certainly interesting, and could have been better if it gave a bit more context as to how magic works, and why Tatsuya’s feat was so extraordinary, besides the vague generality of “avoiding disaster” with “inhuman power.” And of course, if he could be romantically involved with literally anyone other than Miyuki. But hey, them’s the plot, and for now, I just have to be happy that I no longer have to watch it.