English Dub Review: Ragna Crimson “Negotiation and True Nature”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Starlia’s ability to see a person’s true nature puts Crimson at a disadvantage, but when Ragna suddenly appears, the princess sees something in him she’s never seen before.

Our Take:
Crimson has gotten into a real pickle, thanks to Ragna’s uncontrollable rage. While they succeeded in destroying Ultimatia’s confidence, there’s still the matter of her empowering partner Nebulim to deal with. But the enraging Monarch is the least of their problems, as they wound up in the Lese army base led by Princess Starlia. If you can’t tell by the previous episode, Starlia is a very formidable foe for Crimson to overcome, and it’s not because of her profound telekinesis. It’s primarily due to her ability to detect all kinds of aura and personality, including Crimson’s, making her impervious to his deception. In short, Starlia is a human-shaped lie detector without arms and legs.
We’ve seen Crimson easily overcome obstacles with his cleverness and deceitfulness throughout the previous few episodes. However, he can also be short-tempered whenever things don’t go his way, especially when it involves Ragna’s obsession with killing dragons. “Negotiation and True Nature” shows that Crimson’s manipulation techniques aren’t always helpful, showcasing his slight vulnerability. Lucky for him, Ragna awakens from unconsciousness in time to prevent Crimson’s supposed downfall, but that doesn’t mean all is forgiven between the two unlikely partners. Then again, Crimson couldn’t die, so the stakes weren’t too exciting.
With Ragna being seen by Starlia as her ideal man, it looks like Ragna and Crimson will be hanging around at the princess’s base for a while. It’s probably the best option they got, especially since Ultimatia and Nebulim are still on the loose. Well, mainly Nebulim since Ultimatia is still affected by her inescapable trauma. I don’t blame her for feeling this way because her nightmare involving her and the Dragon God was pretty terrifying.
Besides its dark material, “Negotiation and True Nature” surprisingly relied a bit more on its physical comedy, with Starlia being wildly affectionate toward Ragna and her guards failing to defeat him. We also have Slime back in his minuscule form, for better or worse, and Starlia’s maid, Nazarena, knocking some sense into the princess. Whether its humor works in this episode would depend on how the viewer felt about it in the previous ones. In my eyes, it can be a tad off-putting at times, but most of them are passable enough to provide some chuckles.