English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “New Romantic”

“Science Bitch!”

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

Long after the rescue of Youzen, Taiko took charge and set things in motion by dividing the Konron forces into small teams based on a random lottery with each team given the specific task of destroying any foes they come across within the Kingo base except for Bunchuu, while Taiko gets stuck with Fugen making his team look the weakest in comparison, but I think that was done for the sake of establishing a flashback of Taiko & Fugen’s history together which was a mildly entertaining scene. While this is going on, Ohtenkun reports to the remaining heavy-hitters within his Kingo circle about Totenkun’s demise. Despite the disadvantage those murderous Assholes at Kingo are facing, Ohtenkun orders them to not back down even at the cost of their lives.

As the episode attempts to juggle 3 separate storylines at once with Taiko, Supu encountering danger in the form of another distorted-space themed foe named “Entenkun” who in a nutshell has ice powers, Koh-Hiko with his son, getting philosophical about whether or not Killing Bunchuu will make any positive difference, and Bunchuu who may have ulterior motives of his own. But it’s here where we get to see Fugen’s greatest power in action which is people underestimating him as Fugen may look weak, but he packs a major punch. with Fugen proceeding to Bail Taiko & Supu out of their predicament against their ice-based foe. You would think Taiko would at least have the edge due to being the protagonist, but as contrived as it is, this is where Fugen shines the most in this battle.

It turns out that Fugen’s crystal-ball thingy allows him to manipulate & control chemical elements. So, using this ability, he’s capable of countering Entenkun’s ice powers as exemplified by turning the ice of his distorted space into steam instantly. While the battle itself is visually impressive, It’s pretty much just Fugen one-upping the tiny bastard until they can talk things out which is part of Fugen’s benevolent nature. Of course, Entenkun tries to appeal to his better nature, but it turns out to be a trick so Fugen while sad to do this, decides to use his powers to Nuke the little shit. No, I’m not joking, he programs his ball to a small-scale “Nuclear Fusion” ending him instantly. While their adventure resumes afterward, the episode ends when Fugen laments that he couldn’t find a peaceful resolution with his foe. At first, I thought this would’ve been the ending, but it turns out there’s a post-credits scene involving Dakki revealing some primary goal in mind to freeing someone, but who?

Our Take

While the opening before the intro left me with more questions than answers, It failed to make me care as it had to relevance to the episode. As for a good chunk of the episode itself, this was clearly Fugen’s moment to shine and displays how much of a heavy-hitter he is within Taiko’s circle, especially when Fugen unleashed a motherfucking Nuke on a Kingo representative. For a fantasy world full of robots powered by magic, it’s hard to believe Science sometimes co-exists within this universe.

Also, I’m curious what ulterior motives Bunchu has against  Dakki’s rule, or if Koh Hiko even knows Bunchuu is doing this at all. Not to mention, Dakki seems highly motivated making humanity destroy itself so it makes me wonder if the Emperor is still thinking with his dick at this point while his kingdom is plunged into war & chaos?