English Dub Review: I Shall Survive Using Potions! “I’ll Use My Cheat to Destroy an Army!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Despite her warnings, the kids under Kaoru’s care insist on joining her in retaliation against the invading empire, along with Roland and Fran with their soldiers. They manage to hit many of the enemy’s resources but Kaoru still has to save some of the kids from dying. She plans to talk to the enemy directly and realizes her potions are the reason for the war starting, but before she can get far, she’s surrounded and Fran takes the hit for her.

OUR TAKE

Kaoru’s potion manifestation was already pretty remarkable from the start, but this episode is where it officially stepped over into overpowered. Her ability is that she can make a potion that can do anything and put it in any container, and we see now that “any container” also means another person’s body as she releases poison into the bodies of several enemy soldiers. Not enough to kill them, mind you, but just make them pretty painfully sick. There does seem to be some (rather arbitrary) limits on this later, as when she is surrounded she wonders if she’ll be able to do this to every soldier around her, but if that’s the case, then why not just do it from a distance and incapacitate them so they don’t even come near? If you can make any type of potion no matter what, why not release a potion in their bodies that makes them shit their pants instantly? Or belch uncontrollably? Or make them high as a kite? And that’s just the nonlethal options since Kaoru is clearly not a killer, but she’s also aware that she has inadvertently started a war because of her potions, so it may be time to get a little more aggressive if things escalate further.

But even that’s not going to overlook that she brought way too many kids out into a literal warzone. And then got angry at Roland that he decided to bring some soldiers with them. Weird behavior. Oh, but the kids begged to come, you say? Well why the hell does that mean they had to come?! We already see how they almost get themselves killed when the green haired one almost falls down a well, and then she gets saved by being teleported into Kaoru’s bag, which begs the question: Why can’t she just teleport soldiers to do these drops to poison the enemy’s wells and not leave it up to a bunch of ten year olds?! And it’s stuff like all of that which makes it impossible for me to think Fran is in any sort of danger after that poor excuse for a cliffhanger. To be honest, I’d actually think it would be more interesting if she DID die, but I’m not gonna hold my breath. At least we’re halfway through the show now, next we just go down the hill with the remaining half a dozen episodes. The end cannot possibly get here fast enough, even if they all dropped right now.