English Dub Review: The Reflection “Vy and Michael”

Um, is this show actually getting better?

Overview (Spoilers)

Eleanor wakes up in the sewers, kidnapped by Merchant and Trader. When she comes out, she discovers she isn’t alone. Hundreds of Light-Pierced Reflecteds are there, and they are all friendly. Turns out, Michael and Vy, as the duo are really named, have been abducting Reflecteds to protect them from the extremist muggles. Michelle Allen is here, too, but claims not to be a Reflected. But Michael’s eyes don’t lie. Michael was struck blind by the Reflection, and can only see Reflecteds. Vy, on the other hand, is a Smoke-Shroud Reflected. Her powers manifested in her giant, bestial form and three-inch thick iron armor, but robbed her of her intelligence. When the sheriff arrives to kill the Reflecteds in the sanctuary with the help of Steel Ruler and her buddy Volt (guess what his power is), Everyone has to work together to take down the posse and save the Reflecteds. But, when they return to the sanctuary, it’s completely empty!

Courtesy: Funimation

This episode drops a load of lore on you in really unexpected ways. It never comes out and says any of it in dialogue, leaving you to piece it together. Here’s what we see in this episode: Those that are mired in dark feelings of anger and pain became Smoke-Shroud, while those who were filled with hope and positivity became Light-Pierced. Light type retains their human form, and have interesting powers. Smoke type generally become monstrous and more prone to violence as their feelings overcome them. However… They can change! As we see during the battle, seeing Michael willing to sacrifice himself for others touched Vy’s heart. She realized he had changed, and it broke down the pain she had felt when the Reflection happened. She then returned to her human form, retaining her armor power. So, now we have a Colossus on the team. Will everyone fit in the truck?

How we now know that the light was attracted to hope was from Michael’s backstory. After gambling his and Vy’s money, he tried to win it all back. The Reflection hit just after he won on the craps table, getting back everything they had lost. He had just made everything right and had his hope back. So the light chose him. On the other hand, Vy had yet to hear of her husband’s victory over the casino and was filled with despair over being penniless. She got chosen by the smoke. Is it possible that the Reflection was a massive event not just in the physical world, but a manifestation of the collective subconscious? And what about those who didn’t survive the Reflection? Hopefully, later episodes will delve into this.

This episode also shows us the depth and development of Eleanor’s character. Where before, she ran from any and all danger, we now see her using her powers offensively. Like Nightcrawler, she teleports next to enemies and attacks, then ‘ports out of range again. Makes me wonder why X-On hasn’t made more use of her powers after copying them. She’s getting braver, and finally making good on her claims that she’s done running away. Instead, she’s following her moral compass, even if she isn’t really thinking it through. Multiple times, she tells Michael that they need to stick together to fight, but she doesn’t know what they’re fighting.  She doesn’t have a unified concept of what they need to do or whether the problem is the evil Reflecteds or the racist muggles. This is definitely a step in the right direction for her, but she has ways to go until her resolve is fully… resolved.

Our Take

This episode is definitely plagued by the bad animation and art that the series has been cursed with. However, there were a few shots here and there that made me forget everything momentarily. There were small points with excellent animation and at least passable art that appeared. They were brief, so it is difficult to describe what was going on in these scenes. It looked like I was watching a different, better-made show. The action we saw, later on, was gripping, and really fun. If from here on out, the show continues to improve its animation, the terrible art could almost be forgiven.

On the other hand, the voice acting and dialogue needed serious work this time around. Whenever someone attempted a Cajun accent, they bungled it horribly. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the lip movement in the animation is staggered at points, making natural speech almost impossible if you attempt to sync to it with direct translation. This makes their already halting accent come to a complete stop in the strangest places and just makes all the dialogue sound wrong. The voice actors are trying very hard to match the lips of the animation, but the script has not been altered to keep that in mind. The best voice acting I heard the entire episode came from Miss Michelle Allen. Yes, she got a little shrill, but as she struggled to get away from Vy, she sounded more believable than most of the acting thus far.

The plot is the one thing that keeps me coming back to this show. Now that we aren’t wasting any more time on the I-Guy, we are free to pursue real storytelling. They managed to sneak in development for every major character except X-On, who doesn’t seem like he cares to grow in the first place. This makes me wonder, is he really a good guy? Yes, he fights bad people, but does he do out of a hidden, selfish agenda? We know nothing about him, despite the team being together for three episodes. While it appears that we have a psychic origin for the Reflection itself, we have no real clues to confirm that. There’s a lot of questions, and the series is getting better and better at leaving breadcrumbs to the truth. As we get further along, the story almost makes me stop noticing the terrible animation. If only they would do something about the voice action direction, this could almost pass as a good anime that just looks bad. I give this episode seven corrupt cops out of ten.

SCORE
7.0/10