English Dub Review: Hina Logic from Luck & Logic “The Silver Grizzly -There is No Love Like a Child’s-”

Daddy Dumbest.

Spoilers Below

What’s that? Up in the sky! Is it a bird? A plane? Nope, it’s some guy riding a missile and heading right at ALCA headquarters! Somehow, he even manages to avoid getting shot down by the anti-air cannons, and Miss Shizuha has to arm herself with a rocket launcher to take him down. Even then, he breaks into the classroom, and begins to tussle with the teacher! The only thing that stops him in his tracks? Liones yelling at daddy to stop. Meet Strafansky Yelistratova, King of the tiny Eastern European country of Liones, and father of Liones. He, um, named the country after her. And he LOVES his daughter. He broke in because his request to live in the dorm with her was denied (primarily because it is a girl’s only dorm). But, as long as he finds his own lodgings, he’s welcome to visit. So he does. A lot. He’s kinda smothering the poor girl.

Things come to a head during a mock battle. His distant encouragement embarrasses her further, and Liones’ powers run rampant. Vines grab all three people on the field and wrap her opponent Mahiro around the wreckage of her father’s rocket. Ever the nerd, Mahiro hacks into the rocket’s engine in an attempt to turn the fight around but… Instead, sends the entire team blasting off again! They land in the snowy mountains. They know that the ALCA is tracking them, so they just have to survive until then. Too bad Nina’s love of all things cuddly has led her to snuggle a bear cub. Mommy is not happy and chases the girls right into an avalanche. As soon as their tracking goes offline because of the flood of snow, Strafansky runs off after them. In a bit of a flashback, he remembers how he founded his country to protect his daughter. She was showing potential as a logical early on, and he knew that the ALCA would come to take her. Having his own country, he could declare her off limits, and they’d have to respect that. But, they made a good point. Those kinds of skills with no training could lead to a certain disaster. He is snapped out of his reverie by the sight of a tower of vines, with rose petals drifting down. Liones! He runs to rescue them and brings them back to the dorms. Father and daughter reconcile, and all is well. Still, he’s been kinda stressed out, so he joins the teachers in town for drinks.

Let me lead off by saying that the voice acting is much improved over the previous two episodes. Yayoi, Karen, and Karin were all forced and artificial. It wasn’t how a person talks at all. Mikaela Krantz, Dawn Bennett, and Michelle Rojas upped their game in this episode, though, and it was all much more believable. I also didn’t hear as much of the obnoxious, high-pitchy voices this time around, so I’m a happy camper. The animation was great during the mock battle, and the bear was well done. Honestly, I feel like this episode had everything stepped up a bit.

That also includes the writing. I found myself chuckling quite a bit. While the characters threatened to jump the shark with their quirkiness, the only character I thought was hard to believe was Nina. A battle-hardened logical that shuts off all functions to cuddle stuff? I know, it’s supposed to be funny, and it is. It’s just overblown. On a different note, I’m interested to know how Strafansky built a country in the short time that Liones has been alive. Not that it’s impossible or anything. He’s obviously a soldier, and he could have bought up land and defended it using mercenaries. A nation of sellswords? There have been stranger things. I’m looking at you Australia. We know where you came from. It’s okay, you’re cool. I give this episode eight dynamic missile entries out of ten!