English Dub Review: Nekopara “Oh No! Bell Renewal Exams”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Chocola is dismayed to find out the news that it’s almost time for her and Vanilla to retake their bell exams. Cats can’t go outside by themselves unless they have a bell on to prove they’ve successfully mastered the art of living in a human society apparently, so it’s pretty important.

They ask their older sister cats for help, but the assistance they receive is of dubious quality. Coconut just has them do her chores, and Cinnamon teaches them weird things about flower pollination? Luckily Miss Maple has a more helpful approach to their instruction. When the day comes, they both pass with flying colors and then visit a market with Miss Shigure to celebrate.

Our Take:

The tenth episode of Nekopara is the first episode recorded entirely from the homes of the English cast. It stars Chocola and Vanilla, which is always a fun combination. While there wasn’t a whole lot of drama or stakes, it was still a sweet episode with some cute cats.

The majority of the plot involves all of Chocola and Vanilla’s older sister cats trying to train them in order to pass the bell exam. It’s a good way to show off the individual quirks of each cat, although some of their skits missed the mark, like Cinnamon’s weird sex talk about flower stems? Yeesh. Many of them were a lot more funny though, like seeing Chocola trying to cut onions without shedding a tear, or watching Coconut poking holes in screens so that they will know what not to do.

Chocola and Vanilla are probably some of the two most interesting characters in the series, so focusing on them for an episode was cool, and since it involved all of the other cats trying to teach them things, it still provided enough entertainment even if they aren’t among your favorite felines. I really enjoyed Cacao’s contributions to the episode. Seeing Chocola trying hard to be a good role model for her younger kitten sister was sweet, and though Cacao can be a little too monotone at times, here she showed enough emotion to come across well.

The dub is very good, and it’s definitely worth noting that this was everyone’s first time recording entirely from home. It’s a process that supposedly takes twice as long as doing it in the Funimation studios, so props to them for making it happen! There were a few groan worthy puns, like the tried and true cat-tastrophe. However, I did really enjoy the line where Chocola said ‘paw-don me’.

Oh No! Bell Renewal Exams is a nice little episode, and it’s a good break from the craziness of the world right now. It’s good to see that Funimation can keep up the quality of their dubs even when the actors and crew are working from home.