English Dub Review: Sanda “Double-Faced Carnivorous Plant”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sanda and Amaya have a short fight, and later Sanda and Niko visit a class of kids who all murdered adults.

OUR TAKE

On the sixth week of Sanda, my true love gave to me: Seven kids a-killing, six organ transplants, five wet dreams, four old man hugs, three detected lies, more supporting cast, and a buff Santa in his undies! Oh, poor Amaya. You’re the designated male friend to the protagonist and seemed like you would be a bigger deal when you first showed up, but now you are rapidly disappearing into the background. Even when they give you a short segment of the episode to focus on you for a brief second, it only emphasizes how little you contribute to the narrative. But yeah, Amaya says he can’t be friends with Sanda anymore because Sanda is the only one who hasn’t been identified as being connected to Santa, so this is done out of a sense of protecting him. Unsurprisingly, Sanda is the first to reject this, leading to the two not speaking for a bit, until Sanda takes his Santa form and Amaya jumps in to save him from getting caught, reaffirming their friendship. It’s a short, self contained little bit that kinda just feels like it was put there to pad out the runtime, and it was probably a short chapter in the manga too, but there that is. Here’s hoping Amaya gets something more substantial in the remaining weeks of the season to come, but it seems like the story is more interested in everything going on with the girls, and of course Sanda.

Anyway, the second half starts a story that will carry over into the next episode, specifically that Sanda and his fiance Niko end up lured into the room of Class 10, the class specifically for kids who have murdered an adult. As mentioned before, a kid murdering an adult in this world is apparently not illegal, but it looks like there are at least some measures to contain these kids so they’re not mixed in with the regular population. Namatame, the main one that Sanda talks to, tells him that the class would so love to see Santa Claus, so after Niko leaves a keychain there, he’s forced to go back as Santa. And it turns out that Class 10 have a simple request!: for Santa to cut off his hands. Should be simple enough to refuse, but unfortunately Santa is incapable of refusing the wish of a child, so he’s in a bit of a bind. Thankfully, Fuyumura and Amaya arrive to save him! See, Amaya still gets to do stuff! Oh, and there’s something going on with Ono, I’m sure we’ll get back to that soon.