English Dub Review: AZUR LANE “SAKURA – Cloak and Dagger”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Akagi, Kaga, Ayanami return home to the Sakura Empire with the other girls. They are warmly welcomed back by acquaintances, but Zuikaku is still haunted by her fight with Enterprise. Meanwhile, Belfast attempts to get Enterprise to start embracing her “human” side through self-care (and breakfast.) Ping Hai and Ning Hai inform Azur Lane about the signs of active sirens which initially drew them out into the ocean. They believe the sirens are planning some form of attack while Azur Lane is at war with Red Axis. Belfast reveals that the Maid Corps within the Royal Navy has sent over spies to the Sakura Empire to see if they’re involved.

Nagato, the leader of Sakura Empire, meets with Akagi and Kaga to confirm they have the Black Box — a form of a mental cube that allows them to control sirens. Meanwhile, Ayanami struggles with her desire to stop fighting with Azur Lane. Zuikaku feels guilty about the prospect of not being strong enough to protect Shokaku, but Takao advises Zuikaku to lean on her allies for support.

Then, Akashi, a feline Sakura Empire member, stumbles in on Akagi summoning a siren, Observer, out of a siren-ship that has been secretly built. Akashi is caught and about to be killed for witnessing, but Sheffield and Edinburgh, the secret agents, save her in time. They steal the Black Box and escape with Akashi after fighting.

Our Take

If there’s one good takeaway from this episode, it’s the fact that the show has enough decency to make the “villain” faction not look totally like “bad guys.” Getting to actually see the Sakura Empire shows the audience a more “human” side to the antagonists. It appears that most of the Sakura Empire members really are just innocent people under the impression that their side is in the right. It feels a lot like the Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender — sure the government is corrupt, but not all of them are evil. Even ones who are fighting (such as Ayanami) seem to know that something is wrong with the war.

Akashi, a Sakura Empire citizen, even seems to question Akagi’s use of a siren-built ship. It appears as though not all Sakura Empire citizens support the use of siren technology, which makes it easy to infer that there’s a lot of propaganda going on behind the scenes, and a lot of information being kept from them.

It’s a bit ironic that Enterprise, a “good guy,” needs to be taught to get in touch with her human side, while a lot of the “bad guys” seem to have no trouble with it. It’s a good juxtaposition, and it would be pretty cool, were it not for the fact that the show throws a million characters at the audience every five seconds, making it super hard to follow. Genuinely, the show has so much exposition that even the “good” parts are befuddling and convoluted.

It’s hard to be caught up in its current.