English Dub Review: Combatants Will Be Dispatched! “Strong Partner and Smart Partner”

Overview:

Six shows his worth going into battle with the robot to buy time for Alice. He puts up a good fight but eventually gets captured by Russell. Luckily it was enough time for Alice to use evil points to summon a giant spider mech. Afterward they “convince” Russell to make water for the kingdom.

Our Take:

I understand that being a “lolicon” or “shotacon” is a staple cliche of anime. Sometimes though it can be really uncomfortable, like in this episode. Tiger Man has made no point of trying to hide the fact that this is his thing. When Six and Alice can’t convince Russell to make water for the kingdom they bring in Tiger Man. As he describes the things he’s going to do to him it gets… uncomfortable. I know I have used that word a bunch of times now but I can’t think of a word that better describes how it makes me feel. I have seen too many anime ruined by stuff like this, and this was close to that.

Luckily that only made up a small portion of the episode but I thought it bears mentioning for anyone that might be a trigger for. Six has only got a couple of “badass” moments in the show but this episode gives him another one. Seeing him hold of a giant robot all on his own was really cool. It makes you understand how someone who constantly screws up like him still gets to do what he does. When it comes down to it, he is an excellent combat agent, he just needs to be properly motivated.

This episode suffered from a serious lack of an awesome supporting cast though. Alice and Six got most of the screentime while Grimm, Rose, and Snow barely did anything. In fact, I think Snow had maybe one speaking line this episode. For a final episode, I thought it was missing that ensemble moment a lot of shows like this have. Where everyone comes together and puts their differences aside. You can’t build up interesting characters and then just end the show with them doing nothing, but I suppose that was the stopping point in the novel they chose.

This was a funny show that I really enjoyed. I know most people don’t like dubs changing too much but I really liked some of the changes they made. Some of the stuff Six says is downright wild and hilarious. It was the same in the sub too but they changed some of the stuff to fit a western audience. If you are looking for a wild and wacky time then definitely give this show a chance but be warned there are some cringey moments.