English Dub Review: The Dawn of The Witch: “Respective Costs, A Stone Cast Into the Pond”

Overview: Saybil (Travis Mullenix), Hort (Kimmie Britt) and Kudo (Joe Cucinotti) reunite with a brutal murderer as Holdem (David Wald) pays a surprise visit and later, an unknown assailant later infiltrates the village.

Our Take: Holdem’s scheme with Tyrant finally makes itself known and thankfully it is not as derivative or half-baked as a motivation in him merely wanting revenge on Saybil. He decided to test the village’s defense using Tyrant to infiltrate it and deliver Saybil to the kingdom, to establish the weaknesses of it.

It is also good for Saybil to finally have established his goal in choosing to become a mage to be able to help and protect his friends and as his father asks him to stay away from him. And for just a few episodes, it was developed surprisingly well in his fear of being a liability for his friends. Another way of progression comes in Saybil gathering pieces of his past in remembering the horrific atrocity that happened to his mother, dredging up previous pain. How that will change him remains to be seen but the prospect of him becoming more fully fleshed out and developing as a result is exciting. Before he can fully deal with his memories, Tyrant attempts to abduct Sayb, informing him of his job and defeating him along with Kudo and Hort who come to his aid. This allows us to get a quick look at not only his eyes but how badass Priest is in his use of wires dismembering Tyrant’s limbs like gummy worms.  

Holdem explains the situation to Zero, Mercenary, Lo and the gang, eventually spawning a discussion of what to do with Tyrant. It is a complex moral quandary surrounding the Church and the witch faction with biases surrounding who warrants forgiveness based on egregious actions that have been taken on both sides. It is a strong character building moment for Hort in putting the greater good above her reservations and hatred for Tyrant in the group, making him a protector and worker for the village. 

With Sayb realizing he may have feelings for Professor Lo and just beginning to get his feet wet in learning about love and other emotions, it will be curious if it is purely romantic, motherly, or somewhere in between in how he sorts them out and distinguishes them. Also, where that leaves Hort and her feelings for him, especially when she wants Sayb to rely on her whenever he needs help sorting through how he feels, will be a complicated love triangle moving forward. He learns about his father from Zero and trains to properly administer magic to not overload and kill someone like Hort. It is great to see him finally playing a more active role in his magic development and not debating his goals for another four episodes that would tediously pace it out. Tyrant’s role in the village also makes for an uneasy tone as he rocks the boat trying to make people fear him. However, a new introduction in Lady Heartful makes for an impressionable, strong-willed woman, who has an intense and intriguing dynamic with Tyrant, putting him in his place and seeing through his childish tactics. Heartful along with a young poor boy, who infiltrates the village and is taken down, thickens the plot of someone scheming from the shadows, most likely a higher up in the church within the peace faction, as Lo theorizes, trying to disrupt the peace. 

We also get a look at how different the culture surrounding the village is compared to the rest of the world in the villagers behaving kindly towards Tyrant, if he does nothing to warrant their fear. Also Tyrant, thankfully, is not just a one note vicious, meat head and has a softer side towards Heartful’s students. Hort dealing with her PTSD surrounding Tyrant murdering her village and how that affects her understandable hatred towards him will be interesting to see evolve as they get to know each other and her cracking the whip on him.