English Dub Review: Battle Game in 5 Seconds: “Demon God”

Overview: Yuri Amagake (Laura Stahl) is chosen to compete in the insane game battles as she looks back at her rough upbringing. 

Our Take: Yuri Amagake receives the committed focus that I had hoped the main protagonist, Akira, would have gotten in the debut episode, at least to some extent. And like I had thought it works out in dividends for her because she shot up to one of my instant favorites.  

Thankfully, the entire episode is centered on Yuri and the bad circumstances, or chance as most put it, that always leave her with an unfortunate result. Yuri’s backstory throughout its entirety is a well-developed and  honest-to-goodness relatable one. One that most in their life will be able to sympathize in one way or another to, in how no matter if one’s heart is in the right place, it makes little difference if it has no effect on the outcome. The relationship Yuri has with her mother’s lover’s young daughter can’t help but tug at the heartstrings with the little girl’s abusive relationship with her father and Yuri’s own post-traumatic stress still haunting her being emotionally engrossing. With that being said, the way the execution of Yuri’s painful relationship with her mother isn’t perfect in how it is reduced to a single throwaway line and it being goofy and melodramatic. Overall, that’s a small nitpick and it doesn’t take away too much from the final product. 

Yuri’s ending battle finally putting her newfound powers on display was also quite a good time. The allusiveness regarding her the mystery of what her ability isn’t as alluring as Akira’s though because with some reasonable deduction it’s not as difficult to decipher what it is comparatively. The animation was alright enough, some decent quick shots that had some smooth motion to it but nothing jaw-dropping in no long, insanely fluid scene being present. Her antagonist was also better than I had expected despite his disturbingly sexual predator personality that is pretty paint-by-numbers as far as villains go and that was really because he kept upping the ante and being creepier by the minute. From dropping trou to sniffing her, this dude was just a trainwreck I couldn’t help but watch. And unsurprisingly so, her self-contained arc ends with her wanting to take control of her life and push on through to get the results she desires. It’s a great first start for the character and one that is much stronger than that of our main protagonist so far. But if Akira gets the same treatment down the line, we’ll have two incredible leads at the helm to shepherd a promising new series.