Review: Drifters Episode 3 “Army of Ours – Sorte at Dawn”

What is this, an episode without the main characters in it? Surprisingly yes, but it featured heaps of narrative development and new Drifters.

Spoilers Below

In the Kingdom of Carneades, Abe & Kafet try to convince the commanders of the defensive troops to let Scipio and Hannibal take charge of their army. However, the leaders refuse to give the two Drifters command over their troops, Not just because of the language barrier between the two Drifters but the Troopers defending the castle are mean-spirited douchebags who see the two as nothing more than useless old men. Unable to reason with the Carneades troops, Abe decides to withdraw the Octobrists and the Drifters from the country as the Ends and their army, consisting of dragons, goblins, and other non-human races, begin their attack.

As they finally make it to the castle, The Ends are Finally revealed and lead by the Enigmatic “Black King”. The Ends in a nutshell, are basically Evil Drifters with each showing supernatural abilities related either to their deaths or some aspect we can relate to them from their history.  Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and has become a human flamethrower with pyromania at almost a cliche level. Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, Grand Duchess of Russia and daughter of the country’s last Tsar, has the ability to freeze everything around her and Russia isn’t known as the warmest place in the world. Hijikata Toshizo was the Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi, a group of Samurai who resisted the Japanese Imperial Family’s return to power and was known to be a gifted swordsman yet in this rendition, he can command ghosts for some reason. I’m interested to see more of these supernatural abilities be revealed as we meet more Ends.

The leader of the Ends, the Black King, sends out Hijikata, Joan, and Anastasia into the battlefield, and questions Minamoto no Yoshitsune if his allegiance is with the Drifters or the Ends. Yoshitsune vaguely states he will go the side that interests him the most. World War II fighter pilot Naoshi Kanno descends into the world via a corridor inside his aircraft. Though bewildered by the circumstances, Kanno engages the Black King’s dragons, thus indicating himself as a Drifter. With the aid of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Abe, Kafet, Scipio, and Hannibal escape from Carneades in an effort to join up with Toyohisa’s group. The Black King orders the Ends to find the Drifters and kill them.

After the credits, there’s an extra scene that reveals the female spy monitoring Toyo’s group is discovered by him and his companions. The spy, Olminu, informs the three Drifters that they have been brought to the new world to fight against the Ends, though the trio quickly and hilariously rejects the idea, much to her shock.

Overview:

This was a natural step forward for the series. Our main characters have been introduced, the setting has been at least partially established and the plot has motivation to move forward with Toyohisa leading a new group of followers in the form of Elves that have been wronged by despicable oppressors. So what do we need? A villain of course! (Well one for the protagonists. We met Easy in episode two but she’s fighting with Murasaki.)

The Black King and his “Ends” made a hell of a debut this week. While we don’t know much about the Black King, there are some small details to be found and others we can try to deduce. We know he speaks the language of the Drifters and the Ends, as well as being extremely likely in speaking the language of the world they now reside in. Difficult for a king to not speak the language of his subjects and unite them after all. I assume that he is an End himself, as Easy is the one sending the Ends to their world. I would expect the King to have been mentioned by either Easy or Murasaki if he was interacting with them himself.

The animation in this episode is, by and large, still excellent. While there were a few shots that seemed like they could have used a bit more time and action to them (looking at you, “Gatling Gun” scene), there was a lot going on at a very high quality. I liked seeing the invasion proceeding and the revelation of the Ends’ abilities. The pacing worked well as well, so the invasion didn’t feel rushed but was able to be dealt with in a single episode. The humor, while less used in this episode, still amuses me wherever it can be found.

The English dub gives some interesting performances for the newer characters, especially in the form of the Joan of Arc who’s voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard she appropriately does a French Accent for the character while acting psychotic which surprised me since this is the voice of Luffy from “One Piece” we’re talking about. Also, the voice of Naoshi Kanno in the dub by Justin Cook was hilariously foul-mouthed, and despite what little dialogue Rachel Robinson had, her Russian Accent for Anastasia was spot-on.

Drifters Episode 3 was an organic next step for the series. When you’ve got someone to cheer for, the natural next step is to introduce the antagonist they have to overcome. Drifters did this in a big way and did it well. My only concern is that the villain’s concern seemed so basic at the time, though that might be an unfair criticism when it’s the first episode they’ve taken a major role in. Drifters has maintained it’s appeal in this early part of the season and I’m interested to see where the series goes from here.

While there wasn’t a ton of story progression in this episode, it certainly delivered in the action department as always. It was pretty cool to see other Drifters besides the main trio make an appearance and actually do stuff, and I can’t wait to see more of these guys in the future, especially if they’ll be interacting with the main trio. Outside of the beginning and end of the episode, there was a surprising lack of awkward comedy, which worked well in the show’s favor, since the pacing actually flows much better without the comedy interruptions. This show just keeps getting more and more enjoyable for me, and at the rate things are going, this could be the most fun I’ve had watching next to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.