English Dub Review: Dances With The Dragons “Calm Days and Lonely Nights”

YOU HURT JIV’S FEELINGS, YOU PIECE OF CRAP!

Overview (Spoilers)

G&G attend the funeral for one of Largonkin’s lackeys. Everybody’s all a-sniffles until Gigina decides that this funeral offends his religious practices and gives his own eulogy. Now everybody is really crying. Gaiyus takes a very different approach: be a douche. He calls the attendees out for crying (as one does at a funeral) instead of getting out to kill the monsters. Just as everyone there draws their weapons to curb stomp him, Largonkin interrupts with the encouraging version of the same statement. As everyone leaves, Largonkin tries again to recruit G&G. When this fails, he gives them a a hint: The bodyguard for the Rezo Corporation’s head has turned up after vanishing from the battle a few days back.

They run into him back in town, and he takes them to a secret headquarters for Dragon’s Maw. This is the Dragon Empire’s CIA, and they want G&G to stop investigating the kidnapping. Since Gaiyus apparently rolled a 20 on his Sense Motive check, he figures out that the kidnapped Viscount went rogue and joined Aurora Hammer. The head of Maw reveals that it is far worse than that. After seeing the atrocities the terrorists were fighting against, he joined up, and now leads Aurora Hammer. This makes it appear that the Dragon Empire is meddling in that country’s affairs, so Maw is against the Hammer. So, pretty-please, stop looking into this?

Instead, the two head over to the weapons shop to get some of their gear fixed up. The shop owner also reveals his findings on Gaiyus’ new ring. It is carved from the scale of a dragon so old, it would remember when disco was cool. It’s got a bunch of engravings hidden in it, but can’t be analyzed any further. His best advice? Give it back to whoever gave it to him. Of course, Gaiyus keeps it.

Next scene: Gaiyus and Gigina head to meet Jiv for a date in the park. Yes, both of them. While there, they run into Largonkin and company, and engage in lively chat. Largonkin repeats his pitch, and Gaiyus turns him down again. Apparently, G&G were once part of an organization, but one of them is dead and the fourth is a soulless husk. The two of them are all that’s left, and it’s how they’ll stay.

The only good character in the show.
Courtesy: Funimation

That night, however, there’s some tension between him and Jiv. He recognizes her new perfume, despite her never wearing it before. He’s been calling out the name of a different woman in his sleep. The name of someone from that organization. Jiv can’t handle this, and tells him to leave. The jerk.

Our Take

So… What was the point? None. This episode reveals only small bits of overall plot, but does nothing with them. About half of the episode was pretty much a throwaway. It also bothers me just how often Gaiyus just intuits what’s going on with shady people. Whenever they would want to hide something, he just blurts it out without us seeing how he came to those conclusions. He’s always right, too. I’m okay with a smart protagonist, but having a nigh-omniscient dude just spew out everyone else’s intentions is bad writing.

In fact, it feels like the plotline for this whole arc was written without any forethought. If G&G had that much past with Largonkin, It would have figured into their earlier conversations, especially given how frequently he references it in this episode. It’s like the writer of the original story came up with their story halfway through the series, then had to have some way to reveal it. So, Largonkin starts talking about it.

When we go through the technicals, it’s just garbage. Again, Jiv is the only character whose voice actress tried. Everyone else is a single note, reading lines, no truth behind it. The animation is worth very little. Characters mostly just stand there and talk, often with jerky frames that are inaccurately assembled. The animation on this series has been on the decline. It fell prey to that all too common move by the studios: burn through your budget in the first two episodes, and crap out for the rest.

Score

Summary

Bad animation, Terrible voice acting, and an irrelevant plot that is poorly written. I give this episode four mysterious rings out of ten. I'm calling it now. That blonde dude that calls himself the sand dragon is the viscount and everything we've been seeing with him is flashback..

4.0/10