English Dub Review: Our Last Crusade or a Rise of a New World “Paradise: Iska”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Iska bargains with a nearly incapacitated Rin to let him and his unit leave the Sovereignty in peace if he can defeat Salinger. The Demon is confused as to why a Saint Disciple stands against him. But vows to crush him nonetheless.

Elsewhere, the witch Iska freed from the Empire worries about the situation, and Alice’s presence.

Salinger uses a sonic attack, but Iska is able to cut right through it after seeing the flames flicker. Unimpressed, Salinger shifts tactics, but Iska evades. The Saint Disciple is even able to get in close enough for strike of his own, which takes Salinger by surprise, but not enough to land a hit.

While their battle rages, Salinger mentions he’s never revealed the full extent of his powers. He also mockingly drops hints about his plans for ascendance.

Meanwhile, Alice is organizing the situation at the prison fire. She sends off a group of guards to capture Salinger. As soon as she’s alone, she’s attacked by Nameless. The mysterious soldier leaves after a brief exchange, vowing to return.

Salinger attempts to wrap things up with Iska by combining two opposing elements: fire and water. Iska seems to have made a fatal mistake. However, as Rin trades words with the traitor to her nation, he reveals he wields seemingly contradictory powers as well.

The villain makes one last attempt with lightning, which Alice freezes in the nick of time. Defeated for now, he dramatically falls backwards off the prison tower into a pit.

Rin keeps her promise to Iska, allowing his unit to return to the Empire unimpeded. She and Alice discuss the future, while the mysterious pink haired witch watches, and wishes, from afar.

Our take:

The end of the season looms, and I think I might actually be sad to see this one go. Particularly after this episode, which features some impressively dramatic lines (if slightly on the side of ridiculous.) Salinger is living up to drama queen expectations, from his initial words to Iska to his dramatic exit.

Can I just say though: what is it with anime heroes explaining their skills and weapons to their enemies? You’re just giving them more ammo, dude! But I guess what can you really expect from a genre built on shouting your moves, right?

But back to the show. Daman Mills gets to flex with dramatic lines like “Is it a sideshow skill, or gift from God? A talent, or simply a fluke?” and “Fate granted me a truly formidable opponent at last!” while also showing off his truly maniacal “evil laugh” skills.

Jason Liebrecht is no slouch either, lending just enough edge to his one liners like “Instinct” and playing up the DBZ vibes of Iska’s face off with Salinger without getting too screamy about it.

Despite praising Rin as a character, I feel like I’ve been neglecting how much her voice matters. So shout out to Hayden Daviau! Being able to balance the natural seriousness, distressed mood, and sense of urgency to Crusade‘s maid in this episode is no small feat, and they truly do it up in style.

Bringing back Nameless is also an interesting choice for this episode. His character makes an excellent, Empire-based foil for Salinger, since both pursue “ultimate power” in their own ways, but I’m interested in seeing if they’ll be facing off, or banding together (temporarily, and only to serve their own ends, of course.)

What’s really killing me though is Risya’s reveal! What is with her!?

To follow such a dramatic moment with such a casual line (delivered with deadly nonchalance by the incredible Dani Chambers) before breaking the 4th wall, too. The animators HAD to have done that on purpose. I can’t wait until we see her true power, even if I’m suffering with this random little hints.

My final note for this episode is that the soundtrack is *chef’s kiss*. The vigorous string segments that build up in a swirling crescendo to Iska’s final strike against Salinger really makes this fight next-level. I’m looking forward to future action sequences, especially if they feature this kind of accompaniment.