English Dub Review: ēlDLIVE “A Pursuer From The Past Part 2”

Okay, maybe not everyone wants this kid dead.

Spoilers Below

Gucci, Chuuta’s not-so-deceased buddy from the past, has appeared in front of the new space policeman. Overjoyed at the reunion, Chuuta tries to close the gap, and gets punched out for the attempt. Gucci unloads his whole backstory. Apparently, he was still conscious when he landed from the fall, and heard the landslide break the rest of his bones. Just as he thought his life was over, he is yanked onboard an alien ship and pieced back together. Now indebted to Daymill, he makes a living doing their bidding as a bad guy. Just to illustrate, he blows up a bunch of innocent tourists. He’s been made a captain of a Daymill ship and put in command of their soldiers for two missions: Scout out the elDLIVE defenses on Earth, and take back Chuuta’s monotalien.

He isn’t all that bad, however. He’s willing to give Chuuta a choice. If he will hand Dolough over, Gucci will not only forgive Chuuta for “killing” him, but he will release Sonokata and Chips without killing them. Such a nice guy. Despite his momentary lapse in confidence, Chuuta stands firm in his resolve to keep Dolough and continue on his current path in life. Erasing the pain of past would mean negating the joys of his past. Dolough makes a startling discovery: Sonokata has dropped the wrapper for the stimulant gum they were given. She’s not unconscious, but faking it!

Chuuta makes a distraction, and in code, tells Sonokata to duck out of the way, blasting the captors and releasing her to go all Cuisinart on them. Gucci, however, is not as easy to beat as his lackeys. He gives Sonokata a run for her money, and kicks up a dust storm after knocking her down. Just as it seems he’s going to get away, Chuuta spots the Daymill brand glowing on the boy’s abdomen, and shoots it. The shot goes right through Gucci…

Courtesy: Funimation.

Destroying the recording device they had planted in him. For the first time in a while, he is unobserved and free of bugs. He reveals to Chuuta that he is trying to bring Daymill down from the inside, and use them to find the other two missing children. He also lets loose that the bystanders from before aren’t dead, just knocked out and covered in soot. A favorite trick of his to keep his conscience clean. He asks Chuuta to keep his secret, and bolts off to his ship.

 

When our officers return to their ship, it is in the middle of a minefield, snuck around them while their sensors were jammed. Though the mines are quite agile, plugging the resident catgirl into the weapons system seems to give them the boost in accuracy they need. The captain decides to make a random shot straight at Japan… but why? The shot strikes true on the enemy ship, destroying its invisibility shield. They were hiding, trying to drive the elDLIVE ship into turning and revealing their flank for their main cannons. The scheme revealed, Gucci takes the Daymill ship to warp speed and runs. And to think, this was him pulling punches.

Chuuta is finally settling into a life with elDLIVE. Gucci’s mom has forgiven him and apologized for acting so terrible to him as a child. Sonokata actually compliments him, and says he passed her test in not handing over Dolough. Things seem like they’re finally going well. So, that makes this the perfect time for a wannabe Grand Admiral Thrawn to step in to arrest Sonokata as a spy. Sure, sounds legit.

I was really hoping that this was going to be an epic episode. When you have a two-parter, and the first part is all set-up, part two better be good. I was let down. Chuuta is still mostly useless, and while the fight between Gucci and Sonokata isn’t bad, it’s still pretty tame. The animation budget just wasn’t there for this episode, and it kinda needed to be. There also wasn’t much in the way of nail-biting plot either. Given the opening credits, we could already tell Gucci isn’t a bad guy, so every ounce of this story is predictable. Just one more reason studios need to think their credits through better, they’re ripe with spoilers. The voice acting, similarly, was not what I was hoping for. Many of the lines, particularly Chuuta’s, come off as forced and trite. I am not a fan. The only point where I actually enjoyed this dub was the catgirl’s sole line. “I am one with the ship, and its cannons are one with me!” It was a little BA, even if it was meant as goofy. I want this show to get better, but it doesn’t seem in the cards. I give it five Daymill minefields out of ten.

SCORE
5.0/10