English Dub Review: Tribe Nine: “Tribe-Packed XB Tourney”
Overview: Haru (Casey Mongillo) and the rest of the Minato Tribe set out to earn some ducats in order to pay the damages done to their diner.
Our Take: Almost nothing good comes from filming a girl in her underwear, unless they are into that sort of thing of course. While most would consider that common sense, that clearly seems to be something that Santarou lacks when he tries to capture Saori fresh out of the shower, which of course could only lead to one thing: pain. Pain but also damages to the diner as Santarou’s thrashing causes Haru’s bat to go haywire. To make matters worse, a thief goes lurking in the night in an attempt to steal Haru’s bat. Aoyama is slowly but surely forging trust with the gang. However, he is still a suspicious character to say the least with this episode, and Haru, positioning him as a prime suspect for the robber who attempted to steal Haru’s bat, because of a scratch mark matching the one that the masked robber got from the store cat in his escape and a suspicious look after getting Taiga to go train. But are things ever that simple?
In need of money to fix damages caused by Santarou’s idiocy, the Minato Tribe decides to compete in an XB batting competition to win some fat stacks. But first they’ll have to go through that of Eiji Todoroki. The beefy boy never defies the stereotype you’ve come to expect from evil heavyset corporate sleazeballs. However, he is so over-the-top with his lust for women and money that he is comically enjoyable.
The Adachi Tribe also appears serving as the comedic relief with them quickly thrown out after they drank a juice provided by the Todoroki’s bikini clad employees. It becomes very clear that this competition is anything but honest as the competition is rigged by Eiji, who clearly has some endgame plan for the Minato Tribe. It’s this mystery surrounding Eiji’s but also Aoyama’s plan that keeps things intriguing. When Haru reminds us of his dedication to his friends and his honorable nature in general in his refusal the prize money due to the contest being rigged and not fair. This allows for Aoyama to eventually reveal Eiji being the email spammer to buy Haru’s bat and that he hired one of his girls to steal it and he only put on the contest to lure the bat away from Haru and take it for himself. This episode does a good job of rousing suspicion on how Aoyama is involved in the failed theft attempt and what Eiji wants for the XB team
In an interesting twist, the poor, decrepit XB team, the Ota Tribe, turned out to be the deceivingly thieving masterminds behind the bombing on Todoroki’s mansion and the theft of his gold bars. The Otori tribe turns to them to take out Aoyama and they make their own unique introduction with their tribe being violently unruly and their leader even more so, setting themselves up as imposing antagonists for Haru, Saori and the gang.
