English Dub Review: Ensemble Stars “Autumn Live ~Part 1~”

Overview(Spoilers Below)

Trickstar gets invited by Adam, the other half of Eden, to perform with them at Shuetsu Academy in their Autumn Live. Trickstar finds this kind of peculiar, due to the fact that they’ve never met Adam before, but they agree. Cosmic Production sets up a personal, deluxe stay at a very upscale hotel for the group. They’re introduced to Saegusa, one of the haughty Eden members, and are given an executive welcome to Shuetsu Academy, which appears to be an opulent paradise for all the students there.

While they are welcome to tour the school, Mao and Anzu run into Nagisa, the other member of Eden, who watches Mao practice and tells him that his innate desire for competition rather than to better himself makes him an unworthy performer in Trickstar. Mao spends the rest of the night dwelling on his insecurities about not being as good as the others, while Makoto and Hokuto debate on whether to transfer schools or not (much to the dismay of Subaru.) This seems like it’s all part of Adam’s plan.

The next day, Mao and Anzu meet up with Eve to discuss Adam.

Our Take

The inner politics of these song-and-dance schools are really something, huh? It’s not all fun and games — not that this is new, but now the concept of agencies are coming into play. It’s clear that Adam is trying to get Trickstar to transfer to Shuetsu Academy (or, at least some of Trickstar) in order to either break them up or benefit the agency they fall under, which is Cosmic Production. The intent isn’t one hundred percent clear, but it definitely is malicious. Adam’s theme seems to be opulence and desire in life, which is kind of cool because Eden as a whole seems to thematically match some of the seven deadly sins. Even though there are only four of them.

Anyway…can we address Subaru’s English voice? The voice was bearable at first, despite the high pitch, but over time, it really starts to wear patience down. It used to be kind of funny because he sounded like Spongebob, but now it’s just annoying. Then again, a lot of these anime boy voices in the show tend to blend into each other, so should we just be grateful for having something a little different?

Also…since Trickstar is debating transferring to Cosmic Production, does that mean they’re conspiring against Anzu? Harsh.