English Dub Review: BOFURI: I Don’t Want to get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense “Defense and Attack”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The fourth event gets more heated as top guilds pick off the weaker ones. This includes the Order of the Holy Sword with their leader, Payne taking down the guilds single-handedly. The Maple Tree guild successfully defends for three hours. Sally heads out to take more orbs, and soon after Kanade goes out feeling cooped up. They both earn a few orbs while Iz, Kasumi, and Kuromu ambush the guilds seeking to take back their orbs from around the base. Then Sally gets ambushed by several members of the Order of the Holy Sword including Frederica. Right before the last blow Maple rescues Sally and unleashes a torrent of pain to the Order while successfully retreating.

Back at base Dread sneaks in and kills the twins to take the orbs. However, Maple gets there in time to protect the orbs and defeat Dread. Later Sally shows the guild the map data she collected when she attacked the other guilds. Sally enacts Plan B the next day with Maple attacking the other guilds and after she and the twins secure nine orbs they fly to the Flame Emperors. The Flame Emperors manage to stall for their guild leader, Mii to arrive and face off against Maple.

Our Take:

For starters, Payne is even a bigger monster than Maple cause he can basically take on several guilds without anyone’s help. He is the top player in the game for a reason, but he did all of that without using skills or magic. That’s just plain ridiculous like even Maple uses her skills to mow down her enemies. Admittedly this makes me curious about what kinds of skills he has, but that for another episode.

It also looks like Sally’s strategy was useful in her skirmish with Frederica and her other guild members. Maple coming to the rescue while simultaneously destroying the Order’s guild members was a delight to watch in all of its animated madness. The other Maple Tree members get their fun with their new skills. Personally I liked Kuromu’s Dead or Alive skill, it reminds me of a zombie.

Meanwhile, Dread’s assault on the base was a good fight for the twins while most of the members were occupied with the other guilds. Personally, I wouldn’t want to get hit by those hammers the twins got since they maxed out their attack stat. Dread’s physical reaction to the Aftershock hit shows that the twins can pack a heavy hit. However, when Maple returns and launches an attack on Dread, Syrup got pierced by his blade and Maple took damage as a result. Sally didn’t miss that and most likely neither did Dread as he promises to come back with most people. He could easily report that back to his guild, but we’ll have to wait for the next episode to find out.

The Plan B strategy works wonders with Maple being unstoppable at the Flame Emperors’ base even when there are traps specifically for her. However, by now some of her skills like Predator and Loving Sacrifice have been revealed. The Flame Emperors could have a countermeasure for them next time the guilds face off. Admittedly, I look forward to Maple and Mii’s destructive match in the next episode.