English Dub Review: Assassin’s Pride; “Two Young Ladies Assemble at the Chained Castle,” “The Golden Princess and the Silver Princess,” “The Gray Witch”

 

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The bonds between Melida and Elise are tested as a tournament with a sister school turns into something worse. 

Our Take

The fourth and fifth episodes are an inter-school tournament arc. The actual tournament itself is barely shown. This entire arc is just a container for the drama of the relationship between Melida and Elise. This seems to be the formula of this show; use a battle merely as a framing device for character development. However, said character development is all too brief and paper-thin, so as a result, the battles are as well. 

The concern this time is how Elise interprets her relationship with Melida. Melida considers Elise like her younger sister, but Elise’s perspective of this is warped oddly. Elise wants to have an inferiority complex and being more talented than Melida upsets her. Ample flashbacks and dialogue are provided to support this, but it doesn’t alter how strange it is. There’s wanting to be able to rely on someone else and then there’s wanting to want to be able to rely on someone else. I can comprehend what she is feeling, but I don’t understand how or why. Is Elise just inherently lazy or does she love Melida too much in this weird way? It’s inoffensive but incomprehensible. 

Fortunately, Kufa steps in with some real knowledge. He tells Melida she should talk it over with Elise, which is the smartest thing anybody has ever suggested in this show so far. However, Melida decides the correct time to have this conversation is during the tournament battle. She overpowers Elise in one fell swoop and that resolves the entire conflict. The resolution has as little impact as the conflict itself. 

This entire tournament arc is also underpinned by an assassin from Kufa’s guild trying to rat Kufa out. Her name is Black Madia and she is a very underwhelming character. Instead of talking, she burns pieces of black paper and throws them at people which then combusts into words written in fire. This is dumb and pretentious and disrupts the flow of dialogue for a pointless parlor trick. After she gets uncovered in the tournament, she drops the paper burning act and starts talking normally. Then Kufa steps in and we just cut to after the battle is already over and Madia is defeated. The battles in these episodes have been too short and then at the end, they just skip it entirely. How little they care for this is truly disappointing. 

Several new characters are introduced in this new arc. They seem like they may be interesting, but the show focuses entirely on Melida’s vapid turmoils so there isn’t much to say. 

The sixth episode is what we lovingly refer to as a filler episode. There are a secret slumber party and some scary stories. The girls get chased through a sewer and covered in slime for absolutely no reason. Then it turns out to be a petty prank. On the one hand, I am lamenting all of this wasted time. But on the other hand, I’m glad I don’t have to sit through superficial drama. 

Maybe things will pick up in the second half of this season, but I’m not expecting much.