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

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Pixie releases a strong psychokinetic blast to save the group from the parasites. Watching from afar, Kudou Retsu remarks about how unusual it is for a robot to possess psychic powers.

Tatsuya restrains the parasites, just as Erika, Mikihiko, and Leo arrive. While Tatsuya offers to stick around and help relocate their new captives, Mikihiko’s concerned about the marks left on Honoka and Miyuki by the scuffle. While attempting to break down how Pixie was able to wield psions, Tatsuya deduces that the source of her power was actually Honoka’s hair ties.

Erika, Mikihiko, and Leo are figuring out how to transport the parasites when they’re questioned by some cops. Erika figures out right away they’re not actually police. But that doesn’t stop the group of imposters from proceeding with their attack. Mikihiko takes out two of the mysterious opponents with elaborate shielding powers. Erika wields her sword, while Leo opts to take on his attacker with just his fists. Unfortunately, the distractions works, and the parasites are airlifted into a mysterious blimp.

At school, Erika, Mikihiko, and Leo have to explain to Tatsuya what happened. He somehow immediately knows the responsible entity. He tells the others it’s Japan Ground Defense Forces, Counterintelligence Section Three. But he doesn’t know what they want, yet.

Ayako Kuroba lets Virginia Balance know they’ve captured the parasites. The colonel, in turn, emails Angie Sirius about the new developments. Tatsuya, for his part, informs Saegusa. She later emails him to confirm the parasites have been killed.

Miyuki and Tatsuya later watch video footage that seems to indicate Lina’s the assassin in this instance. The siblings then get a videocall from Raymond Clark, one of the Seven Sages. Raymond reveals a plot to rid the world of magic through social methods.

Our take:

Ugh. The one series I *want* to get a break from!

But no, the dub continues to regrettably appear every Saturday, right on time. And much like a mediocre pop album, each episode is basically the same, yet somehow worse than the last.

Ok, so we’ve got a robot with psychic powers that’s been activated by Honoka’s love for Tatsuya and imbued with powers through magical ponytail holders, fake cops, magic high school students kicking ass, a magic blimp, and this episode still manages to be pretty dull. It’s almost impressive!

The political intrigue is the most interesting part of this show, but it does lose some of it’s edge from Tatsuya being fully informed about all military operations and entities just…because. Again, I realize he’s supposed to be some sort of god-level magic user, but I feel like constantly having him in the know is both kind of boring and just poor characterization. This dude is not relatable AT ALL, at least show him getting confused every once in a while!

All of the humor, as per usual, is unintentional. Saegusa’s super casual email about the parasites being killed, Tatsuya’s moody shower to process said email, and Erika’s encounter with the cops are all the funniest parts of the show. Raymond’s introduction also has its own flair, although I could of course do without Miyuki’s reaction to the news. We also get confirmation that Tatsuya *is* the strategic class magician behind Scorched Halloween.

I will say the new details at the very end of the episode, revealing Tatsuya and Lina will either be forced to face off if Tatsuya doesn’t kill the parasites is a hell of a cliffhanger, but I still can’t wait for this series to end.