English Dub Review: Rooster Fighter “A Rooster Among Cranes”

Overview

Keiji, the wandering rooster, befriends an old man when he lands in a new city; as they talk, he remembers his sister who is devoured by a Demon; a Demon suddenly appears to ravage the town; to save his new friend, he decides to take the Demon down.

Our Take

There’s a scene in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby where at the end Ricky Bobby calls himself “El Diablo” which in Spanish means “like a fighting chicken” with the claws and the beak. That’s what Rooster Fighter is, like clearly Shū Sakuratani and to a lesser extent Hiroshi Seko took that logline and just ran with it. Which, to be honest, if you’re going to do just that then go all in and Rooster Fighter does just that.

Produced by Joseph Chou and Sanzigen with the latter showing their best work thus far, Rooster Fighter is a straight-shooter shounen parody complete with Kaiju demons not unlike the variety you’d get to fight against in series like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta though the battles are far more one-sided in the favor of our show’s hero Keiji voiced by Patrick Seitz of whom I really couldn’t think of anyone else in the anime voice community that would be able to pull this role off. The cock’s personality is one-part Arnold Schwarzenegger one-part Tweety Bird and Seitz’s delivery is on point regardless of what the role asks for.

We’re not dealing with anything revolutionary here in terms of the plot, granted, but the novel premise with comedic sensibilities should make for a solid run.