English Dub Season Review: To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts

Our Take:

Full disclosure, I only read the first volume of the manga, so I’m not really sure of what happens beyond the scope of the anime.

The Incarnates are altogether very tragic figures. They are soldiers meant to fight for the country, who were all drafted based on their compatibility, and in the end, they were abandoned. Once they did enough damage in the war and were seen as unstable, even their creator sought to put them put them down. Since the fusion with monsters is an irreversible process, once the Incarnates are set upon the world, their former Captain, Hank, seeks to put them down before they become monsters.

I still found myself unfortunately unable to see what exactly they were getting at, just as an overarching theme. That war is horrible, and governments often neglect their soldiers post-war yes, but it seemed very dark and overall tragic. It almost seemed tragically simple that everyone instantly relegated the Incarnates to being hopeless right off the bat. There’s no reason to try to communicate with them, only that they’re deemed a lost cause bad off little research… I’m not really sure what sort of message this is building to here.

It’s definitely increasing Schall’s confidence as time goes on, that she goes from a kind but innocent girl to a kind girl that still knows how to get things done. She is unwilling to shoot and kill at first, even if it’s for the best, because she finds it hard to take a life. Later on she learns that sometimes there are reasons for pulling the trigger, such as protecting her village and protecting Hank. The series never tries to say that her being kind is a foolish or stupid thing, just that she is ill-equipped to deal with the horrors of war. Which, to be fair, is not exactly an uncommon thing, as she has never been a soldier. Schall is a delight, that everyone is so fond of her is one of the highlights of the series. She is allowed to be a gentle person, and that she is never torn down fro wanting to be kind, even by battle-hardened Hank, is something I truly enjoyed.

This series is clearly not finished, so I know it has a lot more to touch upon. Still, while we got a good grasp about what kind of world this is and what sort of people live inside it, but we still don’t really know what the opposing side wants. When motivations are unclear, especially for the villain, it’s hard to enjoy the story. What sort of danger is there? What are the incarnates that join Cain fighting for exactly? In order to recognize the threat of the other side, we have to see their motivations, but we don’t really get that, and this series could have benefited from it.

I didn’t have a bad time with this series, far from it. I was always curious to see what monster would pop up next, and how they have coped with their lives in the meantime. Finding out who they once were while they were with the squad was always something I looked forward to, to see how the people they once were shaped what they became. That they are allowed these moments is important and make the show. Still, I also wished that there was more– things that would occur if there’s a season 2. Based off how the story ends, there’s definitely more to come and okay, I’d watch it.