English Dub Review: Million Arthur “The Forbidden Sacred Sword”

You want me to bring the hammer down?!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Despite minimal progress in their mission. Dancho continues her failed attempts to get on her team’s good side with her hotness. But it’s the diminutive Renkin who’s annoyed with her the most since she dotes on her like a child since…she looks like one (though I guess that doesn’t stop the camera from PANNING DOWN HER NAKED IN THE BATH YOU CREEPS). When a new mission pops up, Renkin decides to prove she can handle herself by taking it on alone with her fairy Bodach. It also doesn’t hurt that it takes her to a time when some ruins she’s interested were still a functioning library. Though not two minutes on the case and Dancho shows up to supervise!…but is then distracted by some other Arthurs pretending to ask her out.

So, Renkin’s back doing things on her own, which she’s apparently done for a lot of her life, when she comes across a nice bespectacled stranger. Or at least he SEEMS nice at first, but is really another Arthur leading the other ones who distracted Dancho. He kidnaps Renkin and Bodach and uses his own Excalibur, which are X-Ray Goggles, to…look through her clothes and make her really embarrassed? Luckily, Dancho arrives to save her teammate and she doesn’t care WHO looks at her naked body!…which I guess means WE have to also? I…I don’t know why I’m surprised. They beat the bad Arthur and Dancho and Renkin become better friends but Dancho’s still on her way to sexual harassment charge THE END.

OUR TAKE

Yeah, this is more of what I generally expected this show to be like, for better or worse. It’s basically a kids show with more fanservice (which I guess I would’ve liked more in my kids shows back in my younger days when I was growing up watching Tenchi Muyo) but instead of a lesson to follow each week, it’s surprisingly more focused on character development and interaction. Last week was about Dancho getting comfortable with her new team and now we shift to individual members who get their own episode so we can properly introduce them.

The first of these is Renkin, who kind of has an Edward Elric thing going on where she doesn’t like to be called short or treated like a child. Coupling that with Dancho’s desire to be a “sexy older sister” type…ugh…well, it’s a kinda sorta cute pairing of her trying to guide and dote on Renkin, which in turn only forces Renkin to act out on her own to show that she is capable. Based on the brief flashbacks, this complex of hers seems to come from her apparently being orphaned at a young age and only needing to rely on herself for a lot of her life. She also has an interest in ruins and knowledge so that’s…neat! Although I feel I should point out that if Dancho were a guy, this would be getting a lot creepier in implication. Just saying.

As for the bad guy Arthur for this time, well he’s not PBS’ “Arthur”…in fact I don’t think he even got a name. But I’m gonna set a prediction for the rest of the season now, in the second episode: If we meet ANY OTHER CHARACTER with a notable design (meaning the mooks are obviously out), then they are likely to be the Bad Arthur for the episode. That’s right, I’m going to place my bets on this being the formula we follow up until maybe the third to last episode when the bigger plot starts to fully kick in.

It’s actually kind of interesting that I’m watching this alongside another show with a similar reliance on a formula and character development, only while Million Arthur wants to focus on the more typical selling points, the other show, Sarazanmai, is weirdly more mature in its subject matter despite being A HUNDRED TIMES WEIRDER. I wonder if there’ll be any more overlap as I keep observing them both this season.