English Dub Review: Dekin no Mogura: The Earthbound Mole “Spirit = Human”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Morgura describes the hell on Earth he experienced when he was drafted.

Our Take:
We were aware that the mysterious Mogura had been banished from the afterlife and was struggling to survive in the real world.  Though, regarding my first impression of the series so far, it didn’t seem all that exciting.  Then again, I was more accustomed to similar anime starting their seasons with a bit more excitement.  This week’s episode offers some more insight into Mogura’s background, as he explains his first experience on Earth when he arrived as a draftee.  Spoiler alert: he didn’t take that position very well, as he’s forced to witness the cruel experience of fighting in a war, which was why he couldn’t afford to get a residency card.
Afterwards, the episode expands more on Magi and Yaeko’s college lifestyle, mainly their part-time jobs, although it’s not without its failed attempts at humor that continue to drag the show down for me.  Fortunately, the animation style for its graphical art designs still provided some merits to maintain my interest, even if the characters haven’t reached their level of likability yet.  One example is Mogura, who claims to have experience with encountering spirits but is often careless with how he handles them.  In this case, he and the students found themselves in their first spirit-hunting adventure, as they attempt to rid the perversive spirits from chasing Yaeko’s employee, Shio Inukai.  Unsurprisingly, it didn’t turn out as well as they hoped.  Mogura attempts to deliver a serious yet bizarrely gullible personality, but regarding the episode’s underwhelming humor, he hasn’t hit that mark in that delivery quite yet, despite Alex Hom’s tolerable vocal performance.  The first two episodes demonstrated that the series is adopting a more comedic approach to the spirit-catching narrative. Unfortunately, due to its pacing and charmless direction, it still has a long way to go to accomplish that goal before the season concludes.