English Dub Review: Fena – Pirate Princess “At Mission’s End”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Goblin Knights continue pawing through the treasure, with Shitan seemingly finding the Kusanagi. Abel and his forces invade Eden and face the knights in a fight, but Abel gets away to see Helena, and also gets red eyes for some reason. On the strange surface, Fena and Yukimaru observe their surroundings, but Abel’s arrival disrupts the clear weather, causing a storm to appear. He and Yukimaru fight, with Abel losing his right arm but powering through with his delusions. However, Helena suddenly appears and puts his soul to rest, only to leave soon after. Fena and Yukimaru are then confronted by Cody, who reveals himself as actually being the “Observer” of her story.

OUR TAKE

Well, that’s all for Abel, I guess. The most we ever really got to know about him was that he was obsessed with Fena’s mother and…that’s all we ever get got in the end. I guess she did say he was the only one she ever loved, apparently enough to forgive the fact that he sent pirates to kidnap her and nearly got her killed several times, even letting him die in her arms and then barely giving her own daughter a few vague words before pissing off. It just feels so disappointing that everything with Abel was just leading up to a short fight and then a drawn out death. It’s not like he was even fighting Yukimaru over Fena, he was just compleltely consumed by madness that he thought he was fighting Fena’s dad, who he apparently killed back on that ship all those years ago but we’re going to brush off despite being a pretty important detail. After all the focus and importance as the main antagonist, it turns out he didn’t need to kidnap or fight anyone at all. He could have just asked Fena to get help going to Eden where he could have died without bothering anyone!

Basically, the problem I see with Abel is the problem with just about every other character in the show: none of them have grown or changed much at all from the start of the series, including Fena herself. This is the second to last episode of the series (despite Toonami saying next week is the “season” finale, since they say that even when shows are definitely over and done with) and I could not tell you most of the Goblin Knights’ names, let alone their personalities and motives. Heck, I only remember Shitan because of his brief conflict about Fena possibly being a witch, which still has not really become in any way relevant in any apparent way. Her mom is for sure one, but we know nothing about what she could do or what Fena is capable of or why any of it matters! And back to Shitan, he seems to have found the Kusanagi blade that was the Knights’ whole reason for going on this journey, but I would bet real money that we are not going to see that thing in action, despite having only one episode left and a big fight being a great opportunity to use it!

I should probably not forget to mention that last minute twist at the end, with Cody briefly flashing to form Fena’s possibly dead father and then claiming he is actually “the observer of her story”. I have no goddamn idea what any of that means and I doubt the writers do either. Cody has not exactly been the most crucial character throughout this series, so I can at least see how throwing him in at this crucial point as the secret final boss would be a surprise, but not one that makes sense. I don’t like to be hyperbolic, mostly because I’m not good at doing it and being funny, but if this turns out to be some forced meta Gainax ending about breaking the fourth wall because Fena is just so important to all of creation, I’m taking a pirate ship to Crunchyroll and unleashing the curse of Davy Jones on all of them. I am beyond done with this show’s asshatery, but let’s see how they can top themselves in the finale.