English Dub Review: Clevatess “Battle Against Oneself”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Klen attempts to force Vorden’s hand with his Book of Toah as bait, as Alicia works to escape her captor.
OUR TAKE
Oh, THAT’S what she was wondering was in her ass! Okay apparently that’s NOT what the lyrics are, I looked it up, but if it WAS, that would be pretty crazy subtle foreshadowing. Anyway, this week is pretty much focused on two fronts: Klen trying to lure out Vorden while the Dean and the students who work under him prepare to fight Klen, and Alicia fighting off a bunch of tiny stuff and big people while in her new minimized rat form. Klen’s part is mostly just getting a warning from Sarasa that this is a bit of a risky idea, as the Dean rallies his child soldiers to attack for their holy cause and even get some of Vorden’s power for good measure, which is apparently not something they feel they need to question as their religious mentor figure tells them to take power from a giant red lizard guy. Also, apparently the Dean’s face starts to tear off when he gets too angry to fit his usual calm and serene demeanor. Have I mentioned that this is not a subtle show about its irreverence towards traditional authority? And again, I have to point out that this feels an awful lot like stuff that would happen near the end of the season, and yet we haven’t even reached the halfway point. So, once this current incident is dealt with, how will they keep the momentum going for another half dozen of episodes?
Well, while we wait to find out the answer to that, let’s also focus on Alicia’s half of this episode, where she manages to hang on to her heroic ideals in the face of being turned into a rat, and also in the face of a shape shifting snail that turns into a mirror house version of herself from the first episode, spouting all the doubts she’s probably had over her whole first life and this life. Thankfully, she’s able to reach into her courage and proudly proclaim that she is still a hero, which gives her the strength to defeat the snail. But right after, seemingly as a reward for her hard fought victory, the Dean gives her a chance to gain new abilities, apparently at the cost of all of her memories of her fight (and probably being captured in the first place). Luckily, she’s smarter than that and realizes that this is a really messed up bargain and that the door the Dean came from here is probably Drel’s secret room. Unfortunately, she’s then captured again by the same student who got her the first time, so we’ll see next week how she gets of things this time.
