English Dub Review: Marriagetoxen “The Animal Kingdom”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Hikaru, Mei, Arashiyama, and Nakagawa sail to the island base of the Beast Clan and face Koto Hanezawa, an agent of Toshiro Dogo, master of the Beast Clan.
OUR TAKE
We continue the arc that will take us to the end of the season, and fittingly it’s the one that dives furthest into the lore and capabilities of some of the Five Head Master Clans, specifically the Beast Clan. We’ve of course seen Hikaru display how much the Poison Clan can do, and last episode even gave us some hint for the Beast Clan through Arashiyama’s abilities with Hamsters of all things. But now we see that Toshiro is planning something really devious by mixing bloods into people to achieve his own ends, even if those used in these experiments die. The subject and obstacle of this episode, Koto, becomes simultaneously incredibly funny and incredibly tragic, as his gimmick of making a baseball team made up entirely of birds he controls, many different species included, is nothing short of ridiculous, but also oddly impressive because of how unique this aspiration is. It also helps that Bones is putting int their A game with this episode and making all of his crazy attacks look amazing. However, Toshiiro mixed in some blood from an ancient spear wielding master, which works well for a bit but then leads to him dying because of the two skills rejecting each other. And there was no joy in Mudville, as mighty Koto has struck out.
But Toshiro is hardly out of goons to protect him from Hikaru or keep ahold of Arashiyama, who unfortunately becomes a bit of a damsel for a minute there, though is thankfully prevented from being that for the remainder. Toshiro’s plans are laid out as it becomes clear that Hikaru is his main target now, with the Gero bloodline having very adaptable blood that may be able to get this trait mixing to work in other subjects. Mei continues to be incredibly useful with his huge array of cultivated skills, though I would like him to be more than a device since he started as such an intriguing character. And then there’s Nakagawa who is also useful but has a clear motive in getting rid of the Beast Clan, so he may turn out to be a problem later, but we’ll see. Four more episodes to go and next time sees the return of an old enemy as a new ally…and possibly a new love interest? But this show has continued to be an utter blast thus far and I expect it to continue doing so for the remainder of the season.
