English Dub Review: Million Arthur “Into the Rebel Future”

Too bad to be true.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Faced with the reality of having to go up against Pharsalia, Dancho decides to split up the team so that everyone can make their own decisions about fleeing or fighting. When they leave, Dancho — being the sexual predator she is — prods at Nuckelavee to put on a string bra and sleep with her as a way to combine. Meanwhile, Tekken and Titania attend a concert while thinking things over. Renkin pours through books trying to find a way to defeat Pharsalia by Bodach’s side. Yamaneko visits Utahime as a way to inspire hope in herself, and Utahime makes her promise not to die. Kakka and Brigette debate things at a tavern, and Fugou arrives to help them decipher their decision. Finally, Rurou is seen watching Rose from a distance, inspired by her time spent working toward a better future, despite the inevitable.

The gang reconvenes and everyone decides to fight. When they meet with Pharsalia, the gang puts Dancho aside, since she can’t Fairy Combine. Despite their fairy combinations, though, Pharsalia is too powerful for them. Touzoku jumps into the battle to warn Pharsalia of a bigger problem: invaders on a country-wide threat level. Pharsalia is set to kill mode, though, so she doesn’t care. That’s when, spontaneously, Nuckelavee dons the bra Dancho gave her and launches her nearly nude body at her — which causes them to successfully combine (no, really, we’re serious.)

Dancho’s power then (somehow) sucks her Fairy Combined teammates into her Arthur — allowing her enough power to defeat Pharsalia. Pharsalia vows to fight them again, and they blast off to take care of the invaders.

Later on, Pharsalia pops in to visit them at the base with a weirdly friendly demeanor — that’s when the team finds out that the one million Arthurs has now turned into ten million Arthurs.

Our Take

Well, we did it. We climbed all the way to the top of Video-Game-Based-Show Mountain, and what is our reward for putting up with this nonsense?

More nonsense.

First of all, Pharsalia’s intent as an antagonist is unclear. Is her “kill-mode” just an act to mess with the team? She seems to be a big fan of watching how they react to certain things, but if this was really just an act, then was her inability to listen to anyone an act, too? At the same time, we could only dream that this was the most confusing part of the finale.

How on earth did Dancho’s Arthur absorb all her teammates when they were combined? This was something that was never alluded to — and if it’s supposed to be some metaphor for how Dancho’s team is where her power stems from, then it fell flatter than a pancake. Her team has spent the entire season ripping on her for being a terrible leader — which she is. Seeing them all combine in order to help Dancho just completely missed the mark on sentimentality. Also, to reiterate a bigger concern: how was that even possible!? If it was every fairy, that would be one thing, but there were literal human beings in that sword. Even though they were part fairy, it still seemed weird.

But, as always, Million Arthur has truly exceeded expectations for stupid, because all of that was tame compared to Dancho’s Fairy Combine scene. So, the moral of the story is, “if you pressure someone into getting physical with you, don’t worry, they’ll come around eventually!” There was barely any romantic tension at all between Nuckelavee and Dancho — Nuckelavee was literally running away from her advances at the beginning of the episode. Yet in the fight, Nuckelavee literally throws herself at Dancho, nearly naked, shouting “it was always you!” (in front of…everyone.)

As if the show couldn’t get less enticing, they’ve upped the ante (read: downed the sinking ship) on the amount of Arthurs the team needs to get rid of: now it’s ten million! Who wants even more grinding filler? No one! Literally no one!

The only good thing is that it’s finally over. There were no comebacks, no well-done surprises, and the anatomy of the characters/dialogue was borderline parody.

How do we get rid of all the Arthurs?

Cancel the show.