English Dub Review: Fairy gone “Cursed Child”

Marlya gets freaked out by death and considers leaving Dorothea.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After experiencing the loss of their comrade Ozz in the battle against Beevee last week, the agents of Dorothea are reeling. And nobody more so than Marlya. As someone who has always believed she’s cursed, she really takes it hard when someone near her dies, and she starts blaming herself.

She goes to visit her old organization, the Biaklay group, headed by a grandfatherly figure named Don Jingle. She’s questioning if she should return to her old, less dangerous ways. Before she really makes any decision, Free and the other Dorothea agents burst in and confront Jingle and Marlya about why they want her to stay.

Our Take:

This week’s episode of Fairy gone is definitely a comedown from last week’s more action-packed outing. With the introduction of a threat like the ex-fairy sword wielder Beevee, it was only a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt, and now that Ozz has been taken down and trucked away from the Dorothea headquarters, Marlya is having trouble handling the loss. Cursed Child begins to explore how and why she feels this way, but it doesn’t end up going anywhere really interesting, and I was a bit disappointed by the time the ending theme song rolled.

The entire Marlya business is just kinda weird. I get that she’s afraid to lose people. We’ve seen that she sees herself as ‘cursed’ because of the tragedies that have befallen her guardians, associates, and friends in the past. But as far as I remember, we haven’t really seen any explanation for this. Is she cursed? Is she imagining it all? From what we’ve seen, I feel like she’s being a bit overdramatic. And that goes perfectly with Free and the rest of the team’s visit to Biaklay. They’ve followed Marlya to the headquarters of her former organization, and instead of sending one person in for recon, they all decide to bust in announcing that they wish to speak with Mr. Jingle at once. (Side note: Mr. Jingle is a name that’s impossible to take seriously, no matter how good his voice acting.) Still, I did like when ‘Gramps’ and Free had their little face-off. “You don’t strike me as a man of resolve.” Harsh, Gramps!

The English dub this week was pretty good, with Free and Marlya especially turning in solid performances. I did have one complaint, though, which was the voice of the scheming Vice Minister. Something about how clipped and over-enunciated his words were just made him sound like a funny muppet or something. “Dorothea never experienced a failure on this level before.” Director Nein doesn’t pull any punches. “Everyone who’s close to me ends up dead.” I really hope that we get a bit more insight into why Marlya honestly believes this. “The man has a nose for war. And when he catches the scent, he’s unstoppable.” Beevee is a worthy adversary, and I hope we see him again next week. “I wonder if she’ll come back… or leave us.” Serge had some good lines this episode. I couldn’t help but laugh at his saying that he’d sacrifice his life, but only for the female members of the team.

Cursed Child is a bit of a misstep after last week’s exciting action-packed episode. It lags in places, and deals with a lot of bland dialogue. Marlya’s inner struggles have the potential to be interesting, but in the end, don’t add up to anything new or fresh. And the whole scene where Free and the Dorothea members break into Mr. Jingle’s house to confront him about Marlya is just awkward. Overall, this felt like it was a pretty minimal plot that was stretched too far for comfort.