English Dub Review: Battle Game in 5 Seconds: “Loanshark”

Overview: Akira (Robbie Daymond) faces off against Kuroiwa (Anthony Sardinha) while Yuri (Laura Stahl), Madoka (Billy Kametz) and Shin (Bill Butts) do what they can to take down Oogami (Jalen K. Cassell)

Our Take: A war waged through wits defines the conflict between that of Akira and Kuroiwa. With them playing in the same ballpark in how they approach battles, The Red Team’s four-eyed strategist acts as an intelligent and intimidating foil for Akira. But while Kuriowa has, without a doubt, been Akira’s most trying challenge thus far, it never felt like there was any true danger to Akira because past matches had taught me when to anticipate when he’d reveal exactly how he has already outsmarted his opponent. The actual plan that Akira hatched continued to be ingenious as those that came before with how it was subtly put in place beforehand without one realizing it. Akira is always three steps ahead of his opponent and while that’s fun to watch, to keep the formula fresh there has to be more variety in the proper pacing leading up to it and/or results of his enigmatic confrontations with his opponents. 

Oogami has been nothing but a vicious meat grinder since the beginning of the series, never having even the smallest hint of humanity. That is quickly rectified with the starting moments of his battle with Yuri, after quickly wiping the floor with Madoka and Shin. Oogami’s past hardships with Kuroiwa is simple and to the point one in that it does the bare minimum in establishing context and details, including just what makes their friendship so deep, not to mention the circumstances surrounding how they each ended up at the orphanage or at least a hint of that. The brutality they shared is fine enough but hopefully the next episode with Yuri will finally make me fully sympathize and care about their unfortunate past plights. The same goes for Yuri too, especially with how much she factors in with how their story hits home and will hopefully allow for an emotional one-two punch.