English Dub Review: The Case Study of Vanitas “A Chance Encounter”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Vanitas and Noé travel to Gévaudan in search of a creature known as the Beast, but things take a turn for the worse when Noé gets separated from the group and then runs into a murderous Chasseur known as Garnet. Meanwhile, Vanitas and co. have run into the beast itself, who is being hunted by none other than Jeanne. A big battle ensues when all the factions meet up, but at the end of it, Noé is unconscious and Vanitas is nowhere to be seen.

Our Take:

It’s only been a week since Funimation released the dubbed recap episode that came out between parts 1 and 2 of Vanitas, but now the first episode of the second part is out! We really aren’t pushing on the brakes at all, but that’s probably a good thing because there’s a lot of stuff to get through in this premiere of part 2.

The episode starts out by showing us the same footage that we already saw at the end of the recap episode, which is a little disappointing, but not unexpected. From there, though, things get interesting real quick as Dante, Johann, and Vanitas encounter a group of Dragoons searching for the beast. Vanitas thinks they must be traveling back in time to when the beast first arrived in Gévaudan, and it seems like a good assumption at first.

However, back with the lost Noé, he sees a crazy-looking Chasseur murdering the platoon of Dragoons, so maybe the soldiers are the ones who were stuck in time? The Chasseur is Astolfo, and he’s pretty much instantly become my new least favorite character. He’s about as stereotypical an anime villain as they come, screaming all his lines and having no motive other than liking to kill people who get in his way. He even injects himself with some sort of superpowered drug in order to enhance his fighting abilities. Some of the battle scene between Noé, Astolfo, and Vanitas is well done, but I just really dislike Astolfo’s type of antagonist and hope he doesn’t stick around for very long.

He also just doesn’t seem to fit in with the general vibe of the episode. At the start, I was really enjoying the magical witchy forest feel, but then he comes along with his loud ways and kills the mood 17th century horror mood. Although to be fair, he wasn’t the only thing that killed the mood. I was really excited to see a long, drawn out search for the beast where the horror vibes are amped up, but the beast reveals itself super quickly as a giant wolf that has zero sneak ability. So much for making this episode tense and spooky!

There is still some mystery left at the end of things, as a mysterious man shows up and takes the beast, named Chloe, back to a mountain castle. I’m definitely most invested in this storyline, and not in anything about Astolfo or Charlatan, who randomly shows up at the climax of the episode to make an already full final battle even fuller. We have Noe battling Jeanne, who’s already battling the beast. And then Charlatan battling Vanitas who is already after the Chasseur. It makes for a weird end to an episode that I liked the beginning of, and not a good kind of weird.

Overall, I think I’d have to call this first episode of the second half of the season a disappointment. I was really into the whole mood at the start, and looking forward to the show slowing things down and building up some tension organically. But by the halfway point, things were already back to their old ways, with lots of old and new characters showing up and fighting each other. The beast would’ve felt so much scarier had they had to hunt for it a while, or if it wasn’t a fifty foot tall glowing red wolf. Still, I have some hope left that the creepiness factor can be ramped up next week. After all, we are still in a potentially time traveling forest full of potential.