English Dub Review: Clevatess “The Dark Tower”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Alicia is captured and transformed into a rat. Klen goes to find her as Vorden of the North tasks his minions to continue his plan.
OUR TAKE
Woah, things are escalating rather quickly. Not only are we already touching on things in that flash forward at the start of the season, but after meeting with the other Demon Beasts and talking to Naie, Klen basically calls out Vorden in front of the whole school with the magic Book of Toah as bait to lure him in. Yeah, I’ve been forgetting to call these things by name but they’re all apparently books related to the Hero Legend, each one encompassing one of the five fabled chapters. What makes this a tad confusing for the other Demon Beasts, including Klen, is that Vorden faced the Hero from this legend a long time ago, so why would he want to allow someone with that power to rise again? Well, we at least know he got someone very devoted to the cause, as Dean Cardinal Elro Romain, the Chairman of Solsein, is acting as his servant to accomplish this. This is hardly surprising as him having the clear look of a devout religious figure instantly gave him a bad vibe for me, and a story that seems very critical of traditional authority figures like heroes and kings would naturally have a religious character be an unrepentant bad guy in league with a guy who could be mistaken for Satan. Not saying it’s bad to have a character that symbolizes criticism of religious institutions, but I’m used to some nuance is all.
As for Alicia, it looks like she’s dealing with whatever happened to Nathan in the second episode. She’s been transformed into an animal and her perception of normal people around her has been warped to make them look like demonic skeletons. Luckily in her case, she’s not been set upon her allies and classmates, but unluckily, she’s in captivity with spiders bigger than her current shrunken size and vicious carnivorous plants. A couple more of the school kids are are revealed to be Vorden’s lackeys, but they haven’t made much of an impression so I don’t really know their names yet. So, for something that feels like it’s setting up the final battle of the season, we’re only on the fourth episode, and I’m certainly curious where this is all headed and how it will leave enough material for eight more episodes after it. Also, did anyone watching the ED notice that one of the oddly spoken English lines sounded like “I’m wondering what’s in my ass”? Because now I certainly am wondering that.
