English Dub Review: Devils’ Line “Command”

It is never late for more PLOT.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

We start with the appointment of a new chief for Squad F, a guy called Megumi Ishimaru who looks like a devil, in lieu of the dark circles around his eyes, but in reality is a hardcore fan of manga an light novels. And it seems that the new boss wants some action because he decided to start his new responsibilities with the manhunt of the CCC and even, with the timely input from Tsukasa, contacted Snipper-chan and Hacker-kun to help him in exchange of info and, at least is implied, some leniency in their past crimes.

Meanwhile, the population remembers that they want the devils to go away and the mob has restarted anew their protesting efforts, while the police force is in their donuts break? Because they seem to ignore the whole violent riots popping up here and there. Seriously, where are they?

Our take

We got a lot of information on this chapter and lot of conspiracy theories flying around. We get even more characters being introduced and it’s clear that common sense is a rare malady in this story.  I personally felt that Best Boy Lee’s escape flashback was out of place, and not only because we don’t have enough context to actually care or find it useful, but because the tone of the series is monotonously flat and we don’t feel the severity of the importance of the situation when scenes like Lee’s are portrayed with the same atmosphere as, as an example, Tsukasa drinking tea.

Kikuhara is obviously insane, but sometimes I wonder if there is a method to his madness. He is actually aware of the screw deficiency in his mind, but somehow doesn’t care enough, if the scenes with Snipper-chan is to be taken seriously. Speaking of the latter, why she is so smitten by him? Were they actually lovers at some point? To tell the truth, her story with Kikuhara is actually what interests me the most at his point in the series, that the mains’ vampiric sex, but who doesn’t?

Another thing that bothers me is, what’s the deal with Tsukasa being with the squad all the time? I get that she was a crucial part of the kidnapping and the negotiations with Snipper-chan but she is a civilian, is it legal to have civilians often participating in sanctioned operations? Or Anzai pulled some strings to have her around as much as possible, you know, in case his evil side decides to get out of control and a victim needs to be around to help satiate him. Take that as you will.