English Dub Review: Cop Craft “Two Worlds, Two Justices”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kei and Tilarna are captured by Zelada and his men, learning that these murders are all due to his plan to worsen the divide between the two species and keep their cultures from merging further. But as he tries to win over Tilarna, Kei is tortured for his copy of Marla meeting with one of the killers, as she’s the candidate they’re backing with the assassins. He soon manages to escape and make it to Tilarna, initiating another battle of illusion with Zelada. The partners finally manage to stop the wizard once and for all, finally avenging Kei’s partner Rick and halting Zelada’s plans to stop progress and change.

That only leaves the matter of the photo, which will take out the only candidate still fighting for Semanian rights and leave Tourte with a free path to the office. Kei gives Tilarna the choice, so she chooses to release the photo, citing that the city will be good even if its mayor is a bigot. In the end, the cop that insulted Tilarna earlier apologizes and she and Kei stay partners, continuing to fight crime in San-Teresa.

OUR TAKE
As sloppy as I’d say this last arc has been, I think we got about as good an ending as we were likely to get. This episode specifically felt sort of like a mash up between what should have been two episodes, but I guess they couldn’t pull out enough plot to make that work. For being the main puppet master, Zelada’s last stand pretty much felt like a repeat of fighting him in the fourth episode, only this time in closer quarters and with a little more knowledge ahead of time. I don’t think we ever got into how he got the FBI involved or what Marla thought about all of this since she hasn’t gotten any major lines since her husband died. It just feels like we needed some more space to flesh everything out a bit more.

Though even without that, the bones of what the story was TRYING to say are more or less apparent: It’s better to have a bad leader who was democratically elected than one who might seem good but is forced on us. If this had come out when the books based on this series were being published, that would certainly be something to for international fans (as in the US) to chew on. And it’s not a necessarily bad sentiment as it puts significance in the will of the people over those who might have ill will. It’s just that, again, it ends up feeling pretty half baked when all’s said and done. Similarly, Zelada sharing an equally prejudiced view about humans corrupting Semanians is an interesting one to parallel with those with the opposite view, but we just never quite get enough time to explore those ideas in full.

I think that’s been my bigger issue with this series as a whole. At the end of the day, we never quite explore the potentially interesting ideas it presents to their fullest. Maybe we needed one more episode, maybe we needed a dozen more, but while I still find myself fascinated with the world of San-Teresa, I can’t quite say I like how it was executed. I’m not sure who to blame when it comes to the source material or the studio adapting it, or even a combination of the two. Perhaps rewatching this whole season will help me to uncover more positives, which is what I intend to do for the Season Review next week.