English Dub Review: Fena – Pirate Princess “A Knight’s Vow”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Bonito crew head to an island with a doctor they know to heal Yukimaru. While waiting for him to recover, Shitan accuses Fena for putting a spell on Yukimaru and everyone else, apparently because he was told she came from a long line of witches, but he lets go of this after a heartfelt talk with her. Once Yukimaru is awake, he recommits himself to helping Fena learn more about herself when they find Eden.

OUR TAKE

We’re two thirds of the way through the series now and we’ve finally hit an episode that legitimately downright sucks. I’ll leave that up to you at home to determine if that may be actually better than the pretty but bland level of quality that we had up until now, but I’m getting an increasing feeling that this ship is about to be dashed against the rocks, and it all comes from Shitan’s whole character arc culdesac over here. First off, he blames Fena for making the crew wanted men by the rest of the Goblin Island forces, but HE’S the one who sent word back to them and triggering them to go hunting the crew! And his reasoning is absurd at even a basic surface understanding. So Fena is apparently a witch of some kind…because the old guy they all work for SAYS she’s a witch, and the only way he knows that is that her mother got someone really obsessed with her (presumably Abel). That’s some sexist horseshit if I ever heard it, not to mention what sounds like it would have been a hell of a lot more interesting to see if it was true. Give me Fena: Pirate Witch any day because the Princess part sure hasn’t bothered to play into things!

But yay, it seems that all of this anger was really from how close he is to Yukimaru, who got hurt on the ship ten years ago when he sent Fena away to save her. I don’t know if they’re implying any romantic feelings for him or just a close friendship, but either way, all of this feels incredibly weak for a conflict, especially since it’s resolved just by Fena just Fena-ing at him for a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, Fena is a perfectly likable girl and I can see why the crew came to accept her so fast, but I could not buy for a second that she was clever enough to manipulate them to do anything against their best interests, which is honestly kind of a problem with her character too. She’s boring. Nice, fun, innocent, and malleable, but boring. She hasn’t changed all that much, or really at all, since the show started, so I can’t buy any conflict like happening. And considering we’re over halfway through the show, I don’t expect it happening by the end either. Next week looks to be a flashback episode about Abel’s motivations and Fena’s mother, so at least we’ll get some more insight into that and maybe the Joan of Arc connection, but Abel’s pretty boring too, so there’s not a lot to look forward to.