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

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Misaki and Xiaoyu team up to take on Momoya. But are even the two of them together a match for this gangly member of the Agakura clan? Meanwhile, Iwanome gets a phone call from his past.

Our Take:

Takumi landed himself in hot water when his past caught up to him in the previous episode, as if the sudden return of Solitaire wasn’t troubling enough. Lucky for him, Misaki arrives to save the day, thanks to her vampiric abilities Polka gave her. However, as we had seen in the last episode, Misaki may have met her match in the form of Momoya and his equally psychotic partner Hikaru. Fortunately, the half-vampire assassin got herself an unexpected ally to help her rescue the tormented Takumi, Xiaoyu, who also followed the Agakura member to their hideout.

Amid the confrontation, we also see that Takumi isn’t the only person whose past returns to haunt them, as Iwanome also gets a visit from an old friend via a phone call. That friend is Hosorogi, who convinced Polka to switch his soul with a bird to warn Iwanome about a mole in the police department, who is later revealed as the senior commissioner. We were led to believe that Ron was the mole based on who he was talking to on the phone, but it turned out that he was talking to Kocho, his sister. I hope that Hosorogi will remain as a bird for the remainder of the season. It’s much easier to understand him now as a talking bird instead of a mute pen who writes everything down and expects the viewers to keep up without English subtitles. Plus, Hosorogi’s bird voice was unsurprisingly as amusing as Beta’s chipmunk voice in Pixar’s Up.

These moments in “The Fake” share an equal amount of entertaining stylized action and rewarding surprises that’ll play a huge factor in the remaining episodes. The confrontation between Misaki and Momoyo has the assassin showing off more of her new abilities, including her limbs being made of bats. Her strategy involving her powers allowed Xiaoyu to kill Momoyo, but Hikaru managed to escape during the battle. Unfortunately, Momoyo’s death only prolonged the struggle for the Corpse God and his allies, as his big sister gets her chance to shine in avenging her psychotic brother. If she turns out to be as dangerous as Momoyo, it’ll surely be a family feud we’ll never forget.