English Dub Review: Kageki Shojo!!” The Chosen Maidens”

Overview

Ai tries to make up with Sarasa, but seemingly the latter ignores her. They later get to watch a Winter Troupe performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Kouka Theater, where Ai is noticed by the companion of one of the Kouka actresses passing by. Meanwhile, Ayako struggles to keep up with the rest of her class. As her diet grows more extreme & detrimental to her health, she begins to wonder if she really belongs in the world of Kouka…



Our Take

Damn! This episode was so hard to watch but for all the right reasons. Ayako falling victim to Bulimia and steadily declining became the primary focus this time around, as it effectively spotlighted its superficial ugliness in all its aspects. but what made me angrier was her teacher’s indifference towards it. “Weak women don’t make it in show business” It disgusted me that nobody took into account that this is a 14-15-year-old girl and these fuckers were mercilessly fat-shaming her! Kids are so impressionable at that age and pushing such a dangerous lifestyle on somebody so young isn’t going to help them on a productive level. At most, it’s the extreme opposite…

Luckily, we get the juxtaposition of a bad teacher like Tachibana with a good teacher in the form of Onodera who was exactly what Ayako needed at that moment. I think without him, she most likely would’ve been knocking on death’s door. When it wasn’t putting Ayako’s issues center stage, we also got some character progression in regards to Ai, as she’s doing her best to make things right with Sarasa.

Overall, this episode once again shows that this anime is quite unique in terms of handling such a touchy subject as Bulimia with realistic & unflinching aplomb. Japanese media reportedly has an infamous track record of trivializing mental illness because actual solutions of helping people such as mental healthcare are considered to be taboo in Japan, you’re either stigmatized or deemed as weak or worthless if you have mental health problems and ask for help, as it’s seen as only a willpower/”toughen up” kinda thing. Up until this point, all the episodes really centered around Sarasa and Ai, but this episode shows us that the writing is equally capable of centering a story around one of the side characters and still produce something of decent quality.