English Dub Review: Akudama Drive: “Babel”

Overview: Sister (Laura Stahl), Courier (Jonah Scott) and Swindler (Macy Anne Johnson) catch up to Brother (Daisy Guevara) only for him to slip through their fingers due to inference from the Executioners and a few certain Akudama. 

Our Take: In the beginning, Akudama Drive painted criminals in a very particular light. They’re bad. They’re the scourge of humanity. The worst of the worst. “Some kinda suicide squad.” Now I may be confusing this team with some other poorly written band of rogues but the sentiment remains. Over time, we begin to see that some of the Akudama are more than meets the eye. From this point on, some of them started to become more sympathetic characters that we could relate to in some way and all the while establishing that Executioners are most certainly not all-good in their nature. We have now come full circle, thematically, as the Executioners have their bloody day in the moon, in this case. 

Slaughtering tons of people does wonders for…absolutely nobody. The Executioner’s darker turn is an aspect that does work for what was established and definitely sends a chill down my spine if albeit a bit conventional as far as arcs go. That’s what I have said at least, if not for Pupil. Her coming to terms with the moral ambiguity of what defines a criminal and whether she serves the right cause adds the right layer of complexity. I also took pleasure in how her subordinate, Junior, serves as the complete polar opposite of Pupil while showing the common religious fanatic that the Executioners churn out into their ranks. Which, in turn, helps flesh out this world and different types of people in it. 

Another very interesting turn of events was the seemingly conclusive ending of Doctor and Hoodlum. This one honest to God shocked me as I truly wasn’t expecting their story to be resolved until the penultimate if not the last episode of the season. And oh boy was it resolved.  Hoodlum was able to regain his honor and found new confidence within himself with the good Doctor not being able to control the outcome of people’s lives, including that of her own and as a result got trampled to an orange juice-like pulp. A fitting end indeed for these two. Also the reveal that Doctor killed Brawler just made her unpleasant demise and Hoodlum’s redeeming act all the more satisfying. 

Could their deaths be a pattern of things to come? Man, I hope not. I really want Courier and Swindler to survive, live happily ever after and just settle down somewhere with Brother and Sister as their children. But is that likely to happen? Probably not. I’m ready for the bitter conclusion that only one person will survive or none at all. But I’m crossing my fingers that they make through the trials ahead seemingly with a little help from Hacker! “Babel” draws the Akudama closer and closer to Brother with the danger and anticipation only revving up from here.