English Dub Review: Code:Realize “Train Snatch”

Herlock Sholmes? What, you afraid of copyright infringement now?

Overview (Spoilers)

The gang are prepping for their op to capture Finis. He is due to inspect a base, and his security is going to be lax. The plan is to have Frankenstein and Helsing take the engine, while Lupin and Cardia travel up from the caboose in disguise. When the reach the coupler behind Finis’ cab, they’ll destroy it. Impey has rigged up the track switch, and will send the engine and Finis on one track, and his guards on another. Saint Germaine will be waiting in his car to pick up Finis, and it’s all done. To help Cardia move, Frankenstein engineered a new outfit for her, one that has pants instead of a skirt. Practical! The gang is now underway, and things seem to be going smoothly. Until, of course, Lupin and Cardia get past the guards. There, standing in their way, is a new foe: Detective Herlock Sholmes. He manages to hold Lupin with his fisticuffs, but Cardia climbs up on top of the train to continue on. Helsing joins her, taking out more guards as they attack from behind, and after destroying the coupler, the two continue on to subdue Finis. Unfortunately, this whole thing has been a trap, with Twilight forces waiting in ambush for Saint Germaine, and an airship heading along to intercept anyone else. In Finis’ cab, the pair are held at gunpoint by Finis’ butler. He had leaked the information that he would be on the train, engineering the op in the first place. The trap was not intended to take out the rebels, however. It was meant to capture Cardia. Finis reveals that he and Cardia share a father. Finis knows the father, and why he did what he did to Cardia. Just as he is about to make off with his sister, Impey and Lupin surprise them with an attack from an ornithopter. The gang make their escape, now with a slightly better comprehension of their enemy.

Our Take

So, I continue to dislike their treatment of these characters. Dracula is an obnoxious brat, and they continue to call him by Dracula, so I can’t just ignore it. Now, they’ve brought in “Herlock Sholmes”, a brilliant detective that is exceptionally intelligent, good at fisticuffs, and lives on 221B Baker Street. Right. You’re going to go so far to say this guy is Sherlock Holmes, but flip which part of his name has the S and say that he’s a new character? Why even bother? There isn’t an original character on this entire show! Six of the main characters are straight ripped from classic literature, and that was half the concept of the story. Even the “new” characters are pretty much just stock tropes. So, why are you guys trying to dodge his true name now? It stands out like a sore thumb and just makes me groan every time it is said. On the positive side, most people forget that Holmes can fight. He’s good with guns and has his own fighting style combining Jujitsu with his boxing and cane fencing. This show doesn’t go into all that, but it does show how good he is at boxing. Too bad that’s all his representation had to go for him.

The episode was terribly written. The boys in the group are randomly complimenting Cardia for no discernible reason in the middle of a conversation that is supposedly important. Cardia is presented with new clothes, then shortly thereafter puts on a disguise as a train conductor. She doesn’t damage the uniform in the slightest, despite the fact that she is clearly not wearing her outfit under it. Why doesn’t that hat melt upon being put on her head? Even though moments later, they reference her corrosive poison, they completely forget about it when thrown against her clothes. Lupin also sheds his disguise way too easily, switching into a much bigger Tuxedo Mask-wannabe outfit in a moment. Where was he keeping all that stuff? Why did they change in the first place? It’s not like their normal outfits would be that much more effective at what they were doing. It just seems like the writers are more concerned with the rule of cool than logic, but even then, their version of cool isn’t all that impressive. It just makes bad dialogue and plot holes.

The voice acting was blase through the whole episode. Nobody really showed any emotion at all. The worst offender, though, was Dracula. Trina Nishimura tried very hard to disguise that she is a girl by making him gruff and raspy. The result was just plain obnoxious and fake. I hope we don’t see much from Dracula for the rest of the series because he’s gonna get on my nerves quick. The visuals were nothing impressive, either. We don’t get any impressive or dramatic angles, and the animation doesn’t try hard to do anything. In fact, there was one point where the shot went from one side of the cab to another, panning from Herlock to Lupin. But, it fade-cuts to Lupin in the middle of the pan. Why? So that they wouldn’t have to have the entire cab interior drawn. It wouldn’t have taken much, they just didn’t care.

(A bit of a correction: After some more research, I discovered the swap of the letters is actually a reference to the books of Lupin. In one of them, he meets an old Sherlock Holmes. Because Doyle asserted his copyright, the writer of the Lupin stories changed the name to Herlock Sholmes for the novelized compilation of that story. Later stories referred to Holmes, Lestrade, and Watson normally. All the same, I feel the name change was not a useful thing to do.)