English Dub Review: ēlDLIVE “A Pursuer From The Past Part 1”

Wow, everyone wishes this kid was dead.

Spoilers Below

We open on a shinto shrine, with a forest grown all around it. Four children meet to exchange presents, as one of them is moving away. But, just as the gifts are given, he reveals his parents changed their minds, and are letting him stay with his friends. With that, the gifts are turned into a time capsule.

Only one of these four children survived.

In the present, Chuuta goes to find the time capsule, wracked with survivors guilt and memories that he’d rather not deal with. I mean, one of those memories is of a parent asking why he didn’t die instead of her son. In your grief, it’s okay to think those things, even say them, but to say it to a child who just witnessed those deaths? Show a little self-control. After Dolough brings up a few other memories of Aunt Mimi’s support of him, he continues on to school. Morning assembly is as boring as ever, and is threatening to put Chuuta to sleep. He yawns, but thinks about what Misuzu would think of him… Until she passes out. Wow, that was boring.

After a less-than subtle extraction by Chips, the two officers are sent for some thorough decontamination by floating naked in a tube. It wasn’t any natural effect, but an SPH attack, perhaps from one of those two odd-looking transfer students. The pair are returned to school the next day to watch the newcomers, but said students call in sick. Instead, a third transfer arrives, and he looks just like one of Chuuta’s (dead) childhood friends!

In the meantime, Field HQ runs afoul of a Daymill ship, which jams their sensors and cuts off communication to their agents on earth. Chips hops into his robot armor to support Chuuta, who has followed his friend to the shrine, but is waylaid by the sleepytime transfer students. When Misuzu runs to his rescue, she falls prey to them as well. Chuuta’s friend turns to him, revealing his true identity… and wonders why Chuuta didn’t die back then.

Really, this episode isn’t much more than a setup for the next one. Its writing is focused more on exposition and introducing the threat than actually doing anything. It doesn’t have anything that spectacular in the way of art or animation, and the same level of voice acting is used throughout. This time, however, we get a few more speaking lines from the aliens on the ship. To be honest, it isn’t horrible, but I’m noting that it does feel a bit forced and artificial. I could logic it away as an effect of the universal translators, but it’s just… not to the same level as the human characters and Dulough. Between this and the writing, I feel this episode doesn’t meet the par of the previous episode. I give it seven sleepytime exchange students out of ten.