English Dub Review: Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka “Wish Upon a Star”

This week, it’s festivals and firearms.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Life continues on as normal after the harrowing events of the terrorist attack on the city. That means, of course, that its time to enjoy a traditional Japanese festival. Asuka and her friends get together with the military unit captained by Izuka and spend some time getting to know them. Kurumi’s crush on Asuka continues to blossom, causing her to be worried that Asuka might be attracted to someone else. Shenanigans ensue.

Meanwhile, the American magical girl, Mia Cyrus, engages with her own operations to combat the terrorist cells that are threatening the world with magical technology. She heads to Japan, where she examines the cube made of the person who was taken hostage in Mexico. As she and her unit are working, their office is invaded by a Colombian magical mercenary who wants to take vengeance on the military for the death of her family. She proves to be a powerful combatant, but the combined forces of the magical arms of the military and Mia’s abilities are able to stop her. Mia has no patience for her opponent’s sob story and puts a bullet in her head.

Our Take:

Another week, another episode of Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, the show that no one this side of the Pacific asked for. At this point, the novelty that the initial premise held at the beginning of the show has all but evaporated into a strange mix of gratuitous violence and boring girl-on-girl slice-of-life pageantry. At this point, recovery is all but impossible, so it should surprise no one that this week is a steaming pile of nonsense. Welcome to the obligatory festival episode, where nothing is interesting and the plot doesn’t matter. It runs down the checklist of everything you can expect from an episode like this, without anything new or challenging to stir the pot a little bit. “Funny” romantic misunderstandings? Yup. Cost-efficient montages of generic festival activities? You betcha. Oh, and of course lets throw in a bunch of overdone, droning dialogue to keep the plot moving. Don’t expect much here, except to be both bored from the underwhelming plot and frustrated by the bad voice acting of this episode.

In the endless argument of subs vs. dubs, sometimes we get to a point where it seems like American companies can create a dub of enough quality to compete with the intensely competitive voice acting of Japan. Every “My Hero Academia” or “Fullmetal Alchemist” is like a shining light against a stormy sky of cheap dubs and bad localizations. But then, just as it seems the industry has seen the light, a show like Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka brings us back down to reality. The show itself is already a cheap adaptation of a dubious light novel series, so it’s somewhat appropriate that the dub is as stilted and awkward as its source material. Still, it’s a clear reminder that dubbing companies are not committed to making quality material, rather they’re more than happy to get away with whatever they can get away with.

Asuka relies far too much on previously established tropes and cliches to grab viewer interest in its plot. Yet, popular tropes are only as enjoyable as the series that uses them. Stiff animation and endless, cheap dialogue are only matched in annoyance by the obvious turn the episode takes. This is the kind of episode that one should use as background noise to fall asleep to since you’ll have trouble keeping your eyes open just watching this damn thing.