English Dub Review: Utawarerumono Mask of Truth “The One Who Bears the Flute”

Overview

The party travels to Rulutieh’s homeland, where one member of her family doesn’t want her to leave…

Our Take

Oftentimes, I forget Haku has improved in terms of physical combat. His last encounter with Mikazuchi made me think less of him, but he’s been getting better steadily. The drastic change in Haku’s swordplay from not even bothering to draw it against Mikazuchi to using it as his primary weapon against Shis is jarring. It would have been nice to have at least one training scene to justify his improvement.

Meanwhile, the two puppet master generals in the capital seem to be plotting something sinister with some kind of hideous bug. Which leaves more questions than answers at this point…

This was another beautiful episode. I’m glad we’re focusing on other character developments, but most of all, seeing Haku growing stronger due to the akuruka and even being on par or superior to Shis was amazing. It had some decent payoffs, and even episodes that are not heavy on plot or drive the story forward still provide enough nice moments and character interactions to ensure I am looking forward to seeing what direction this could take next.