English Dub Review: Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World “Encounter: Successor of the Black Steel and the Ice Calamity Witch”

So we’ve established the two sides, a tenuous “reason” for this longstanding conflict, and the individual combatants, but up until the second half of this episode I was wondering when we’d get to see some evidence of actual war in this series. Still, a single, clearly-out-of-the-ordinary attack by the all-powerful Founder seems a little tame for a supposedly multi-generational conflict. Not every scene needs to be bombed out WWII England or war-torn Syria, but even in Avatar: The Last Airbender we quickly saw some evidence of the devastation caused by various battles that helped establish, well, the story. This series was so focused on the romance side that until a literal immortal being descended from the sky, I was wondering what if another full episode would pass before we saw some on-screen action again.

That said, the action in this episode does NOT disappoint. I mean, if your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great aunt (at least I think that’s the relation?) showed up after a century to lay waste to your attempted peace negotiation, there’s bound to be some chaos, but having to join forces across rival nations with your sort-of boyfriend to take her down makes for a super intense, beautifully rendered scene that combines the best of traditional animation with CGI. While it’s frustrating to have SO much context and action packed into such short amounts of time (it’s hard to take everything in the first time you watch through!) the visuals can’t be beat. My one critique is that making lengthy speeches during critical moments in battle is also kind of a weird choice, but hey, it’s an anime, so what did I expect?Things seem to be shaping up to have the astral mages be “the bad guys”, at least if this episode’s strict fanaticism from Alice’s mother, and intense vitriol from The Founder are any indication. I’m interested to see how this plays out, as it’s generally the more “natural” side that’s portrayed as the innocents, but perhaps this series is going for a more Gunnerkrigg Court approach, where both sides are weirder and more intertwined than they first seem. The romance is still a bit saccharine and has an odd sense of pacing for my taste, but I’m looking forward to more battle scenes from here on out!