English Dub Review: Firefly Wedding “An Unwanted Repayment”

Posted on by

 

Overview:

A frail young lady finds herself kidnapped. Her only hope is to win over a man hired to kill her.

Our Take(Spoilers):

I feel like this episode should have come with a trigger warning. Since it didn’t, I am going to give one. This episode definitely talks about and suggests things that could upset people, so you’ve been warned. The episode discusses those things a lot so they will come up in my review.

I don’t think I’ve heard a character threatened to be raped more than Satoko was in this episode. I love yanderes, but I’ve never really seen a show with a male yandere. Well… that’s not entirely accurate. I have; I don’t usually like them, that’s the thing. What I’m getting at is that, between the threats of rape and yandere stuff, I imagine this show is going to have some serious toxic relationship subject matter. It doesn’t bother me, but I can see how it would rub some people the wrong way.

Rowan Gilvie and Kieran Flitton voice the leads, Satoko and Shinpei. I personally haven’t heard them, as far as I’m aware, but we’re only one episode in, and I have to say I’m a fan. The difference between what’s going through Satoko’s mind and how she speaks is a great example of character work to me. Shinpei can be calm one minute and super unhinged the next, and Kieran brings that to life in a great and believable way.

Satoko is a girl of weak constitution and won’t live a long life; this makes it hard to marry her off. In a time when women were essentially property to try and enrich their fathers, that is a problem. From what I can tell, Satoko’s father is very kind and loving, but her stepmother and half-sister are not. I feel pretty confident that the people who had Satoko kidnapped were her stepmother and half-sister. I’m honestly more intrigued by the aspect of her getting back to her family and confronting that than her relationship with Shinpei.

Sensitive subject matter aside, you also need to be okay with a lot of intense blood and gore if you’re going to watch this show as well. Firefly Wedding is one of the more hyped up anime I’ve heard about this season, so I’m glad we finally got it dubbed. I love romance as much as the next guy, but something tells me this won’t be a wholesome romance show.