English Dub Review: Platinum End: “Death Sentence”

Overview: Saki (Laura Post) and Mirai (Alejandro Saab) join forces with God candidate Nananto to take down Kanade Uryu aka Metropoliman.  

Our Take: Ever since she was first introduced as Mirai’s watchful protector, Nasse has been a fascinating character to watch with her kind disposition but indifference to how happiness is achieved for him. However, this time we get to see just how that indifference can be morphed into a more sadistic side when Mirai’s happiness has the potential to hang in the balance from Metropoliman.

Eventually, Saki and Mirai realize they can not handle the danger Metro brings to the table alone, eventually transitioning them to form an alliance with God candidate, Nananto Mukaido. Thus far, the show has not had the best track record of properly introducing characters and developing them in any sort of memorable or meaningful way within the course of one episode. However, where they have struggled before they succeed with Nananto in making him sympathetic and relatbelt due to his terminal illness and how he carries on for himself and his family moving forward. Mirai’s optimism rubs off on Nananto making for a great moment between the two in him wanting him to hold onto hope for himself and therefore his loved ones too. The continued flashback moments with Mirai and his now deceased family continue to suffer from bad writing but are at the very least starting to diversify, even if just a little, from the simple abstract concept of happiness. This is especially heartening considering his motivation to help Nananto and his ideology as a whole weighs on the back of these particular scenes. 

Getting to know the man underneath the bulk blue armor that is Metropoliman is crucial and, thankfully, similarly to Nananto, starts off strong. Nanato clearly defines himself as the foil of the story with his pure lust for power and what he will do to get it. When I say pure, I truly mean it in how interesting Nanato’s ideology is in how it entirely revolves around the simplicity of power, whether it’s for noble or sadistic intentions, as evident by his childish, immature conversation with his friend. The story also smartly frames him with a personal reasoning in wanting to bring his sister back to life, a goal that shows how much he stands by the classic notion of, the ends justify the means and setting him up as a classic, enjoyable villain moving forward.