English Dub Review: Plunderer “The Legendary Ace”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
Years ago, Hina lost her mother to the supernatural forces at play within the world. As her final wish, her mom tells Hina to take a precious crystal ball and seek out the Legendary Ace.
Years later, Hina arrives at a local village, still searching for the mysterious Legendary Ace. She meets a local woman named Nana, as well as the town’s pervert, Licht. Nana converses with Hina, mainly about counts, a system that affects the lives of all living creatures within their world.
After their conversation ends, a military man overhearing their conversation claims to be the Legendary Ace. Hina, absolutely frilled by this, goes along with him and his other comrades. What she, unfortunately, doesn’t know, is that they’re a bunch of deceptive douchebags looking to have a bit of “fun” with the local women. Thankfully, Hina is able to quickly dodge this by attempting to give the Ace the same crystal ball from earlier. Upon seeing this, the Ace asks Hina if she is a ballot holder. Hina is visibly confused by this, and as such, the Ace demands she give it to her.
Hina, however, has an ace up her sleeve. Since her count is higher than the Ace’s, the Ace has to obey her commands to stop. However, the military is granted special permission to enact “star stakes,” in which two opponents pony up their counts and fight until a winner is declared.
Douchebag McGee…I mean Ace then proceeds to throw her out the window and attempts to choke her. Hina concedes and thus loses all her count except for 1. Alongside his victory, the Ace reveals that he’s a fake. With Hina in a bind, the local pervert Licht surprisingly comes smashing in to save the day. As it turns out, Licht is in actuality the true Legendary Ace, as well as a ballot holder (with a 5700-count sword by his side).
Our Take
Wow. This is not at all what I expected this series to start off with. What did I expect? The beginning of an entertaining adventure series with a fun cast and an exhilarating plot. What did I get instead? Hina, our main protagonist, treated like absolute dirt and objectified by nearly everyone who crossed her path. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be played off for laughs, but I’m not amused in the slightest.
For starters, the military men. What the absolute fuck. They’re deceptive bastards who care not a damn about Hina. Hell, had Hina not shown off the 10,000 count crystal ball, they all would have taken advantage of her! It’s absolutely sickening. I understand that they’re meant to be the villains, but why must we involve lechery here? I only thank my lucky stars it didn’t go any farther. Honestly, the series could have gone a different route here. I get they want to make the villain look and sound like evil incarnate. However, not only is it cliche, but it’s rather disappointing to still see this situation deployed in anime. There’s so much more to Hina than to serve as an objectified payoff to lustful gratification. To see all of that happen on-screen just hurts every inch of my being.
Secondly, Licht may be the ace, but he ain’t no knight in shining armor. His constant sexual tendencies just got on my nerves here. In all honesty, I just cannot condone a character that’s this purposefully lustful. It’s yet another done-to-death cliche that honestly should be boxed up and shelved. On the brighter side, he’s surprisingly not as bad as the military men. At least he gets his comeuppance for his actions (though that still doesn’t excuse his behavior by a long shot). Plus, he did end up saving Hina in the end, so I guess he has some morals in him. Still, would it kill him not to be so perverted? Hopefully, that aspect doesn’t define his character throughout.
Despite all the negatives, I was definitely enticed by the overall worldbuilding. The view of the world was certainly pleasant. The whole count system was a unique addition as well. It’ll certainly be enticing to see how the counts affect the characters throughout the remainder of the series. Nana was an enjoyable character, one of the only characters that seemed to give a damn about Hina as well. The animation certainly is appealing, with lots of powerful colors to create some pretty-looking scenery. Overall, there are still some great elements to behold here.
To conclude, I feel rather conflicted about this series. I definitely do not appreciate the continued cliche of assault being played here. Not to mention the fact that Hina’s entire purpose here seems to be a magnet of objectification. While there are some good elements at work, the overbearing amount of negativity here overshadows them by a long shot. I hope the rest of this series isn’t like this. Otherwise, I think my own count will go into the negatives.
