English Dub Review: Handyman Saitou in Another World “Ninja and Witch; Memories of an Old Sorcerer”

Overview

“Ninja and Witch” 

Kisurugi and his demon allies swoop down on Saitou and the others once again as he proceeds to assassinate the strongest adventurers in order to obtain the hidden treasure of a mage who can control time, but his reasons aren’t what anyone expects…


“Memories of an Old Sorcerer” 

The dark spirit attacks Saitou and the others with powerful light magic. Even working together, it’s all the skilled adventurers can do to defend themselves. Then Saitou suggests a measure that could turn the seemingly hopeless situation around…

Our Take

In what feels like an unexpected move from Crunchyroll, we now have two Dubbed episodes this week with the continuing storyline of Saitou and his party in the cave and it takes a surprisingly dramatic direction in different ways. For the former episode, while I want to empathize with the Ninja’s party, they seem hard to defend when they come across as kinda stupid and fucking themselves over. I guess the fairy’s hatred for adventurers is warranted but damn! I don’t know if her trauma is making her act irrationally or if it is just bad planning for their group. It kinda makes you wonder Why are they starting shit by ambushing people if they need a wizard? Then the fairy trying to summon some great evil to kill everyone seems like a dumb move…

As for the other episode, we get to learn about Morlock’s past and why he has such intense memory problems. It’s an equally tragic story on a different level and learn that Morlock wasn’t even his original name, along with a half-answer regarding the Saitou tunnel and how did all those things end up there as well. The things you do for the people you care about may differ from the things they want from you. He was cursed with Amnesia in an attempt to cure him of his sadness. Not the worst thing you could do to resolve that situation, but not a very good solution either…

Overall, both episodes excelled in selling the suspense and drama thanks to the use of flashbacks and intertwining narratives that manage to blindside the audience. I feel like if the others might’ve been more willing to listen to that damn Ninja, he probably wouldn’t have gone around killing all the adventurers that he came across. While the other episode conveyed a sad backstory for Morlock, it makes him a bit more of an important character in this show. With the whole team working so well together, I look forward to Morlock’s redemption if he can down the big bad next week…