English Dub Review: Deep Insanity THE LOST CHILD “take 01”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

A strange disease is linked to a mysterious hole leading to an underground world: the Asylum. “Sleepers” go into this world to fight strange monsters and recover unknown resources. Now, a young boy who dreams of being a hero has arrived at the Asylum.

Our Take:

The first episode started with a couple of similarities to the game that immediately caught my attention. The first is the setting. We see a city in southern Australia being in a pandemic due to the Randolph Syndrome, a disease that’s been killing off tons of people and mutating them into monsters, as seen in the beginning. This element happened to reminisce the COVID-19 pandemic that we’re currently in, minus the mutation part. Whether it is in poor taste or not is anybody’s guess at this point, but I did feel that the element’s inclusion wasn’t a coincidence.

Another similarity I encountered was the show’s main protagonist, Daniel Kai Shigure (Lee George). The episode sees Daniel joining a group of “Sleepers” to become a hero. He’s assigned to Antarctica Front Platoon 11 to assist his team during his first mission in the Asylum. Watching this character unfold in “take 01” quickly reminded me of Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia, who also enrolls in a particular unit to become a hero. While this character still has plenty of room to develop in later episodes, my first impression of Daniel was pretty solid regarding the direction.

Aside from those two similarities, “take 01” offered a decent introduction to the show’s concept as well as the characters and the monsters known as “Scarred”. From its voice acting to the attractive animation style by Silver Link, the episode managed to shoot its way past its first assignment without dying. My only main issue with the episode was the CGI, mainly for the “Scarred” creature.  

The 2D animation was nicely fluid regarding the characters and the action. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the creature’s CGI design, as it did not transfer well into the 2D environment. It looked like something you would see from an early PlayStation 2 game and not in a good way. Thankfully, it’s only for the “Scarred” and not the infected agent in the episode. Still, I’m hoping that the animators would improve on the CGI in later episodes if they want to continue showing off the “Scarred” in that format.

Overall, “take 01” marked an enjoyable beginning of the franchise’s foray into anime television. Despite a couple of similar elements and the CGI design for the “Scarred”, the episode made it past its first mission without an injury or two. What other assignments will Daniel and Platoon 11 face next week? We’ll just have to wait and see.