English Dub Review: Ensemble Stars “Tanabata Festival ~Part 2~”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Shu and Aoba are the sole members of Valkyrie, a unit that performs in underground, less-known venues. Eichi corners them at one of these venues to heckle Shu, who used to be known as “Yumenosaki Academy’s Emperor.” Eichi lets him know that the school is in favor of cutting their funding because they don’t perform onstage anymore, but that they’d reconsider if Valkyrie performed at the DreFes. When Shu abstains, Eichi also threatens to demolish Ra*bits’ confidence by going up against them in the DreFes, and since Shu seems mysteriously connected to Nito, he reluctantly agrees.

Shu ruminates on how he shouldn’t even want to help Nito, considering his mysterious grudge against him. He resents Eichi for making him perform but realizes that Eichi doesn’t know what the current Valkyrie is like. Shu decides it’s time to reclaim the throne and knock Eichi off. He and Aoba (eventually) finish helping on costumes, too.

The Tanabata Festival finally arrives, and Ra*bits goes up against AKATSUKI. Despite practicing hard, Ra*bits still loses, but AKATSUKI leaves the stage to Ra*bits. Unfortunately, since Valkyrie is nowhere to be seen, Ra*bits is to go up against fine. They’re terrified at first, but finally, Valkyrie arrives to take Ra*bits’ place. The former top unit, Valkyrie, winds up giving such a show-stopping performance, that Eichi’s ego is shattered.

Even though the audience still votes for fine, Eichi knows Valkyrie was better than them. He is inspired and saddened.

Our Take

Here’s a theory: is Eichi actually the best character?

The past few episodes have shown how he’s gotten some character development since Trickstar beat fine in the DDD. However, the start of this one displayed that he’s still a scheming, calculative, manipulative person who can be pretty cruel. Even though his views have developed a bit, he still has his “old” habits. For the entire show, Eichi has been poised as the villain/the antagonist. He comes off as this typical smug, strategical anime archetype, but previous episodes — and this current one — have developed him into a human being.

This episode, we watched Eichi get knocked off of his high horse, and the outcome was fantastic. Eichi went from being this self-obsessed, aloof “prince,” to be as excitable and inspired as a child. The way he spoke about Valkyrie’s performance was the most emotion shown from him, and for a moment, he wasn’t an intimidating leader. He became someone who was invigorated to show his passion for performing. There was something very humanizing and childlike about that, and even more so when he felt dizzy about it and had to sit down. A very vulnerable moment reveals that Eichi feels as though “God has never even given [him] a chance,” due to his illness. He truly has to push his all in to perform, and envies everyone around him, despite his high-and-mighty demeanor.

Wataru says it best to him: Eichi a “terrifying mess.” Terrifying, but a mess. He’s doing good things but still has these manipulative habits. He prides himself on his perfect performance skills but is actually very weak physically. Wataru goes on to tell Eichi, “People like you can drive out monsters, but you’ve also driven out magicians. You’re arrogant and sinful — traits people gain from allowing themselves to be controlled by their anger. The anger you find yourself filled with when what you thought was magic turns out to be a skill.” Eichi may be a star performer, but it’s possible he may have lost his passion for it along the way, due to the fact that performing isn’t magic: it’s a physical skill, which is why Eichi feels cheated by god. That magic may have been ruined for him along the way — which is why he was so entranced by Valkyrie’s performance. This may have been the first time he’s felt that “magic” in a long, long time.

Oh, and the Shu stuff was interesting too.