English Dub Review: Plunderer “Unforgivable”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Licht is back from the dead, and he’s ready to fight Doan. But what happens when Sonohara shows up? Things get a lot more difficult, that’s what. Luckily, Licht has a friend to aid him in his quest: Jail!

The chummy chad shows up just in time to help Licht in his battle against the two Aces. While he talks Sonohara down from her vendetta against Licht, Doan goes after our main character. And things aren’t going peachy, as the big guy gets in Licht’s head despite Hina’s pleading for him to remember his promise and come back to her this time.

Our Take:

The penultimate episode of Plunderer isn’t going to be a winner for everyone. It’s a pretty slow episode where nothing much happens, even if it seems like the big climax is going on. We get some nice moments between Licht and Jail, and a bit of backstory on the Waste War and Doan and Licht’s part in it. But other than that, Unforgivable is pretty much just a drawn out battle sequence.

When Licht returned from the dead to fight both Doan and Sonohara, I figured he could take them. He’s been reborn and rebranded as a better guy, someone who even goes as far as remembering his promise to Hina. So it was a bit surprising when Jail showed up. I’m not entirely against it, since it makes sense that the more the merrier when it comes to battle, and it’s great to see Jail and Licht’s friendship cemented in stark terms.

What I’m a little unsure about is how the actual battle goes down. Sonohara has always been pretty unhinged since she showed up after the Waste War, and I thought it would’ve been cool to see her hash things out with Licht. But instead of that happening, she gets stuck fighting Jail, who basically just gives her a little pep talk about finding her true purpose and talks her down into a crying failure. It’s a boring end for an interesting character.

Doan, on the other hand, gets into some more fascinating backstory in his fight with Licht. Apparently, the two were pretty tight working together as Aces during the Waste War. In fact, Doan served as a bodyguard for Licht, killing kids who came to assassinate him. That’s right, since Licht can’t bring himself to fight literal children, the ‘enemy’ brainwashed children, armed them with knives, and sent them on their way. Doan had to dismantle these youngsters before they could kill Licht, and this seems to have really sent him over the edge. It’s a weird twist, but I’m not sure it’s as effective as it could’ve been. For one thing, we know Doan has always been a twisted weirdo. Killing kids is awful, of course, but he was pretty much pure evil before this, so I still can’t muster up much sympathy for him.

The episode ends with Licht getting beaten down by a new attack from Doan. Hina yells for him to keep his promise to her, but can he? I mean, yeah, probably, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t watch the final simul-dubbed episode, which will likely air next week. Unforgivable certainly is one of the more monotonous, poorly-plotted outings in the series so far, but I could see fit to forgive it if the finale is unexpectedly epic.