English Dub Review: The Silver Guardian “Suigin Meets Takeshi”

This thing’s not getting any better.

The Silver Guardian continues with “Suigin Meets Takeshi.” In this episode, Riku Rei proceeds through a ritual where she joins Temujin’s followers. Suigin meets a child, Takeshi. This boy attends a martial arts tournament and brings Twin Star and Suigin along.

There’s a quick flashback at the beginning of the episode which shows Takeshi playing a mobile game on his phone and sitting by his friend, Mikan. It’s clear that he’s impoverished. Suigin and Takeshi sneak in by Twin Star in their human form flying the two into the sky to watch.

I like the battle which ensues. It’s reminiscent of an actual video game. Takeshi explains through flashbacks that he desires to win the tournament for his friend Mikan. While the two were partners, Mikan fell ill. Takeshi wishes to win the tournament money to save Mikan. But there’s a twist. While intruders in the tournament have the chance to compete if they’ve beaten a fighter, the catch is they must fight with their power reduced. Still, a book Takeshi has takes pictures and converts those into fighting power.

The entire episode feels a bit too convenient. Between the official rule that intruders can fight to the power reduction catch, and book’s ability to compensate for that, it’s all highly orchestrated. Additionally, it took until the end of the episode to win my interest and get me invested in the episode. And then the episode ended on an abrupt note. The short runtime strikes again.

Overall, I like the new character in Takeshi and I’m keen to see him win to save Mikan. But the limited episode length and all-too-perfect set up mar a would-be solid episode.