English Dub Review: Hand Shakers “Lead by Red”

Gotta love a red head.

Spoilers Below

Hand Shakers season one, episode two picks up from where the intro “Conductor to Contact” left off. Tazuna (Justin Briner) receives a revelation that he’s a Hand Shaker. Professor Nagamasa Makihara (Anthony Bowling) states, “I’m sure that you’ve got questions for me.” While the line is directed at Tazuna, it doubles as a benefit of the audience.

Makihara plunges into an explanation of the Ziggurat and the Hand Shakers. According to Makihara, the Hand Shakers are teams of two that fight one another and battle for the right confront god. The purported god manifested as a voice that flowed through Tazuna earlier. However, Makihara adds, “Unfortunately, I don’t know whether the voice you heard was actually the voice of god. It could be a demon in disguise. Or perhaps it’s power without will created by the collective subconscious out of a desire to meet god.”

Hand Shakers have powers called Nimrods. Using these, Hand Shakers battle but in the Ziggurat, a parallel universe. It’s by holding hands that Hand Shakers charge their powers, hence the term hand shakers. I enjoy how “Lead by Red” explains how the Hand Shakers and Ziggurat operate. The lore is plotted out in an entertaining medium: through Makihara’s explaination to Tazuna and his newfound Hand Shaker partner Koyori (Lara Woodhull). Thus, while there’s a lot of backstory and set up, it’s relayed through engaging means.

Because Koyori has been asleep for so long, she’s incredibly weak. As such, Tazuna must continuously hold her hand. This concept created probably my favorite part of the series so far. It’s really neat to see the juxtaposition between Tazuna’s powers as a Hand Shaker and his immaturity as a teenager. While an epic battle to confront god, or some powerful entity, rages on Tazuna worries about trivial matters. He’s worried about getting caught naked with Koyroi, a scene that features a riotously funny internal dialogue. Tazuna is also concerned with how his peers precieve his relationship with Koyori: he adamantly denies that they are dating and becomes flustered. It’s scenes like trying to avoid going into the girls’ bathroom but also keep holding Koyori’s hand that create an entertaining dicotomy between Hand Shaker Tazuna and teenage Tazuna.

The artwork remains superb. Colors shine, and there’s a vibrant gradient of pinks and purples. Similarly, the music is spectacular. In almost every scene, there’s a musical backdrop. But while the audio persists nearly the entire time, it eschews distracting from the on-screen action or drowning out the dialogue.

Occasionally, Tazuna does feel a bit overbearing. I think this is mostly because of slight overacting. Luckily, it’s rare; only on occasion when Tazuna is upset. It’s feels like the dub of Spirited Away, with Chihiro Ogino (Daveigh Chase) who is admittedly a bit whiny.

Overall, “Led by Red” is an excellent follow up episode. It explains just about the Ziggurat and Hand Shakers to make sense of the lore. At the same time, there’s still a lot of mystery. Plus, the mix of action, drama, and comedy gets amped up.