English Dub Review: Battle Game in 5 Seconds: “Sophist”

Overview: Akira Shiroyanagi (Robbie Daymond) is abruptly attacked by a mysterious brute and a strange and powerful cat-like woman known as Mion (Lisa Ortiz) who brings him into a heart pounding new escapade. 

Our Take: With no hesitation whatsoever, Battle Game’s debut episode wastes no time in throwing the concept of its dangerous high stakes competition at the audience. Before that, within the series’ opening minutes, it does what it can to establish the main protagonist in that of Akira Shiroyanagi. He operates as your average smart nerdy outcast who is bored with the outside world and only enjoys thrills in a challenging video game. Granted this is just the first episode, but it would’ve been nice had this series given us a bit more to chew on in regards to his character. Whereas a series like I’ve Been Standing on a Million Lives managed to effectively establish the plot while also going into the headspace of Yusuke, it’s central character, in the first entry by establishing his isolation through his alienated actions and behavior, this series doesn’t quite go that far. It gives a more cliff notes version of that without any of added nuance or foreshadowing towards his deeper characteristics. With that being said, he does have some defining traits that make him engaging to watch later on and while unfortunate about the lack of detail, it could be a better move in hindsight if the show plans to go into more depth on him later on and use this episode to get all the story details out of the way. 

Yes, the main focus was mostly certainly getting the rules of the game up and running to get the ball rolling for all the players in the twisted machinations of mysterious cat woman, Mion, and whatever shady organization she works for. This is where the strengths of the more action oriented and exposition heavy entry come into play. The unique and unknown nature of every contestant’s abilities is what keeps the intrigue going in this episode not just for our main character but for all the adversaries he will face. Nothing proves this better than the one-on-one battle with delinquent, Madoka Kirisaki. I was ready to write him off pretty quickly as rudimentary because his only defining description seemed to be that of a miscreant that was told to us.

Although, thankfully he seems to be more than that in how he has morals and ideals that may not appear to be there from the onset but show themselves in how conducts battle with Akira. Similarly with Shiroyanagi and as indicated earlier, he too has a subtly decent heart in how he chooses to end his fights without unnecessary bloodshed. But interestingly enough, it is how Akira’s power works in the deception it requires and the ingenuity that comes out of that in terms of how battles proceed. Akira’s match against Madoka perfectly showcases that aspect in the shock and awe of him using Mion’s arm cannon by making Kirisaki believe that’s his ability. 

Akira’s competitive streak in getting revenge on Mion and beating her at her own game also ends on an exciting note. Despite it’s pilot-esque shortcomings, there is enough here that I want to see how matches, and hopefully characters, will progress.