English Dub Review: Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None “The Jack-of-All-Trades Overcomes His Limits”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Orun faces the Black Dragon alone.

Our Take:

Thanks to Oliver’s stupidity, the Black Dragon has its eyes set on the trainees.  Given the creature’s impenetrability and strength, the odds of defeating it are unsurprisingly not in their favor.  Thankfully, they have Orun to protect them from this terrifying threat.  This is another episode where the entire plot consists of one action set piece, with Orun using everything he learns to defeat the Black Dragon while protecting the young adventurers.  More importantly, it showcases more of Orun’s use of original spells with the intent of wielding all the skills from each member of a hero party.  So, if you’re wondering why he’s relying on skills from both Enchanter and swordsman, this episode has the answer for you.

As a result, the episode overcame most of the anime’s limitations to deliver a thrilling and flashy conclusion to Orun’s dungeon raid.  This is mainly due to its use of CGI animation for the character models and even the framework.  It bears repeating that the combination of 2D animation and CGI occasionally falters in execution, leaving viewers with a sense of uncanniness in certain sequences.  However, Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None managed to be another passable example of how to handle this blend properly.  Additionally, it provided some extra room for Tom Aglio to shine in his vocal performance as Orun, as well as its further exploration of the adventurer’s background, in which he vows to get stronger enough to protect those he cares about.  It’s pretty similar to other anime protagonists we’ve seen before, but it gets the job done in showcasing how formidable and compassionate this so-called “jack-of-all-trades” really is.