English Dub Review: Fena – Pirate Princess “Coordinates”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Fena and the crew find a cave that leads them to an abandoned temple which houses the grave of Joan of Arc, led there by strange visions Fena sees as they explore. Little do they know that O’Malley the pirate is following them with her crew, and once Fena wanders off from the group, they capture her and take the coordinates the group were able to get from the clear stone, which apparently lead to El Dorado, blowing up the entrance and leaving most of the crew trapped.

OUR TAKE
Oh cool, I guess the plot is finally picking up. While the first four episodes were not exactly boring, they did feel considerably anemic in terms of plot progression, with it feeling like we were needing to look for scraps of characterization or where the plot was going to go or how certain characters were going to play into what way. There were hints here or there, we had the clear stone and learned more about that, a mysterious dream that Fena has had that didn’t tell us a whole lot, and we’ve got some nudges towards where O’Malley’s employer Abel came from and his possible connection to Fena, but this latest episode has definitely given us more to work then ever before. Suddenly a lot of things are starting to connect, with the crew finally finding a place where the clear stone is actually meant to go into, as well as Fena’s visions about clear skies and storm clouds apparently being pretty closely tied to this place. There’s still quite a bit that has gone unanswered, but I think we’re now on good pacing with what we’re supposed to know by this point. If we aren’t getting more information to work from going forward, THEN there may be reason to worry.

Also notable is getting another appearance by O’Malley and her crew, who fulfill a couple different goals here. One is that they are proving to be a competent recurring threat for the crew of the Bonito, as well as learning a bit more about the rest of her team personality wise. None of them seem to be all that particularly interesting so far, though you could honestly say the same for Fena’s team, unfortunately. O’Malley also apparently knows that the Bonito crew are descended from mercenaries, which is a neat detail but not really one that’s all that earthshaking. Based on the preview for next week, their ancestry will be getting some more focus as told by Abel, possibly to get Fena on his side, but we’ll have to wait and see to find that out. Oh, and they fulfill the pirate side of the Pirates vs Ninja conflict that was once argued in great detail on the internet many years ago. Though that makes me wonder why this show is called “Pirate Princess” when Fena does not currently seem to be a princess of any kind, let alone one of pirates since she does not associate with them. Next week: the halfway point!