English Dub Review: Nekopara “True Feelings”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

While the Minaduki family are chilling out at a theme park, Cacao stumbles upon a show called Cat Witches, which is based on an anime that Maple and Cinnamon used to watch as kittens. Maple gets wrangled into singing, and realizes she wants to become a real, professional songstress.

After being caught going to her new part-time job at a music store, she comes into the open with her passion and decides to perform at an upcoming talent competition. Preparing for the competition goes well, but as the performance nears, Maple gets more nervous. When the time comes, she tries to back out until Cinnamon slaps some sense into her. She goes on to win the show!

Our Take:

The ninth episode of Nekopara chronicles the journey of both Maple and Cinnamon’s relationship and Maple’s dreams of singing. It’s a sweet episode that really brings into focus how much Cinnamon cares about helping Maple to achieve her dreams, even when the dream might take her away from the life she currently shares with her fellow cats.  Starting off the episode in the amusement park is a fun way to get the plot into gear, and seeing everyone’s reactions to all the park rides is telling. Little moments like Maple being the scaredy cat are nice foreshadowing of her stage fright later on in the episode.

The best part of the episode for sure was Cinnamon and Maple’s dynamic getting spotlighted. As Maple starts acting more suspicious, doin’ things like taking private phone calls and sneaking out after work, Cinnamon becomes more and more concerned until she eventually follows her into a seedy part of town. Could Maple be doing a job more adult than she’s letting on? (“It’s too terrible to imagine! Even though I want to!” Cinnamon thinks.) But nope, she’s just working a new part-time job at a music store in order to save up enough money to buy the guitar she wants.

As the subterfuge falls away and Maple begins prepping for the Song Paradise competition, Cinnamon supports her wholeheartedly, even offering to alter her childhood cosplay costume to help match the song she’s going to be performing. Maple refuses the offer, but Cinnamon still sticks around to offer her help. When her friend is getting too nervous about singing, Cinnamon slaps some sense into her and speaks some encouraging words that reach her heart.

The dub itself was very good! Maple’s VA isn’t the typical sound you’d expect for something like this, but I kind of dig her voice. Maple’s song isn’t dubbed into English, which is always a bummer to see. I know it can be complicated due to song licensing and stuff like that, but it makes the dub experience so much more immersive – and when it’s such a short song, it isn’t that much extra work to dub.