English Dub Review: ISEKAI QUARTET “Encounter! Classmates”

Anime kids being late for school? Who could have foreseen this?

Overview

Tanya meets with Lord Ains to discuss whether he is in fact “Being X” or not, and quickly discovers that — much like herself — he is just another person from earth who was transported to another realm and transferred into a new body. The two wind up getting along swimmingly as they reminisce about their time on earth (much to the dismay of Albedo.)

The next day, Subaru and Kazuma are both coincidentally late to class in the same manner (having to be carried by their faster female cohorts.) When the duo is sentenced to do school chores as punishment, they realize that their backgrounds are very similar (seeing how they’re both basically neets who were teleported to a fantasy world.) While they seem to be kindred spirits at first, a jealous Kazuma declares that Subaru is his enemy because of how “cushy” he has it in his world.

Erich additionally reminds the students of the upcoming talent show.

Our Take

It seems that the slow-burn progression of the cast’s interpersonal relationships is finally fleshing out more. This also gives room for the plot to progress — just in time for the (undoubtedly plot pinnacle) talent show!

Real talk: it was unexpectedly heartwarming to see how well Lord Ains and Tanya get along. The entire interaction also just reinforces the fact that Lord Ains is basically the funniest character. (“You’re that bastard Being X, aren’t you!?” “Huh?”) Voice acting plays a huge role in just how entertaining Lord Ains is — overall, he simply has the best voice in the entire show (which is saying a lot, considering this is technically four casts of characters.)

It was only a matter of time before Subaru and Kazuma had connected — their similarities are glaringly obvious. Of course, if Lord Ains wasn’t in his Skeletor body, they all probably would have clicked sooner. We know what they say: neets who get teleported to another universe stick together (or something.) Either way, their dynamic is cute — hopefully Kazuma wasn’t serious when he said they’d be enemies, but it would be unsurprising since the show seems to be diving head first into the more unexpected mashups (such as Albedo and Rem. Speaking of Albedo and Rem, it was surprising that Albedo didn’t immediately misinterpret Rem’s “I get you” as “Yeah, Lord Ains is irresistible!”)

Back on topic, there was a missed opportunity in-dialogue for Kazuma to take a shot at Subaru for using the term “loli” to describe Beatrice. Initially, it seemed like that was what Kazuma was about to chastise him for (“…What the hell, bruh?”) but then it just cut to Kazuma being jealous of Subaru in general. It would have been really funny to see a neet criticize a neet for using a word with such a bad connotation when he could have just said “young girl.”

In future episodes, it’s probable that there might be a cross where Subaru, Kazuma, and Lord Ains all connect on a similar level (sorry Tanya, regular teens don’t do war crimes.)