English Dub Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond “Day In, Day Out”

Lieutenant Freedom Magnum?

Overview (Spoilers)

Okay, kiddies. Sit back, because a lot is going on in this here episode, and it’s all going on simultaneously. Let’s start with Zapp, who is about to get himself into trouble all over again. He’s at a house of ill repute again, as is his wont. However, when his prostitute demonstrates a complete lack of courtesy for another girl, it lands him in a bit of hot water. After the dust settles, his prostitute has her boobs explode, and he gets a spell put on his manly bits (AKA Lieutenant Freedom Magnum). If he doesn’t find this girl’s cat in fourteen hours, his johnson becomes a bloody stain on his tighty-whiteys. Meanwhile, Leo finds himself in a pickle himself. While staring at a giant monster, he accidentally bumps into a hooligan in the street. The mobster takes him aside, beats him to a pulp, and takes his wallet. Sure, Leo could have used his eyes to make the gang-banger vomit, but he feels that would be wrong. More disheartening, he saw Chain zip by the scene, and she did nothing. Leo decides to get a weapon… A stun baton? Yikes, that’s not going to go very well in this city. It also doesn’t go over very well with the thug, who beats him up all over again. When the thug returns to the bar, he finds Chain, and she’s looking sultry. She offers a wager. If he can drink her under the table, he can do whatever he wants to her. Not only does he fail, but when he falls over, she takes all of his money, including what he stole from Leo. Now unable to pay his bill, he and his travelling companions get decapitated, and their heads are attached to small jars filled with the vital guts.

Courtesy: Funimation

In the meantime, Steven is setting up for an evening soiree. Just a little party to take some of the tension off. During the setup, his maid shows an uncanny ability to read the normally opaque man, and he is touched at her insightfulness. The guests begin to arrive, but shortly after bringing them in, he stumbles. Drunk already? The party gets into full swing, and Steven sends his maid home, thanking her for her help. Shortly afterward, the party takes a turn for the worse. The guests all sprout organic guns from their arms. They want to snatch Steven’s body! Just as suddenly as they reveal their evil intent, he reveals his counter. His stumble earlier was a ploy. He infected them all with tiny needles in his blood. Now that his blood was mingling with theirs, he could control it. He freezes them all solid and has his private goons drag them all away.

Our Take

This episode wasn’t a big one for plot. As the title suggests, this was all about seeing the characters after hours. It was a fun romp through Hellsalem’s Lot. I spent most of the episode wondering why we’re even watching Steven’s story. It felt like everything was hunky dory with him, and there would be next to no conflict. When the guns popped out, it all made sense. His story was the seasoning of action that made this humor-riddled episode just right. Like sea salt on caramel. I like that we are getting to see more of Chain. In the previous season, she was almost a background character. Sure, she fought and talked, but we had no idea what her story was. It made her appearance in this episode feel special.

As always, the animation here is amaze-balls. Zapp, Chain, the thug, all given incredible character to their movement. Zapp the most of all, as he runs around like a maniac for most of the episode, getting himself into all manner of trouble as he hunts for the cat. You never see him moving the same way twice, which makes total sense for his erratic personality. Seeing Chain’s disappearing ability at work was nifty. It looked like she was submerging in water, resulting in invisibility. It was a great effect.

The voice acting was great for every character, except one. The angry hooker from early on in the episode was terrible. She was so high-pitched and talked so fast, I had no clue of what she was saying… at all. I had to figure it out from what the other people were saying around her. She was annoying and made it difficult to understand what was going on. Fortunately, we didn’t have to watch her long.

Score

Summary

From its excellent animation to the hilarious slapstick comedy and solid character based storytelling, this episode was just what I needed after watching King's Game. I give it nine stun batons out of ten, for what good it will do.

9.0/10