English Dub Review: BACK ARROW “What is the Bloodstained Knight Hiding?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The villagers receive a warm welcome from Lutoh’s princess, Fine Forte. They get to eat a large feast while Elsha and Atlee meet with the Princess in the bags. Shu Bi meets with the other miracle of Lutoh to discuss terms and conditions. Meanwhile, Back Arrow exhausts himself over breaking the wall and chats with the doctor who stayed behind with him. However, Commander Prax comes back to take Arrow by force once more. Arrow tries to use her flying Briheight to go over the wall, but the wall’s defenses stop them from going any further.

Prax takes Back Arrow back to Lutoh and Bit sees Back Arrow’s arrival and communicates with Shu Bi and they coordinate to meet up and free Back Arrow. Back Arrow wakes up after a Lutoh scientist uses electrodes to get a reaction from him. A masked Commander Prax watches on as Bit and Shu Bi find them. Bit and Shu Bi rescue him, but in the process reveal that the masked Commander Prax is Princess Fine has another personality that is not peaceful.

Our Take:

This episode takes the villagers to Lutoh while Back Arrow continues to attack the wall. The pacing was decent going from the villagers to Back Arrow and the doctor. There are also subtle details like Back Arrow’s conversation with doctor Sola that hint at his past and running away from something. Back Arrow is still surprisingly deep when it comes to conversations.

Now Lutoh, like any large nation, has its good and bad aspects. For starters, Princess Fine, who believes in love and peace unlike the Emperor of Rekka runs the nation. She has six nobles known as the Six Supremes under her command. However, despite the Princess’s kind intentions, there is a dark side to Lutoh mostly with human experimentation. We’ve seen it so far with the Pretty Boys and now Back Arrow on how willing Lutoh is with such methods. There’s also the interesting remark from Shu Bi about Lutoh modifying their Bind Warpers more specifically Commander Prax’s. Her Briheight’s ability to fly is new. It works to develop the plot and possibilities of a power-up for Briheights aside from naming their Briheights to strengthen their connection with their conviction as mentioned in the previous episode.

It’s clear that the villagers, Elsha, and Atlee are way out of their league when entering Lutoh. Take for example the feast for the villagers and the need for manners which they clearly don’t have. Their happiness at all the food is a blunt reminder of their former days of struggling to survive and it makes their joy at the prospect of land from Princess Fine even more worrisome since it’s just a verbal agreement. Then there’s the girls’ bath with the Princess as she explains diplomacy to them. Hopefully, this will be a chance for them to learn more about the political side of things and how to work it to their benefit. Atlee and Elsha’s conversation works well to strike that emotional nerve of their situation.

Then there’s Back Arrow’s struggle with Commander Prax as she shows him why it’s impossible to get beyond the wall. You would think that he could use her Briheight to fly over the wall. Well jokes on him because there are flying weapons in the sky that prevent anyone from going past them. It’s interesting to hear Commander Prax’s commentary on the wall defenses and how they’re all trapped. I liked how the episode gradually gives us more of the world and its dangers to Back Arrow and the others.

Overall things got a little more interesting with the ending of this episode. I doubt Lutoh is going to let them escape after seeing the Princess’s secret.  Hopefully, they’ll get out of that sticky situation with all their limbs intact.