English Dub Review: Dies Irae “Einherjar”

Um… not that I mind all these Nazis fighting each other, but… what is going on?

Overview (Spoilers)

Setting: the hospital. Time: night. Situation: FUBAR. Kei has been slapped down by Eleonore’s giant energy skeleton. While she struggles with consciousness, she narrates the story of her family’s curse. One of her ancestors was tasked with creating a replica of the Lance of Longinus. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is the spear of the Roman Legionnaire who was tasked with removing Jesus Christ from his cross. Supposedly, it would make its owner unbeatable in combat. Well, her ancestor made a replica so good, it actually became a relic, possessed him, and turned him into a monster: Tubal Cain. Ever since then, the curse of Tubal Cain has passed down through their family, possessing one of them until their body completely falls apart, hen moving to the next. Currently, her brother is the monster. Oh, and that same monster is under the control of Riza, who is currently confronting Valeria. Why? I have no clue. I can’t understand a word he’s saying. Anyways, Eleonore begins her assault on Ren, pelting the area around him with explosions until one of them launches him into the air. Then, she tries to finish his flying self with a blast from her giant skeleton. He cuts through the blast, but the exertion is too much and her lands unconscious. Marie manifests between him an Eleonore, while Riza and Kei enter the fracas. Apparently, there is a golden aura they are gifted at some point by Heinrich. They can either use it to become immortal or to resurrect the dead. Kei plans to bring back the girl her brother was going to marry, while Eleonore used it to make herself immortal. To prove the point, she touches Marie. Her head immediately cuts off. She simply puts it back in place and provides Marie with a savage beating for standing in her way. At first, Marie is ready to give up on the pain. However, she remembers that Ren has been through much worse already, and bears her curb stomping like a champ. Finally, Ren wakes up. Rather than fight fair, Eleonore blows the whole hospital and everything in it to smithereens with a blast from above. As the building crumbles, Ren finds Kasumi and starts running off with her. Still, he isn’t fast enough to outrun the blast wave. He digs deep to try and find his next level of power. When it triggers, he stops time, allowing him to zip out of town. All too happy to keep on killing, Eleonore starts tearing up town until another giant skeleton, this one made of junk and machine parts, appears from another dimension to stop her. As Ren and Marie look on, Valeria simply walks out of the fire and joins up with them. Valeria is fully aware that Ren has no clue of what is going on, and will explain everything.

Our Take

I’m getting kinda tired of complaining about the same things about these shows. It’s sad just how many of these visual novels are getting terribly written anime adaptations. Most of them are poorly written because the writers don’t care, so the characters fall flat. This one is so overly complicated, so opaque in its mystery, that the writers have no clue how to convey information. The game of Dies Irae explains all of its little nooks and crannies, but does so in roundabout ways, spreading out the information across multiple branches of the story’s tree. In order to get all of the interlinking chunks of info, you’d have to do multiple playthroughs with different paths. Here, however, the writers get one story path the hero follows, and they still have to present all of the information. This means that characters are doing infodumps in strange ways with almost no coherency, and at horrible times for understanding what is going on. Because this info is released at inopportune times, it is also scrunched, which makes it difficult to understand. This does not excuse the writers. It is up to them to convey the information properly, rearranging some plot points to more effectively deal with Checkov’s Gun. They have no clue how to do so here.

Oh, and then there’s the other problem I’m tired of talking about. Those accents. With the exception of a few short lines, the entire episode was done in a German or French accent. As noted above, I can’t understand a word that a few of them have said. Others are blurred and unpleasant to hear.

The animation wasn’t half bad, though. Ren’s actions during the assault were all traditionally drawn, and with dynamic angles to amp up their drama. The giant skelly pair were obviously done in CG, but the effects that surround them made them blend in better with their surrounding art.