English Dub Review: Kemono Michi: Rise Up “Money x Bonds”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Hiroyuki is stolen again by Misha, Wolfgang, and Edgar, only this time they manage to actually get the mut and sell it off for a pretty penny to a really rich dude and his daughter. This devastated Genzo, who’s not only crushed by losing his dog, but also has to seriously consider if Hiroyuki might be better off with a richer family who can actually take care of him. The daughter fortunately turns out to be a really kind kid, pleading with her father to return the dog to Genzo, but he’s insistent that he needs to recoup his investment. Eventually the pleading gets him to tone down the price a LOT, but even that costs Shigure her rainy day funds. It also costs Misha and her gang a lot of broken limbs.

Princess Altena also comes back to convince Genzo to get involved in fighting MAO, but gets caught up in the antics. Plus, Genzo already learned about MAO from the orcs’ report and seems…pretty lax about it. That is, until MAO, Joana, and Rose show up in their house, challenging them to a fight. Klaus the bank guy also shows up and decides to use this as a chance for another wresting tournament! But that night, Carmilla approaches Genzo for help in training to defeat Rose.

OUR TAKE

Third to last episode of season, possibly series, and it’s a pretty chill episode that kinda retreads a previous plot. Like a lot of the episodes in this back half, I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with it on its own. It’s more that I keep expecting things to escalate a bit in tone, or to possibly see more of the world, or at least dabble a bit more in playing with the typical Isekai tropes, but each week just keeps things stuck in place ever since the main cast solidified. Much more tolerable in a show with double the amount of episodes, but as far as I’m aware (and I could be totally wrong on this since I was with Kabukicho Sherlock), this only has twelve. And with each episode constantly cutting back to the growing influence of Joanna and MAO, I couldn’t help but think that this would warrant some growth on…SOMEONE in the cast by now, especially Genzo.

This week DOES give us a little bit more focus on Genzo and Hiroyuki’s bond, how strong it is and how much it means to Genzo, but we don’t really learn anything new from it. It’s been pretty clear from the start that Genzo cherishes Hiroyuki as much if not more than all the animals he comes across, so him being taken again on its own doesn’t add much. It feels like this would have been a good opportunity to dive into what makes their bond as pet and master significant, which would be easy since there’s a lot to pull from. For one, Hiroyuki is basically Genzo’s only remaining living link to his old life (at least until he found out MAO came too, though that’s not really a friendly link). Though I guess we’ve never been given any reason to think Genzo particularly cares about his old life beyond taking care of animals and pro-wrestling. But even then, we could have learned about the day he and Hiroyuki MET, and how they’ve stuck by each other for so long since then, maybe even tie that into how Genzo became a wrestler in the first place!

But alas, we seem to have passed the chance to explore that tangent, as the last two episodes of the season will be about settling the ultimate rivalry between MAO and Animal Mask, Joanna and Hanako, and Rose and Carmilla. And Shigure WILL…stand off to the side and sell tickets and concessions. To be fair, I WAS worried that this would go a bit too far in the fantasy genre for the finale, but this looks to still be pretty close to the unique charm this show has. So get ready for Genzomania 2019 as this series keeps chugging along right into the New Year! Of all the shows to NOT take the holidays off…