English Dub Review: ēlDLIVE “Something to Believe In Part 1”

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the body odor.

Spoilers Below

Sonokata is in deep trouble. Apparently, the baddy from episode 2 didn’t escape on his own. Sonokata cut through the energy bars with her SPH rings to let him out. Internal affairs is all over her like tachyons on a temporal anomaly, and have video evidence to prove it. Chips doesn’t believe it, and neither does Chuuta. Dolough questions him, asking why he believes in her, in spite of the evidence, and how he hasn’t known her for that long. The rookie just can’t explain it, even under interrogation. During her own interrogation, Sonokata begins sweating heavily and passes out. Chief Brick demands that she see her physician and an assistant, citing that she was a subject of the Taklimakan Project. The investigator cedes to the chief.

After (literally) running into two new ladies in the halls, Chuuta is called over by the ship’s doctor to act as his assistant. The doctor takes this opportunity to lay out the details of Sonokata’s condition. Apparently, the Taklimakan Project implanted normal humans with SPH-producing organs. This was a dangerous procedure, resulting in the deaths of many test subjects. Those that survived had a slew of illnesses. In order to counteract her illness, the doctor had been giving her a special medication, but it too had side-effects. She had lost her memories of the Project, and could potentially lose more. If not regularly medicated, however, she would not be able to live a normal life. In the nick of time, the Chief gives Chuuta and Chips a new mission. Track down a professor known as Dr. Love and bring him back to headquarters. Not only is this for his own protection by order of the superintendent, but Dr. Love could help Sonokata. His full name is Dr. Taklimakan Strangelove, and he could testify that Sonokata may not have been in control of herself when she let the critter out. Hmm… Strangelove? What kind of a name is that? He must have changed it when he became a citizen. Chuuta is to rendezvous with division 5, and work with them on this.

Oh, remember those girls he ran into earlier? Yeah, that’s division 5. Veronica and Ninochka apparently joined elDLIVE at the same time as Sonokata, and are her closest friends. They’ve heard quite a bit about Super Rookie Chuuta, and Veronica wants to see if he lives up to the hype. Chuuta develops a bit of a crush on Ninochka for her sweet nature that praises him for his Home Ec skills. The group head into a small cafe and speak with a waiter in code, asking to see Dr. Love. Unfortunately, this is not the normal waiter. He reveals the dead corpse of an old man hanging from the ceiling. Not to worry, it’s just one of the good doctor’s many body doubles.

The evil waiter has been hunting Dr. Love for his own reasons and has gotten pretty good at detecting fakes. All of the patrons of the cafe draw assault rifles and surround the heroes, and are handily defeated when Veronica reveals her horn and SPH foot blades to chop up the guns. Good thing she didn’t kill those assailants, though, because the mysterious garçon mal had recruited them with mind control. The bad thing is he has a bomb and will kill everyone if elDLIVE doesn’t reveal Dr. Love’s location. Veronica reveals that the doctor’s hidden base is under the cafe, which means he has to blow up the building anyways. Between Chuuta freezing the bomb and Ninochka putting up a barrier, they are able to prevent the loss of life and limb.

The secret lab opens its doors, and we think the villain is about to catch his quarry, but… what is that on the operating table? Dr. Love’s corpse, splayed open like a chest burster got him. A mysterious young man steps out of the shadows. “Looking for Doctor Love?” He asks, covered in blood, “You’re just a little too late.”

I’m slowly wearing thin on this show. Despite its pedigree, the storytelling is kinda flat, and the characters aren’t really developing a connection. It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t striving for high marks. This makes the whole experience kinda lukewarm. I would normally be more interested in these new characters, but the lack of character depth thus far only dilutes my desire. At least Chuuta isn’t floundering anymore.  As far as animation and voice acting goes, it’s pretty much the same as the series thus far. I didn’t see any blatant errors, and everything synced up well enough, but there wasn’t anything to wow me either. I really hope it picks up soon. Oh, and I’m just going to predict that the blood-covered dude at the end IS Dr. Love, and he either killed his body double or just keeps cloning himself.

I give this episode six body doubles out of ten.