English Dub Review: Tribe Nine: “Without Him…”

Overview: Reeling from their painful loss, Taiga (Phillip Sacramento), Haru (Casey Mongillo) and the rest of the ex-tribe members must come together to rescue Saori (Brittany Karbowski) from the Adachi Tribe. 

Our Take: In a surprising turn of events, the episode’s opening moments cuts to the chase of Shun’s deteriorating health and the aftermath with his sudden demise, seemingly. It’s also fitting to see just as Shun’s death came and went as does the Minato tribe’s comradery with the group fractured as a whole and causing internal conflict about whether Sataro and Minami, who were privy to Shun’s sickness, should have been more forthcoming and what could’ve been done differently before the game with the Chiyoda tribe. Shun’s death does bring up an interesting question: Is it real or just a subversion? The story addressing this through Shun’s joking of that very plot element and leaving his valuables to the others is a clever way of keeping that intrigue and one guessing. Only time will tell with some more droplets of hints throughput no doubt paving the way towards the answer. 

 Before the Minato Tribe can even start to heal, Saori gets kidnapped by a new gang in the Adachi tribe, and must compete in a XB game with them in order to do so. Their leader, Hyakutaro Senju, distinguishes himself as a nice change of pace from Ojori or Shun with his overly cocky personality.  

With him he brings an interesting team in Rankichi and Tatsuto, who are fun personalities to watch in how crazy and stoic they are, respectively. Their home field advantage in understanding their maze-like XB field like the back of their hand makes for a complete domination that is a strong showcase for how disjointed they are as a team without Shun and in a field that is foreign to them. What turns around their dire circumstances is that of a new character in the mysterious Kool-Aid haired, Kazuki Aoyama. Making himself known as an acquaintance of Shun, he very much sets himself as the polar opposite of him in every way with his intellectual and condescending nature. However, one key aspect remains wonderfully intact in Aoyama’s great chemistry with the rest of the team. His playful remarks about Taiga and the other’s primate demeanor is hilariously brutal, evoking that of Shun’s dynamic with him. How Aoyama is connected to Shun is a mystery, and a very interesting one at that in how much different yet similar he is to him, that will undoubtedly become more so as the series goes on.