English Dub Review: The Ones Within “CLUMSY PRETENDER”

The team explores the outside, fights some plants, and sets a new record for live stream views.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

While they played Stage 3, Zakuro and Kaikoku decided to explore the outside of their prison confinement. As punishment, Paka creates a new ‘S-class’ challenge for the next stage, locking everyone in the tower and unleashing people-eating plants called Mimicry Maneaters. The only way to win? Destroying them… but it’s hard to know what to destroy when they can transform into near-perfect human replicas.

Our Take:

The third episode of The Ones Within breaks with the format of the first two episodes by being actually scary. There weren’t as much of the wacky hijinks that were found in last week’s episode. Instead, CLUMSY PRETENDER offered a lot of cliche horror riffs and a nonsensical evil challenge.

The whole ‘Mimicry Maneaters’ thing did not appeal to me. I usually am a fan of horror type genre stuff, so I was kinda glad to see the show going in this direction at first. But the actual payoff was so dumb and silly, and not silly in a fun way. The giant flowers randomly transform into lookalikes. It’s not especially clever or interesting, it’s just… completely arbitrary. Last week’s plot felt a lot more thoughtful, with jokes and a storyline that was weaved perfectly together. This week’s outing felt like a lot of one-off gags tied together. Yuzu’s poisonous plan, Anya’s sleeping issues, and apparently, Himiko is an amazing cook even without access to ovens or ingredients?

Speaking of Yuzu’s plans, we get a lot of screentime for her this episode. That said, we don’t necessarily learn a lot more about her. From the scene in the bathroom where she was being super weird, I started to think she didn’t really like Akki as a person. But then, later on, she says she’s glad he’s still around and gives him a big hug. And then there’s the whole ‘wall of snapshots in her closet’ deal that we still haven’t really gotten any insight into. Oh yeah, and apparently they may have some kind of strange, magical bond? Akki’s mentions offhandedly that though he thinks they haven’t met in person before this experience, there’s something oddly familiar about her. And then there’s her whole ‘brainwashing’ thing where she somehow instantly convinces everyone to go along with her plan.

This week’s dub had some nice moments from everyone. This was the first episode where all the team members contributed to the challenge, and the actors have a solid dynamic with each other that’s fun to watch. “I doubt that alpaca can run a city this size on his own.” Only in an anime… “I taste terrible, I swear!” Scared Akki is cute! “Seriously, I thought you were dead.” Akatsuki is even awkwardly chipper when it comes to his teammates passing away! “Absolutely, you’ve gotta be able to defend yourself.” Love Himi’s darker side showing through. “I should’ve just kissed that dumb thing before I stabbed it.” Creepy though she may be, at least we know there’s some sort of more human side of Yuzu.

CLUMSY PRETENDER, the third episode of The Ones Within, was somewhat of a nice change of pace. We haven’t really gotten a full episode of creepiness before, and this episode certainly leans into the spooky vibes, from Mr. Paka’s weird head turn to the way the plants sprout gaping maws in the middle of fake Karin’s face. This one may have delivered on the fright factor, but it wasn’t quite as clever as the last episode, and the jokes left me wanting for better ones. I’m hoping Mr. Paka has something a little more thought out than man-eating plants for the next challenge.