English Dub Review: I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!  “The Forest Where a Magic Beast Dwells”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Clover’s first stream has drawn a lot of attention, so they accept another quest in a forest that’s been taken over by a magic beast.

Our Take:
Yuke’s reunion with his students has garnered much attention due to their stream of them fighting the Steel Crab.  The power of social media always prevails in garnering attention.  However, regarding their skills, they still have plenty to work on to become a truly formidable adventuring team, especially when a greater evil introduced in the previous episode seeks to escape from its prison.  The first episode clearly shows the series relying on the genre’s basic necessities, which involve adventure guilds and the protagonist’s all-female team members.  However, it also showcased some signs of being another watchable addition to the category regarding its additions, mainly its fantasy equivalent to online popularity via live streaming.
Regarding the plot, the second episode mainly focuses on the aftermath of Clover’s first quest, with the team discussing their future strategies to improve themselves.  Additionally, Yuke’s abilities and guidance made him the team’s official leader, which is a worthy position to tackle compared to his role as support for Thunder Pike.  Speaking of Thunder Pike, the episode also showcased Yuke’s previous team struggling to maintain their A-game, especially with their recent recruit, reflecting a huge difference in their dynamic without their useful support member.  Considering how they treated Yuke like crap in the first episode, this is well-deserved karma for being intolerable assholes.
We also see Clover take on a C-rank quest for their second mission, where they’re tasked with collecting stones in the Ordan Lakeside Forest.  However, their seemingly easy quest was intervened by a high-rank Magic Beast called a Zarnag, prompting them to test their teamwork once again.  Of course, by that, I mean using Yuke’s powerful attack to kill it.  In short, the episode further demonstrates the endearing chemistry between Clover’s members.  More importantly, it introduces Yuke’s striving to become a supportive leader of Clover while ensuring his students receive as much attention as him, unlike Besio Salas, who wanted to join the team out of selfishness.  However, the only issue dragging the show down so far besides its formulaic concept is the sound mixing or lack thereof.  Some of the sound effects for specific sequences were nonexistent, lacking the satisfying impacts left by the characters’ attacks, especially during their battle against a Zarnag.  If the creators aren’t going to put much effort into the show’s action scenes, they should at least make sure the sound mixing is up to date before releasing the episode.  Besides that, the episode shows that it hasn’t found its narrative magic yet.