English Dub Review: Plunderer “Demon of the Abyss”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After last week’s discovery of the destroyed town of Linden, Jail and his underlings investigate. They discover a survivor who offers up an incoherent rant about a flying demon who destroyed the entire town along with all its inhabitants. Jail is in disbelief as they evacuate the survivor to a nearby town.

At the town, they meet up with Licht, Hina, and Nana. Jail is eager to question Licht about his knowledge of the so-called ‘demon’, but instead of fighting again, they have a drinking contest. They get more and more drunk as time goes on, until they pass out. But just as they come around, the demon seems to have reached this town, too. And Licht thinks he knows what it is… a helicopter?

Our Take:

In my experience with Plunderer thus far, it does not seem to be a very fast-paced show. Last week’s episode was all about a cooking contest, and this week was pretty much just a drinking contest. We get a lot of bluster between Jail and Licht, plus a little rivalry between Lynn and Hina, but not much else.

The battle between Jail and Licht is less physical this time around and more… internal? That is, which of them can handle their drink better. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at first, until Lynn points out that the Lieutenant is probably eager to get some drink in his system due to the horrible sights they’ve recently seen in Linden. It still seems like a cheaply-manufactured plot device to try and inject some comedy into the proceedings, though. And it’s not that funny, except for when Jail asks why the government is after Licht and he responds: “I mean, have you seen me?”

The most interesting dynamic for me in this episode was the inner turmoil going on within Lynn as she assesses what Licht sees in Hina. Lynn is pretty into Licht (or ‘Pudding’, as she refers to him), but Hina is in more a position to get close to him. I like how instead of entering into a fierce rivalry right away or immediately getting aggressive, Lynn admits that she can see why Licht is into Hina. It almost seemed like Lynn was going to do something a little crazy with Hina herself for a second.

Demon of the Abyss was a pretty lackluster episode for the most part. The drinking game plotline felt like it dragged on way too long and didn’t offer much to compensate for that wasted screen time. I would’ve much rather gotten more of the tension near the end when the hole opens up again. And what exactly does Licht know about this mysterious helicopter? Is he a secret ‘Ballot Holder’, as Jail accuses him of being? Maybe we’ll find out next time… unless the show decides to hold another drinking/cooking/whatever else they can come up with contest.