English Dub Review: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World, “It Seems Tsukasa Has Seen Through Everything!”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Fully armed with modern weaponry, Tsukasa begins his campaign of overtaking the empire. Shinobu and Jeanne also take this as an opportunity to confront the maniacal Duke Gustav.

Our Take

While a lot has certainly been accomplished this episode, it doesn’t feel like very much.

After a lot of off-screen planning, Tsukasa finally launches his campaign to take over the neighboring regions. Tsukasa’s forces have guns and grenades, so they completely destroy everyone else. To add insult to injury, Tsukasa makes an ultra power move; when the opposing nobles are brought in to surrender, they’re shown that Tsukasa predicted all of their tactics well in advance. 

While this is disheartening for the nobles that were just outplayed, for us it’s not that interesting to watch. Since Tsukasa perfectly counters everything immediately as it’s thrown at him, there’s no struggle and no tension. It plays out like a war documentary rather than a battle. At least it’s over with quickly. 

At the same time as all of this is happening, Shinobu and Jeanne of the Azure Brigade confront and corner the evil Duke Gustav. Though their battle is also over relatively quickly, it’s a better watch because the women aren’t so easily able to overpower their opponent. There are a few tense exchanges of blows before the Duke is neutralized. 

The animation for this battle felt lazy, however. These are two very fast women fighting a man who can throw fireballs at high speeds. Everybody and everything should’ve been flying across the screen, but the movement was more akin to floating around. It was as though all of the models just had a few frames of animation and were slowly dragged across the screen with a cursor instead of being properly animated. It’s particularly disappointing after seeing the frenetic and fluid action from the previous episode. 

There is a lot of time leftover since these battles were resolved very quickly. But instead of plotting out their next move, the prodigies instead decide to partake in an overdose of fanservice. Several continuous minutes of all the female characters receiving thorough oil massages. I think this is where all the animation budget went for this episode. 

This anime has a history of splicing in a quick moment of fanservice; obviously gratuitous but never too obnoxious. This instance, however, is particularly egregious as it unceremoniously interrupts the plot for what feels like far too long. It’s also just completely shameless, with breasts literally undulating on screen for no reason. I thought at this point I’d be completely desensitized to anime breasts, but I think I’ve just found a new way to be perturbed. 

There is a small light at the end of this unimpressive tunnel though. After the big peep show, the prodigies do start planning their next move. In addition to the regular post-victory sitrep, they’re now made to take notice of Jeanne and her Azure Brigade. This group of imperial knights is critical of the empire’s military appointments and seems to be trying to act as an antibody to all of the corruption. Though it may seem the prodigies have just gained an inside ally, Tsukasa still wisely decides to remain vigilant around them. 

Perhaps we could’ve seen more intriguing conversations like this during the episode. However, there were far more important things to do, like look at everybody’s boobs again. Progress is still being made, but it’s not without its vain interruptions.