English Dub Review: Million Arthur “The Journey to Combine”

P-p-p-poker face p-p-poker face.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The gang detects an Arthur in “Loss Vegas” — a fictional city in futuristic Britain. Rurou and Yama are sent to get the job done, as they are the only two fully functioning adults who can control themselves in a casino. Bethor and Coopy go along, and Bethor constructs a couple-themed disguise for Rurou and Yama to take. However, watching them act as a couple makes her unexpectedly jealous of Yama. Rurou and Yama enter a private, VIP poker game to see where the Arthur could be, but Bethor enters the game and plays as well, much to Rurou’s confusion. She wins, leaves, and Rurou later confronts her about her intentions. Bethor says it was because she “wanted to make him cry,” but Rurou still doesn’t know what her emotions are really about.

All four of them are knocked out and kidnapped by the Casino Arthur, who doesn’t like how Bethor ran off with all that money. He proposes that they either give the money back, or they will kill her (and Dancho, who had been playing slots the whole time.) Rurou and Yama escape, Yama finally lets Rurou know that Bethor’s jealous, and they find Coopy and Bethor. Rurou is shot protecting Bethor, and he confesses his feelings before seemingly dying. Coopy and Yama revenge fight the Casino Arthur, they combine, and then Bethor’s tears bring Rurou back and they combine. They defeat the Casino Arthur and Rurou holds Bethor close.

Our Take

Real talk, it’s pretty jarring to see so many medieval settings and adventures in this show for so long, only to hop into a modern/futuristic one. No complaints here — this was a really neat change of pace. It even made the colors pop more, just because there was way more of a color variety to begin with. Speaking of other choices in this episode that were great and should be done more — Dancho was barely in it! Sure, she was there as a gag, but seeing how the cast is individually able to go through their own arcs when she isn’t in a leadership role really says something about her character. (It’s that she’s bad.)

Additionally, this is the first time any of the fairy characters really stood out. Bethor seems to be way more fleshed out than the other fairies — her emotions are complicated, not cardboard. Due to this, her interaction with Rurou upon his “death” had at least a little bit of an impact. It would have been more emotional if she had gotten more overall screen time with Rurou in the show, but that’s what happens when there are 10+ cast members; there’s no real-time for all of them.

It’s really vague as to whether Rurou and Bethor are #confirmed or not now, but knowing the show, we probably won’t get those answers because we’ll be bounced to other characters’ stories in the next episode. If the heart of the show wasn’t based in the filler, things would seem a lot more meaningful. Hey, at least for this episode, they get brownie points for no fan service (if romantic fan service isn’t counted, that is.)

All this being said — Million Arthur has two episodes left in the season to make us care about all of these characters in an equally fleshed out way. Will they do it?

Don’t bet on it!