English Dub Review: Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World With Garbage Balancing “A New Friend”

Overview:

The No-Life Gamers are off to a good start, but they face a few setbacks: their healer can’t join full-time, and Krena doesn’t know how to use skills.

Our Take(Spoilers):

Now we’re starting to get into some stuff that could be very interesting. The group made a new friend to go adventuring with. There is an exam coming up, and of course everyone wanted Krena to be in their group, but she’s already spoken for. So then the story pivoted to Allen’s group attempting to recruit more members. They sort of got one in: Keel, a cleric who would fill a much-needed slot in their healer role. The only problem is he isn’t willing to commit to being in their group full-time because he needs to make money for his family.

This is where things start to get a bit tricky because Allen invites Keel and his family to move into the house with them. His family can work on taking care of things around the house to try to help get them back on their feet. When they show up for the welcome feast, things take a bit of a turn.

First off, it turns out that Keel’s family meant his sister and then a bunch of servants from when his family was still noble. Turns out that Keel’s full name is Keel Carnel. If that name sounds familiar to you, that’s because the Carnel’s are the ones who kidnapped Cecil. Keel lost his mind when he realized that Cecil was a Granvelle because, to the best of his knowledge, her family is the reason his is destroyed. Once he had things explained to him, things were smooth sailing for the most part, but it was a bit of touch-and-go there.

Krena got a little development in this episode as well. She was getting a little jealous seeing Allen and everyone use skills. So when they had some guest teachers come to help, and one of them was a sword lord, she jumped at the opportunity. The only issue was that his teaching method was a little harsh. He kept hitting her to the ground without explaining what she could be doing better. It was a Mr. Miyagi moment, apparently, because once she was at the point of exhaustion, she was finally able to complete a skill. Now she can do it no problem in the dungeon; I can’t wait to see more slice-of-life stuff with this odd family.