English Dub Review: Cop Craft “Girls On Ice”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tilarna takes part in a sting operation to uncover the clientele of a local prostitution ring, among them Cole Mozeleemay, a Semanian mayoral candidate. Naturally he denies this at a later press conference, which infuriates Tilarna to no end. Later, she runs into one of the girls from the ring, Zoey, who pulls her into helping her move. Zoey shares her dreams of becoming a professional photographer, which dazzles Tilarna, and the two become friends despite her not telling Zoey about her job as a cop. When he finds out, Kei tells her to stay away from Zoey, as finding out Tilarna lied might keep her from being a witness in the case against Mozeleemay.

This doesn’t stop Tilarna from keeping things up against his wishes, which also keeps her up all night. Even worse, a fake list of suspects leaks, making Mozeleemay’s case more dubious. And it turns out that the one working to keep him out of jail is actually Zoey, which Kei’s squad learns soon after. Tilarna goes to confront her about this, but before they can discuss it much, she’s shot and killed by someone outside. The one who hired the assassin turns out to not be Mozeleemay, but his wife Marla. Going through Zoey’s things, Tilarna finds a photo of her that Zoey meant to give her.

OUR TAKE

Kei and Tilarna’s buddy cop dynamic has some considerable layers to it beyond the obvious ones of “big city guy” and “tiny magic girl”. Being older, Kei has become more cynical in his age, which makes him dismissive of talks of good or evil, but he feels beholden to the law, despite his constant acts of going against it to pursue justice. This might be due to his role as a surrogate older brother to Tilarna who, while having more angelic appearance, is more passionate and less logical about what constitutes a good act. This episode is a prime example of that, with her simply wanting to bond with someone she assumed was a friend, even though it was an inappropriate relationship based on lies that potentially jeopardized a major case. This might be where Tilarna’s youth and idealism is getting in the way of her police work, as she denies any issue with this behavior even when Kei explicitly tells her not to pursue it.

This also seems to be the first part of an arc (that could be wrapped next episode for all I know) which will test her on how to balance her views of justice with her responsibility to uphold the law, which I’m more than happy to see play out. I just wish we had some more interesting antagonists to contribute to that. Mozeleemay is I guess the second (technically third) Semanian antagonist who is acting just as corrupt as any human would be, which establishes a pattern between him the one from the first arc, Dennis Elbaji. Problem is that, while Dennis fit the bill for a starter villain, Mozeleemay is pretty unremarkable for this far into the story, which his secretly cunning wife Marla is not particularly helping. I don’t know what exactly it is, whether it’s their designs or how they’re written, but so much about this couple is really bringing my interest down despite a pretty decent idea behind them.

Anyway, with Zoey dead, I can’t say what the next line of action will be to convict Mozeleemay, or how they plan to fight against Marla’s secret hit squad. Maybe next time we’ll get more into detail about that, as well as exploring how he came to this world and decided to become a politician, as well as why and how Marla got this close. But to sum it up, lots of good ideas here, just not crazy about the execution.