English Dub Review: Dead Mount Death Play “The Beginning”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
While everyone scrambles to discover the secret of the emblem, Polka receives an unexpected visitor. The modern world’s most dangerous individuals are starting to realize that the fortune teller is more than he appears.

Our Take:
The ultimate confrontation starts to heat up thanks to the appearance of the emblem from the Corpse God’s home world. With everyone attempting to decipher this mysterious phenomenon, anything goes as to how the series’s first cour will conclude. Although, I would’ve been more excited if the people from Crunchyroll got their heads out of their asses and released the episodes on time. They were doing so well with the timing for the first nine episodes, and now that we’re at the tail end of the first cour, they started to test our patience.
As much as I enjoy watching this reverse-isekai series, these sudden delays are ridiculous and should be accounted for. It’s bad enough that we had to endure several episodes without the subtitles available immediately, and now we have to deal with this crap. This episode is no different, with it being released late with no English subtitles. Since this is another episode involving the pen, Hosaragi, communicating through writing, it’s a pain for me not knowing what he’s saying without a translator. As a result, I couldn’t get invested in its plot as much as the previous episodes.
What I do know about “The Beginning” is that Polka uses his fortune teller duties to search for answers about the Emblem of the Falling Gods. However, his latest customer, Shota, is revealed to be the Phantom Solitaire in disguise, looking for the real identity of the strange fortune teller. Afterward, Tsubaki and Arase gather their crew to catch Solitaire and possibly Polka, including Yatsu. During that time, we get a flashback showcasing more of the Corpse God’s painful past that made him walk the path he’s on. He failed to protect the people around him as he promised his teacher, causing him to leave everything behind. Of course, this is interrupted by a strange fiery message on the wall and an unexpected call from the Fire Burning Bug, who knows the Corpse God’s title.
This is one of the few surprises in “The Beginning”, along with Sayo’s bodyguard Shayu having sharp claws. For the latter, this raises the question of whether the poisoned fungus that affected his body might cause this sudden transformation or something far worse. The penultimate episode of the show’s first cour can be frustrating to follow without the subtitles. Regardless, it’s a passable set-up to next week’s showdown that’ll likely bring the first half to a thrilling conclusion.