English Dub Review: BACK ARROW “Are Pretty Boy Farms a Thing?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Shu Bi helps a tiring Elsha by activating the Residual Conviction System that allows the Granedger to move without Elsha. Meanwhile, Kai is in jail and Ren’s life is in danger for three days because of Shu Bi’s actions, but she gets some freedom so long as she doesn’t leave the capital. The Granedger passes through the Walston province and encounters an unknown Briheight in their way telling them to leave. Back Arrow saves the kid, Bruh from being crushed by the Granedger.

The kid in the Briheight, Bruh passes out from hunger. Bruh takes them to the farm where he lives with other pretty boys and tells them about being Lord Walston’s livestock. After fending off Lord Walston and his minions, the Pretty Boys ask them to stay. Back Arrow, fed up with Bruh’s weakness, goes to Walston’s side with Shu Bi and Bit. However, this is an act to get the Pretty Boys to take the Bind Warpers that Lord Walston has and get Lord Walston to leave them alone for good.

Our Take:

This episode marks one of the stops that Back Arrow and the others make on their way to the wall. It’s a pretty average episode with the gang exploring the ship. Then their encounter with the Pretty Boys, and helping the sparkly guys out from an evil Lord that used to do experiments on them.

I’ll start with the fact that the episode does give us a chance to explore the Granedger. We get a few moments with Bit being mocked by Shu Bi and Elsha’s grandpa being wary of Shu Bi and Back Arrow’s intentions. It’s an average start to establish their ship as a living space. There’s also the Residual Conviction System that Shu Bi activates, it a small worldbuilding thing on the system surrounding Convictions.

Then there are the pretty boys being all sparkly. They weren’t what I expected, but at least their sparkles weren’t overwhelming. The human experimentation on them was disturbing. Bruh’s conviction being the one to survive after everyone falls and how guilty he feels about it works to get Back ARrow to do something. Back Arrow changes his perception of his conviction with his little stunt. I’ll admit their plan to act like they were on Walston’s side was good but predictable with Bit on their side.

Rekka’s political situation grows with Kai’s self-humiliation to strengthen his Conviction and Ren’s life in peril for three days. Then there’s Lutoh’s experiments on the Pretty Boys and show us the difference between the two large nations. Both nations squeeze whatever they can out of their resources.

Overall it was a decent episode with the gang helping out the Pretty Boys before continuing their journey.