English Dub Review: ISEKAI QUARTET; “Excitement! Physicals Day”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Physical examination time. The boys have a concerted discussion about peeping. The girls have a much less organized affair. 

Our Take

It’s time for physical examinations, I guess. Some of these “students” are long-lived/immortal demons and/or vampires. Beyond the necessity of including it because it’s a simple gag anime, what are the real benefits of these exams? Ram even smartly comments that she can just look at Rem’s results to ascertain her own. 

The boys’ group doesn’t take long to devolve into a serious discussion about whether or not to go peep on the girls whilst they are scantily clad, and whether it’s a matter of if or when Kazuma will lead the charge. To their credit though, just as quickly as this compulsory joke begins, it ends, and just as decisively, kindly putting it out of its misery. It’s fairly “noble” of them to not resort to showing the boys try to concoct a doomed scheme to see the girls disrobed. Not that it really would’ve mattered anyway, as with the chibi art style, only the most degenerate of minds would even get titillated by it.  They’ve decided to go with the high road and actually try to make original jokes, and to some relatively moderate success.  

Speaking of disrobed, seeing Ains without his literal robes is admittedly much stranger than I thought it would be. I knew that the result would be just a plain old skeleton walking around and that it would look goofy. And while it certainly is goofy, the chibi art style makes this rendering of him something beyond would one would call silly. He’s awkwardly wide and rotund, and his little gyms shorts don’t make it any better. 

Meanwhile, the girls’ side is where the unbidden libido must be properly contained, in a sort of turning of the proverbial tables. Rem must keep Albedo and Shalltear tied up with a literal chain to prevent them from peeping on Ains in the buff. If my prior description of Ains’ nude body is any indication, any pleasure they could possibly derive from seeing Ains’ naked is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. This brief interaction is where all of the lewdest jokes reside. 

The only other joke in the girls’ section is where Megumin takes the standard eye exam, but cannot see anything because she is also wearing her eyepatch. This joke is so dumb, yet so obvious, and they completely roll with it without any reservations, that it honestly made me laugh. They make haughty Megumin jokes like this often, but it only ever works when there are no pretenses behind it. 

And, for good measure, they do throw in Kazuma trying to peep in on the girls at the last minute. A joke succinctly killed off as efficiently as it was the first time around. 

There is one running subplot/joke in this episode. It concerns Pandora’s Actor unabashedly complementing all of the girls’ clothes for no real reason. This on its own is not the intended humor payload, but rather the fact that Ram witnesses all of it nearby and is miffed because she does not receive any compliments herself. I found that this didn’t prove very effective, because the premise itself is entirely weak and unnoteworthy, and Ram’s actual facial expression is a little vague and doesn’t cogently display anger. As a result, the joke falls rather flat. 

Perhaps a different but similar joke exists here. Ram commented that she could just as well see Rem’s physical results. Maybe Pandora’s Actor already complimented Rem’s outfit and didn’t feel the need to repeat himself. This isn’t necessarily funny, per se, but it does make sense. 

This episode is a step in the right direction. The call to avoid the cliched low brow humor was the right one. The results of putting more effort into the jokes are a mixture of funny-dumb and actual-dumb, the combination of which is at least far more entertaining than the last few episodes.