English Dub Review: ISEKAI QUARTET “Deadlock! Classmates”

Gender, race, or age — things are getting up close and personal.

Overview

The episode opens with Tanya detailing her thoughts about being away from the battlefield. Although she’s grateful for the opportunity to be away from the chaos of war, she can’t help but feel things made more sense there. Demiurge comes to the conclusion that acting as a dutiful student and remaining peaceful with the others is the only way to get home, and announces to the class about how Lord Ains must have known this all along (he didn’t.)

The gang then hears about a talent show that’s taking place as, “A Way To Be Closer Friends.” Some characters discuss what they’ll be doing for the show, but others, such as Beatrice, are more concerned with going home. She attempts to get in contact with Roswaal through Erich, but is oddly manipulated by him to go back to class. Meanwhile, Tanya concludes that Lord Ains is the “Being X” that made her into a little girl, and asks him to join her for a chat.

Our Take

There’s starting to be a little more wiggle room with character interactions, now that the stage has more fully been set for the cast to resign themselves to school life.

There was a big laugh earned during the interaction with Lord Ains and Demiurge — it almost even had Dr. Weird vibes. Lord Ains definitely adds the most humor to the crew, what with no one — not even his own cronies — knowing he isn’t actually a demon lord.

Erich’s ability to manipulate/intimidate people is just as mysterious as Roz’s smile when Demiurge presents his theory about how the characters can get home. It begs the question: why haven’t the characters who know people in charge — such as Tanya knowing that General Rudersdorf and General Zettour are the principal and vice principal, and Subaru seeing Roz as one of the teachers — haven’t…done anything about it? Especially Tanya, considering much of the school staff seems to be from The Saga of Tanya the Evil. There’s definitely a distinct lack of question-asking going on.

Even so, it’s good to see more mingling. It was unexpected that Albedo connected to Rem — but it’s just nice to see at least some friendships forming. Three episodes in and a connection has finally been made — even if the circumstances were…not so cool? It definitely could have done without Albedo’s speech on how even a child couldn’t resist Lord Ains, accusing her of being a “bimbo,” “wanting to mount [Lord Ains],” and that it doesn’t matter she’s just a child because his “sex appeal penetrates the whole spectrum.” Zoinks, Scoob. Not sure Rem recognized how poor her timing was on her love-at-first-sight follow-up speech, either.

Now that there’s a setup for a potentially volatile conversation between Lord Ains and Tanya, there’s bound to be even deeper connections next episode — be it friends or enemies. In any case, it’ll be fun to see the principal’s “plan” finally go into action. What’s a high school sitcom without a talent show?