English Dub Review: Fena – Pirate Princess “Memories; An Inherited Journey”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Ten years after losing her family and about to be auctioned off to a sleazy suitor, Fena Hautman is finally saved by her childhood friend Yukimaru and former soldiers who used to serve her family. She is taken to Goblin Island, where she is informed about a clear stone that only her family knew how to use to unlock a great mystery in “Eden”, the last thing her father told her before dying. After getting to know Yukimaru’s group, she sets off with them in a submarine towards adventure.
OUR TAKE
Toonami is at it again in producing another series, this time a collaboration between Crunchyroll and frequent collaborators Production I.G.. Toonami original programs have been few and far between. There are the totally original animated segments like The Intruder or the most recent The Forge that add some flavor to the block’s hosts, TOM and Sara, but they’ve occasionally been known to dip their toe in making totally new stories. The first of these was the IGPX “micro-series” and eventual 26 episode series that aired in the mid-2000’s, but once the block was revived in the 2010’s, they worked with BONES to air dubbed episodes of the instant classic Space Dandy on American TV hours before the Japanese premiere. Following that, there were the…uh, let’s say “divisive” two new seasons of FLCL, Progressive and Alternative, in 2018, and now we have two more shows. The upcoming Blade Runner: Black Lotus later this fall, and the subject of these reviews, Fena: Pirate Princess. Both of these are also Crunchyroll Originals, which is understandable cause for concern since Crunchyroll Originals are a pretty mixed bag. Sometimes you get The God of High School, which was well received, and sometimes you get Ex-Arm, which is likely to go down as one of the worst anime of this year.
As for Fena’s first two episodes, a good sign off the bat is that the show is absolutely gorgeous so far, keeping my eyes on the screen at all times. The character designs are pretty good looking so far as well, being simple but detailed, giving the setting and costumes character and personality, which will be good because I currently have a hard time telling a lot of these characters apart. These episodes are mainly about rescuing Fena from where she ended ten years ago and the explaining to her the plot that she’ll be following: searching for this Eden with this clear stone to guide them and probably rekindling romance between her and Yukimaru. This isn’t exactly the most revolutionary storyline, but with only ten episodes left to go, I think I’m willing to stick around and see where it goes. However, it is a bit different a story for Toonami originals, which tend to focus on sci-fi and/or space travel stories, which reflect the block’s fictional setting that is typically on a giant spaceship. Though where I think this does match up is the meeting of East and West aesthetics, with Fena clearly being from some European family and Yukimaru obviously Japanese, which is certainly reflective of how creating original anime for western audiences combines these two cultures, even if only superficially. Guess we’ll see where this voyage takes us.
