English Dub Review: Release the Spyce “Destiny Group”

Hanzo and the No Good, Tragic, Flashback-Oriented Backstory.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

While attempting to piece together Moryo’s intentions and involvement in the recent Sorasaki chaos, Hanzo decides to spend time with Momo. Feeling regret for backhanding Momo back in Okinawa, Hanzo brings Momo to the view of Moryo’s original base — the shell of a demolished building. There, she begins recanting the tale of how that base was destroyed two years ago, while on a mission with the rest of Tsukikage.

Hanzo reveals she was profiled to join Tsukikage by a girl named Nagaho Fujibiashi. Unlike Hanzo, Nagaho was a very silly girl with a comedic personality — but her wry wit and confidence is what made her the leader of Tsukikage. One fateful day, Moryo hijacked all the satellites of the world, with the goal of bringing them down on critical landmarks/capitals. Tsukikage located and infiltrated their tower, taking each individual down by force — but when it came time to face off with the Big Bad Evil Lady (Tendo), Hanzo had her eye sliced into and Nagaho was violently slashed onscreen. Just in case Hanzo had any hope of Nagaho’s survival, Nagaho detonated a suicide bomb in an effort to take Tendo down with her. The Tsukikage had to pull Hanzo away from the building as the rest of it went up in flames.

Hanzo tells Momo this so that she could convey how much Momo’s safety means to her — and that she never wants to lose anyone again. Momo understands, and the two realize Tendo’s identity together.

Our Take

We finally got the Hanzo episode we were all waiting for — the, “What Happened To Her Eye and Why Is She So Stoicly Cryptic All the Time?” episode. Nagaho’s character was extremely likable — so much so, that it truly did pack a punch when she was killed onscreen. Out of the entire series thus-far, Nagaho’s death was definitely the most violent thing to be shown explicitly. Additionally, her voice actress had a unique yet natural portrayal of her — making her voice fitting and enjoyable to listen to. In a way, she seemed reminiscent of a more violent Usagi Tsukino.

Once again, mechanical storytelling errors seem to be Release the Spyce’s worst enemy. Despite the many explosions happening around her, Tendo was barely harmed by any of it, while Nagaho’s body seemingly disintegrated off-screen. Also, Moryo didn’t seem to have a plan other than “cause destruction.” There was no elaboration on how crashing the world’s satellites would help them be the new world order. It’s more probable the global devastation would leave nothing to rule over.

In other news, we are now one small, microscopic step closer to understanding where the “spice” actually comes into play. Moryo apparently used it “long ago,” but there’s still no elaboration on how it was created. In fact, the spice’s use in the series so far definitely fell to the backdrop — serving as another point that the “spice” is really just a poorly thought out gimmick.

One interesting thing of note is that this episode does introduce a particularly eye-catching theory: one that Mei turn the double-agent twist on its head (har-har.) Her sudden desire to take over Hanzo’s analysis duty seemed…suspicious.

But it could still be Katrina, right?

Right?

(It’s Katrina. Let’s stop kidding ourselves.)