English Dub Review: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest “The Golden Vampire Princess”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

At the end of the last episode, Nagumo was impaled in the back by a monster’s attack while protecting Yue. This monster is a giant earth creature, whose purpose is to guard Yue’s prison. Nagumo is putting up a good fight when Yue reveals that she, too, packs a pretty powerful magic artillery. The two combine their talents in order to slay the beast, and Yue’s trust in Nagumo is solidified when he tells her he wouldn’t have abandoned her.

They sit down and camp out. Nagumo finds out Yue is immortal and recalls that vampires were wiped out long ago. She tells Nagumo that the Labyrinth was rumored to have been created by one of the Mavericks — powerful beings who were once messengers of the Gods but rebelled. They failed and fled into Labyrinths — in the “deepest depths,” one might be residing. They theorize that getting there may lead to finding a way out.

As they traverse the Labyrinth together, Nagumo tells Yue the story of how he got there, and they bond. He also mentions how he and his classmates were summoned to this world by God, Ehit, as they were prophesied to defeat demonkind. She mentions that her home/family is now gone, and Nagumo offers to take her home with him when they get out.

They’re chased by parasite-controlled dinos, have to shoot a parasitic plant demonoid to death, and finally get to the 100th floor together.

Our Take

It seems that with every episode, we get a little more lore about the world. This keeps things from being overly expository because it keeps a good spread, but fans of the original books might not jive well with the pacing. It’s definitely obvious that some things were told and not shown (the class being transported to the world of the story, the involvement in the school, Ehit, etc.)

Up until now, that had been the only real problem (other than Nagumo’s edginess.) Now, there’s an increasing concern brought to the forefront with Yue — who really seems to have that whole, “Guys, it’s okay, she’s 800 years old” thing going on. The first few times she bit onto Nagumo’s neck to suck his blood, it made sense because A) She hadn’t eaten in hundreds of years, and B) She’s a vampire, and vampires are addicted to the taste of blood. Things started to get a little racy when she licked her lips and dropped her clothes before sucking more of his blood during the campfire scene. Please, for the love of Ehit, we don’t need this to become a thing. It really doesn’t help that her voice actress makes her sound like a child.

The fight scenes were pretty cool — especially with the idea of a parasitic plant lady antagonist. Nagumo is still basically Shadow the Hedgehog (voice-wise, too) but we got to see a softer side of him today with Yue. It’ll be funny to see how his classmates comment on his new demeanor. Old personality? Dead. New personality? Gun.