English Dub Review: Cop Craft “Special Episode: Beautiful Knight! Pursue the Captured Fairy!”

OVERVIEW

A truncated recap of the first four episodes.

OUR TAKE

Did you forget what happened in the first four episodes of the series? Don’t have two hours to set aside to rewatch them in case there was something important to keep in mind for the final arc? Well, this recap is for you! Seriously though, I’ve probably said as much as there is to say about recap episodes that occur in the middle of a short season with the blatantly transparent purpose of cutting costs and/or giving overworked and underpaid animators a bit more time to touch up or finish unreleased episodes. It’s a pretty common industry practice that, while annoying (especially when I have to write about it), has its purpose. The best I can do about it now is just accept it, move on, and try to pad out this review as much as I can without drawing attention to it.

…ignore that last part.

That said, there is something kinda sorta new in this episode, that being a slightly different version of the opening credits that is actually a lot more visually pleasing to watch! I’ve made it no secret how this particular studio has been more infamous than most at being cheap with its animation (so much so that it tanked two long awaited new seasons of the adaptation of Berserk), but seeing this new OP is quite a sight. I have to admit that it’s a bit odd seeing sleeker animated takes of characters who are dead or otherwise unlikely to impact the story in its final three episodes, but I will honestly take that over nothing. In fact, the music tracks they insert here are also pretty catchy over the forced narration of events, so it does seem like this might be the best version of this sort of necessary evil we could have gotten.

That doesn’t mean the story isn’t any less odd when it’s hacked to pieces like this, but what else could you expect other than that? Plus, things could be worse, like what happened with the most recent season of Full Metal Panic, which had two recaps AND a several week delay due to its horrible mismanagement. It’s unfortunate that we have to compare these by “least poorly handled”, but that’s where we are at the time being. But hey, I can’t imagine the show having a lower point in its quality than a recap, so this actually makes me optimistic for the final stretch starting next week.