English Dub Review: Million Arthur “Stolen Excalibur”
The Arthurs had an evil twin all along! All of them! (DUN DUN DUN!)
Overview
Kakka is still suffering emotionally from being unable to save Florien, but tries to redeem himself by boldly going alone on a dangerous mission in the Dark Woods, where multiple Arthurs are detected. The team allows this for some reason, but Tekken goes with him. The pair finds a graveyard of Excaliburs — and at the center of them appears to be four Arthurs they previously defeated. They reveal that they are the identical twins of the Paintbrush Arthur, Drill Arthur, Lens Arthur, and Medical Arthur. They’re cartoonishly disgusted by how their siblings turned their lives around after being defeated, so they want revenge. They start to battle, but they prove to be stronger than expected. Brigette falls protecting Kakka, and his Excalibur is stolen.
They retreat to rethink their strategy while Brigette heals. Kakka self-loathes while Tekken goes after the Arthurs. The mysterious mercenary that the Arthurs hired gives Tekken the pro-tip that they’re waiting for him in a tower. Tekken causes an earthquake and literally kills three of them. Drill Arthur absorbs their Excaliburs to ultra-power his own. Kakka comes out from nowhere and helps Tekken fight him. Brigette goes to aid Kakka, and by the act of love wherein they protect each other, they Fairy Combine. Drill Arthur is defeated, and the mysterious mercenary explains he was only there to locate the artifact the Drill Arthur used to absorb the other Excaliburs.
Our Take
Does this show take itself seriously or not?
How can they expect to make an emotional storytelling impact when “The Revengers” are so cartoonishly uninspired? Their motive for wanting to kill the team is literally because they made their siblings “good.” Is this a Scooby-Doo cartoon? Are people really like this? Answer: no.
Also, how on earth did the team think that letting one of their teammates go alone — to a location where they knew multiple Arthurs were — was a good idea? Every single one of them sat back and watched an emotionally tangled child say, “I got this” and leave. Considering how many times the team has been close to being defeated in the past — with all of their members present — one would think that this would make them all a little more wary about splitting the party.
Rule #1: Never split the party.
All this just emphasizes how the team has little to no cohesion — as characters and teammates. Why didn’t Dancho — who knew why Kakka was feeling this way — veto the idea of him going alone? Incoming spoilers: Dancho is a terrible leader and protagonist with no sense and no redeeming qualities.
That Disney’s Frozen twist was a relieving thing to see, though, after the previous implication that Fairy Combine could only be done through sexual contact. The act of true love isn’t fan-service! Hooray! Million Arthur gets .000000005 points to its reputation.
Seriously, though — everything about this episode seemed to be a parody of itself. Tekken killed three people and laughed it off, the dialogue and voice acting was laughably generic, and the mercenary character had a nonsensical Shadow the Hedgehog fan appeal (also, did he take the artifact or not?)
It’s a good thing they added in the secret twin trope, though. Otherwise, someone might get the idea that this is a bad show!
