English Dub Review: Fena – Pirate Princess “The Mystery of the Stone”


OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Fena does a training montage so she can protect Yukimaru, and then the group arrives at a German village to learn more about their clear stone, which was apparently ordered by Joan of Arc five years after her death.


OUR TAKE
So, I think I can call it now: this series is really friggin slow. We’re four episodes in, a third of the runtime, and the most that we’ve really chipped away on this big plot is that the glass square they need for their quest is that it was ordered by Joan of Arc, which…doesn’t really tell us much of anything. Including what the heck the clear stone even does, which is something I’ve really been wondering since the start. It was a little intriguing at first, but it’s been a couple weeks now and I don’t really know where this story is going aside from the gradual romantic build up between Fena and Yukimaru, which is still kind of cute, but I still feel like we aren’t getting to know the two of them very much as individuals, let alone as a potential couple. We ARE also getting a bit more characterization for the rest of the crew, but it’s not really the sufficient amount at this point to feel like they’re more than just stand-ins for expected tropes. I will praise the visuals of this show until the sun consumes the earth, but it’s not going to do much to hide that the actual plot and characters clearly took a back seat when they were making this.

Like just look at this episode’s plot. It kinda felt like two plots, to be honest. The first half is Fena learning how to be a better fighter, and I guess we can assume she somewhat does by the commercial break, but you would think that would come into play later into the later plot. But no, that plot is about them going to this German village to learn more about the clear stone and to make Fena jealous about this village girl flirting with Yukimaru, who doesn’t react at all. And yeah, we learn that neat little detail about the stone, but it doesn’t give us any idea of where they’re supposed to head with it or how to use it. Oh yeah, and I guess Abel might be Fena’s brother or uncle or something because of a hint at the end. I don’t want to get negative on this show so soon, especially since I have other shows to be negative about right now, but we really need to see some hustle in the plot and characters soon. Pretty aesthetics are only going to take this so far before it runs out of steam.