English Dub Review: The Great Cleric “A Talent for Martial Arts”
Overview (Spoilers Below):
Luciel registers with the Adventurers’ Guild and begins martial arts training with chief instructor Brod. As part of that training, he is forced to drink Substance X, a mysterious and disgusting beverage that confers special items like a cheat item.
Our Take:
Luciel has officially begun training to hone his martial arts skills to be a reliable healer to the Adventurers’ Guild. Of course, he has to endure the grueling exercises set up by the guild’s chief instructor Brod. As seen in the previous episode, we knew how those went. Thankfully, Luciel’s perseverance and love for his new life are enough to help him keep going. To make things even better for the healer, he’ll get plenty of treatment from the guild during his training period.
Part of the treatment includes Lumina washing Luciel’s old clothes, even though Luciel’s concerned about her getting her prettiness dirty, and eating three meals daily. For the latter, Luciel gets a substantial all-you-can-eat buffet that’ll likely keep anyone’s stomach full for days, maybe even months. The meals are cooked up by the guild’s wolf man chef, Grulga, who also introduces Luciel to a rancid beverage that Luciel calls “Substance X”. It smells awful and tastes like sludgy sewer water, but it also gives Luciel superb perks for six hours. The problem is that he has to drink that stuff every day before training, meaning we might have to deal with Luciel’s facial changes and crazy dance moves every time he does.
The episode is basically a training montage involving Luciel going through the daily routine of becoming more stronger, except he’s not making much progress. He eats his meals, drinks Substance X, gets his ass kicked repeatedly by Brod, goes to bed early, and meditates. Amid the routine, Luciel receives a new patient in the form of a Catfolk woman who got bit by a were-rabbit and learns that he’s part of the guild’s survival. Since Luciel has profound healing magic, everyone in the guild is willing to go to him to have their injuries cured.
It’s all the more reason for Luciel to continue his training and earn enough money to promote himself in the healers’ clinic. Additionally, he’ll be learning a new type of healing magic known as “detoxication cure”, so he will have to work extra hard to prepare himself for his first mission. “A Talent for Martial Arts” does have the usual goofiness we expect from previous episodes, mainly from Luciel’s freak-outs and facial expressions when he drinks the Substance X. They’re still amusing enough to bypass its familiar structure, even though I’m also concerned that they’ll become more irritating than humorous as the series progresses.
