English Dub Review: Listeners “Goodbye Blue Sky / Goodbye Blue Sky”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After discovering the true history of the festival meant to defeat the Earless, Echo and Mu follow Jimi’s trail to find the country of Gnome, where they hope to learn more about Jimi and their role in the future of the fight with the Earless. On the way, Echo passes out due to sound sickness.

They discover a strange girl named Roz who offers to help heal Echo — but only if Mu gives up being a Player. She agrees, and Echo is saved in the brink of time. He goes to talk to Roz, and learns more about the past and Jimi’s part in it. Then the three Neubauten sisters show up and wreak havoc, forcing Roz to trust Echo and Mu enough to give them back Jimi’s necklace and let them battle to save what’s left of Gnome.

Our Take:

Goodbye Blue Sky isn’t a terrible episode, but it’s certainly one of my least favorite tracks Listeners has given us so far. While there’s nothing too offensively bad about it, the way it relies on exposition and unexplained coincidences makes it feel cheap, especially when it comes to Roz and how she feels about them. The information the show imparts is just fine, but I wish it had found a better way to convey it.

We start out with Mu and Echo hurrying towards a giant stretch of ocean. Echo wants to slow down, but Mu is eager to reach the vast blue sea and hurries along despite his concerns. Once they arrive on the beach, he collapses. Mu is desperate for help, and follows a mysterious path that opens through the waters. She reaches Roz and Gnome, but has to make a choice between saving Echo or remaining a Player. This is where things get a little discombobulated.

For one thing, we’ve never really known Echo to suffer from any sort of so called sound sickness before, so this sudden development just seems like a cheap trick to get Mu to hand over her amulet to Roz. Even the way Roz just happens to let in Players (whom she hates and distrusts) and has some spare medicine on hand just feels too convenient. It’d be one thing if she’d been introduced before, but she just shows up and it’s all a bit too neatly tied up in a bow.

It’s also a little weird how Roz tells Mu that Echo will become an Earless due to sound sickness, but later on Echo says it was a lie and she’s been duped. From a plot standpoint, it makes sense, and we’ve been told that Earless are former Players. Roz also doesn’t seem like the type to lie for no reason like this, which makes Echo’s dismissal of Mu’s worries feel harsh.

Once the three sisters show up, the show goes through a rushed battle sequence that doesn’t amount to much. What’s more interesting is how one of the Earless rushes to protect Mu in a vulnerable moment. The Earless is actually Roz’s father, who was killed by the people who betrayed Jimi. All he wanted was for the Earless to live together with the human population in peace, but the world wasn’t ready. Roz has been living with them in this special secluded island though, and I wish we’d seen more of that. Instead, the episode is filled with lots of exposition. Mu standing around talking to Roz, then Echo standing around talking to Roz, then Roz talking to herself.

A lot of things happen in this episode that could’ve been really impactful, and some of them still are. When Roz allows herself to trust Echo and Mu and then chooses not to patch the whole in the roof right away, there’s a powerful moment where she and her Earless father lie looking up at the blue sky. The dynamic between these peaceful Earless and the outside world that’s always looking to destroy them is worth exploring — if only Listeners can find better ways to do that.