English Dub Review: Ensemble Stars “Effort”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Trickstar and Eden are gearing up for their showdown in the upcoming SS. However, Eden is attempting to sway the media, audience, and even Trickstar’s hometown to support them instead of Trickstar. Since Eden has a ton of financial and advertising backing by CosPro, Trickstar is forced to watch as Eden tries to upstage them on their own turf. Nagisa attempts to ruffle Subaru’s feathers by asking him if he’s “going to follow the same path as his father” in an interview, but Subaru declares the friends he’s made is the reason he wants to be an idol now. It’s revealed that the initial reason was because Subaru’s dad was an idol (before he died.)

Makoto and Izumi meet up with Mao and Ritsu in the mall after spending some quality time together, but Ibara intercepts them and challenges them to an on-camera, spontaneous showdown against Eden in order to make them look bad and unprepared. Mao and Makoto still perform with them (with the help of Izumi and Ritsu.) Later, Wataru helps Hokuto unlock a mysterious, secret chest his father had hidden. Ibara also reveals his background as a poor orphan — which is why he wants to sabotage Trickstar so badly.

The day of the SS finally arrives and Trickstar is encouraged to the stage by many students. Just as Subaru is reflecting on making his father/family proud, dirt against Subaru’s father appears broadcasted on the jumbotron screens. Trickstar seems confused while Subaru is shaken.

Our Take

Things are really heating up in this pre-season finale — it’s just not as hot as it could have been. There’s been a bit of bouncing around when it comes to Ensemble Stars‘ other characters — to the point where Trickstar has floated away from being the main focus of the show. It’s understandable that they would want to give their other characters arcs and screen time, but they should have saved a few of these arcs for a possible next season. A side-story here and there isn’t going to kill the momentum, but as a wise sitcom once said: “too many cooks will spoil the broth.”

Either way, the SS is here and the finale is now. The reason the pacing could have used less focus on side characters is because this (very plot pinnacle) episode had a lot of exposition from protagonists and antagonists alike. Ibara had to squeeze in explaining his character motivations and backstory, while Subaru suddenly has a family that has never been touched on before. There are a lot of things that could have been hinted at — or at least expanded upon — prior to this episode. That way there would have been a bit of a healthier build-up. Motifs are everything!

That said, this seems to be the first time Subaru has displayed truly negative emotions. It’s unclear what his dad actually did, but we’re bound to find out in the finale. Hopefully Trickstar will be able to help him perform past this smear campaign against him.

The dub hasn’t really helped to highlight these powerful emotions, but it’s probably because Subaru still sounds like Spongebob Squarepants.