English Dub Review: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World; “It Seems Keine Can’t Stand Naughty Boys!”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Keine combats both an epidemic and the medical guild trying to show her up. Meanwhile, Shinobu checks in on the Azure Brigade cavorting with the empire. 

Our Take

An infectious epidemic has fallen upon the prodigies’ territory, one so virile that Keine has blown through all of her penicillin. Amidst the pain and suffering, a conniving group of men from the Medical Guild steps in to try and win the people’s favor by offering them opium. Keine has (rightfully) banned the use of opium, but the Medical Guild cronies are still peddling it, taking advantage of the desperation. Fortunately, Keine arrives and promises she will concoct a new cure for this infection using coal.

What the prodigies have discovered in their investigations into the inner workings of magic is that they can implement it like chemistry. Thus, Keine enlists the help of Lyrule in manufacturing her cure. The resulting production process is a very brief chemistry lesson that’s mildly interesting to watch. They don’t go into much detail, most likely for the sake of time. Keine tries to scare Lyrule with some morbid science facts on the chemicals they’re working with which is cute to watch. Eventually, they’re able to produce sulfonamide, which is successful in vanquishing the infection. 

Ill-content with being made irrelevant, the Medical Guild goons plan to threaten Lyrule to replace the medicine with poison. However, Keine seems to always be one step ahead of these guys and deals with them in what is the most extreme manner we’ve seen from one of the prodigies.

She anesthetizes them with projectile syringes and threatens to mutilate their bodies in order to comply. While she carries this out, she has an incredibly sinister and euphoric look on her face. She seems to be enjoying this on some level. Keine is clearly not right in the head and is the only prodigy who derives pleasure from overwhelming her opponents. 

This scene showing the deeper, darker side of Keine is very conflicting. At first, it seemed as though it might’ve been an act she put on to scare them, but she continues to act like this in the scene afterward. Taking this as a fact would mean she has a psychosis of some sort, which would make her a distinctly flawed character. Having a flaw present among these perfect prodigies would be a good thing because it would make them more human and relatable. But this flaw is not particularly relatable as it’s a genuinely toxic one that is only used for laughs. 

It’s also just incredibly strange to have only one flawed prodigy among the others and that they would be flawed so strongly like this. I suppose if it were to be anybody, it would be the doctor who has seen the most death out of all of them. Does Tsukasa know about this side of Keine? I would assume he does as he sees through absolutely everything and everyone. Did he do or does he plan to do anything about her, or does he let her slide because of who she is? Having this emerge right at the end of the show only raises questions and doesn’t do Keine’s character any favors. 

While all of that is happening, Shinobu is infiltrating the Azure Brigade to find out what they’re up to. She finds the Marquis in charge of the Brigade meeting with an Imperial General. The General commends the Brigade for defeating Gustav, reciting and rejoicing in the Empire’s motto of “survival of the fittest.” This General is considerably tamer than Gustav was, but he joyfully adheres to the same ideology as him. The General will assist the Marquis and the Brigade in defeating the prodigies by giving them several thousand men, as well as a mage more powerful than Gustav himself. 

After all this time addressing the Brigade, we finally get to see Jeanne. Unfortunately, the rest of the Brigade has been ordered to kill her. This concretely establishes her as against the empire’s current regime, as the men who served with her know that she would rebel against the Brigade itself as it becomes corrupt. The soldiers of the Brigade easily overpower Jeanne, and perhaps too high on power, they tear off her armor and attempt to rape her. Fortunately, Shinobu is nearby and saves her from this grim fate.

Shinobu then takes the (still nearly disrobed) Jeanne and shows her that the Brigade stole Gustav’s gold statue for themselves. This fully convinces Jeanne that the Brigade has become poisoned by the empire’s twisted ways, spurring her hatred. Thus, Jeanne formally allies with the prodigies.

Lastly, Tsukasa looks on as Ringo supervises the construction of their biggest plan yet, which is nearing completion. Alluding to the potential power this thing holds, Tsukasa comments that a nation is only a nation if it has the power to assert its sovereignty. Tsukasa is thoroughly prepared to take any measures necessary to ensure his success. 

We don’t know what Tsukasa is hiding up his sleeve, but it seems like it will put this conflict to a definitive end, which is appropriate as the next episode is the last. My guess is some sort of bomb, perhaps even a nuke. Let’s see how truly final these events turn out to be.