English Dub Review: Mashle: Magic and Muscles “Mash Burnedead and the Divine Visionary”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
While Mash and Lance beat their respective opponents and proceed to help Lemon, Dot and Finn battle the Fifth Fang Love and the Fourth Fang Milo. Dot fiercely struggles against Love’s strength, but due to something unexpected, his magical power suddenly increases, and he undergoes a transformation. The secret is…?

Our Take:
The thrilling showdown between Team Adler and the Magia Lupus continues, with Dot and Finn now in the spotlight. I wasn’t expecting much from this week’s episode since Mash’s fight with Abyss seemed challenging for the series to top. However, it still offers plenty of surprises that work in Dot and Finn’s favor. As seen in episode eight and this week’s episode, Dot and Finn find themselves facing Fifth Fang Love and Fourth Fang Milo. Love is an emotionally unstable magic user who can generate tornadoes and is jealous of Dot’s affection for Lemon. So it makes sense to pit these two against each other. However, Milo is the crucial part of the fight, as he is a prodigy who’ll turn Mash to stone unless they defeat him.
Amid the confrontation, the episode reveals that Dot possesses the warding cross, Ira Kreuz, that can increase his fire magic through his emotions. He uses it to escape Love’s tornado prison and scare her into surrendering. As for Milo, he’s quickly defeated, but not by Finn. Instead, it’s by an Adler prefect who’s revealed as the Divine Visionary Rayne Ames. Rayne is a Sword magic user who happens to be Finn’s older brother. You can always count on an older sibling to protect you from harm.
The episode has the same structure as the previous one: an individual Adler member battles a Magia Lupus student in a magic duel. The only difference is that we have a two-against-two matchup, although Finn doesn’t do much to assist Dot except cower in fear. Additionally, it centers around the theme of siblings regarding both Dot and Finn. In Dot’s flashback, he remembers his older sister advising him to fight back to protect himself and his friends, resulting in him unleashing his Ira Kreuz. Then, there’s Finn’s older brother Rayne, who saves them from Milo’s stone magic and is searching for the escaped prisoners and Innocent-Zero. These moments provided additional development for Dot and Finn as supporting characters. However, they also resulted in a few humorous scenarios involving Rayne, including him beating up Milo and testing Mash’s strength.
Overall, it’s another entertaining continuation of the final confrontation before the first season ends. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t top Mash’s battle with Abyss in the previous episode, but it was nice to see Dot get a shining moment with his immense power, even if he is still dense around girls. With the members of Magia Lupus finally defeated, Mash and his friends are now ready to take on the final boss. Considering Abel’s ability and Mash’s lack of magic, it’ll be challenging for the latter to survive the fight. All the more reason for me to keep watching.