English Dub Review: Blue Exorcist “True Cross Academy Festival”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

It’s time for the True Cross Academy Festival (just like the title) and that also means it’s almost time for a dance! Rin and Shima try desperately to get a date but can’t find anyone even after a couple dozen tries, but a new hope emerges: Shiemi has finally joined the academy as a student!…but then lets slip that she’s planning to ask Yukio, to both Rin and Yukio’s surprise. When Paku suggests Rin liking her, Shiemi doesn’t really know what to do, but starts realizing she actually may like him too. When the two see each other during the festival, it seems like things may take a step in that direction, though Rin takes her to dance with Yukio so they can all dance together. Meanwhile, Izumo is confronted by Nemu Takara, who is suspected of being an Illuminati spy.

OUR TAKE

Huh, getting into a throuple with your brother is not a route I would’ve taken, but I applaud Rin for being so…progressive? In all seriousness, I’ve kinda grown out of prom related episodes for a long time now, what with me being in my 30’s now, but considering this is a show set somewhat at a high school (even a partially paranormal one), I suppose this was always likely. Though honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen very many high school animes HAVE prom episodes. I’ve seen them have festival episodes where romantic drama was definitely abound, but it was usually in such a different way than in western shows and movies that put so much emphasis on “the big dance”. So, I guess points to Blue Exorcist for taking a bit of a different approach here. I’m still not too crazy about the love triangle between Rin, Shiemi, and Yukio though, but I then remember to keep in mind that this story arc is over a decade old now, so if I saw this back in 2013, I’d probably be a bit more receptive. Still though, I do worry the potential romantic drama does threaten to take up more oxygen than it should, but we’ll see.

On that note, I also realized this episode that these characters are kinda far back from where I figured they would be by now, but then I also have to take into consideration that this is still only early on in the story. We’ve only had three seasons of this show including this one, with a third of the first season being non-canon so that doesn’t even count, and only released every few years, so we’re still relatively in the beginning stages. I wish these characters had grown up at the same pace I had, and if these seasons had released more consistently maybe they would have, but they haven’t. Still, I’m just not really interested in the romantic stuff, especially since it seems pretty clear where it’s headed, and I’m hoping Izumo’s apprehension to trusting her friends gets resolved soon so we don’t have to deal with it anymore. Oh yeah, and we’re finally getting something with the puppet guy, hopefully it’s worth the wait. Probably not though, but there’s still nine more episodes so there’s always room for things to turn out more interesting than I expect. Fingers crossed, but again, not much hope.