English Dub Review: The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? “Toxic? Are You Kidding Me?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Well and his group talk with Kurt about their business there: they’re going to purify some warrior zombies in the area, but Kurt wants a big tribute if they find materials. He was already quite the jerk when they were younger, but now he’s evolved into quite the toxic client, so much so that others would rather have Well be the main heir instead of Kurt, not that that’s possible with Well leading his own independent line now. The next day, the party draws out the zombies by…making fun of them? Then purifying them all in one big spell, though some zombified monsters require a bit more force to take down.

Once that’s done, Kurt asks that all the recovered armor be used for materials, even though the villagers were hoping that they’d use them for burial. Well steps in by making some of his own iron, once again gaining the town’s favor. In fact, it seems Well will be adventuring in this area for the time being, which ramps up Kurt’s paranoia that Well has come to take his place as heir, not helped by him clearly being more popular among the villagers. In fact, despite Well wanting to be an adventurer, it turns out the king and all the villagers wish for Well to take over.

OUR TAKE
The storyline to take us into the finale starts by bringing back the whole family succession stuff from early on into the story again. I’m not super thrilled about this since, well, it’s not a very interesting plot in the first place, even if it’s part of the show’s title. I can’t say I was very interested in the other stuff going on, but I probably could’ve thought of four or five other things that I think probably would’ve made for a more compelling last few episodes. Kurt is a pretty weak rival for Well, being made up entirely of jealousy and hate to the point that nobody gives a crap about him. In fact, I don’t think it’s even accurate to say he’s a rival since it’s so one sided that everyone, literally EVERYONE else, prefers Well to Kurt. And I’m always wary of stories that give their protagonists carte blanche as the undisputed good guy over the antagonist. Nothing about this challenges Well in really ANY significant way as a character. He doesn’t want to be in charge of the area but I guess he’ll have to, not because he’s the right guy for the job but because Kurt is just that bad AND he’s the main character.

Oh yeah, so glad that Wilma joined the team as a bodyguard. Her deep and complex characterization as “the one who is always hungry” is sure doing leaps and bounds for the dialogue and character development. Have I mentioned that all of her lines pertain to food and she has no real relationship with anyone? Again, such an important addition to the team. Glad to have her. As you can tell I’m clearly being sarcastic because I can’t really find much else to discuss about this episode. I’ve got no sympathy for Kurt but really, we’re not supposed to because he is designed to be shitty to make Well look good. I can’t disagree with that just to be contrarian, but that just makes it really difficult to think about this episode effectively in any interesting way. Kurt sucks, Well is good, Kurt will probably die before learning anything or trying to grow as a person and Well will probably stay awesome and good because he has no reason to change whatsoever. If the show wants to prove me wrong, they’ve got two more episodes to do it, so I would suggest they get cracking. At least if I hadn’t already watched those episodes ahead of time and found out that’s exactly what’s going to happen.