English Dub Review: RErideD: Derrida, Who Leaps Through Time “The Loves of Each”

Government-sanctioned kidnapping? Seems legit.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Yuri is tied up; her kidnapper, government official Schmidt Maier, comes to call on her. Videaux, Mayuka, and Derrida head for the nearby town of Bruque, assuming the kidnapper will stop there. The group splits up, and Videaux takes Graham to Klaus, his fav car guy. Derrida asks around, but no one’s seen Yuri.

Schmidt asks Yuri where Derrida is, guessing that he’s alive and in Bruque as well. One year ago, someone—Yuri—accessed the patch file’s online data; Schmidt believes it was Derrida and wants to take the file from him at any cost.

Videaux tells Derrida that Schmidt is looking for him, but Videaux wants to wait for Schmidt to make the first move. Videaux also heard rumors that the government isn’t planning to recall the DZs—instead, they’re going to launch a missile to destroy them all.

In a café the next day, Videaux tells Derrida that the government blocked off the bridges out of Bruque; the government’s next move may be to contact Derrida. As soon as Videaux and Mayuka head home, the man at the next table reveals himself as Schmidt. Derrida agrees to give him the patch file if Schmidt uses it to arrange a ceasefire. Schmidt says that he doesn’t have the authority to do that, and anyway, he doesn’t believe that dreams have the power to change the world.

Derrida brings an empty memory card to trade with Schmidt, explaining that he’ll hand over the file on one condition: that Schmidt takes a photo with him to document their meeting. Schmidt sends one of his people to shoot Derrida, and Mayuka throws a smoke bomb. Derrida, Videaux, and Yuri make a run for the garage. Klaus sees them off in Graham. They speed away into the night with drones shooting after them. Schmidt blows up the bridge in front of them, and Graham soars across it into the water. But Graham is also a boat, apparently? So he glides away just fine. Yuri confesses her secret to Derrida, who forgives her instantly. But then Yuri explains that Mage has been in love with Derrida since she was a child?!??!??

Our Take

RErideD, back at it again with the boring episodes. I thought this show already had a direction to move towards—Derrida and his friends were going to try to find Mage. So why add a kidnapping subplot? Andrei, Donna, and a hoard of DZs are already after Derrida—do we really need another antagonist?

And it’s not like Schmidt is an interesting villain, either. Sure, his physical design is cool—he looks like a rich Victorian dandy, and I’m here for it—but his personality? What personality? He’s cruel and a little creepy, and that’s all there is to him. We don’t learn anything about his life, his ambitions, his motivations. He’s just a faceless bureaucrat. And that’s the main problem with RErideD in the first place: none of the characters are interesting. There’s no substance or emotion to these storylines, just the occasional action scene and a time travel mechanism that’s super interesting and way under-utilized. Why would I want to watch this ransom storyline play out when I can watch Derrida go back in time?

The soundtrack continues to be compelling, but the tones of songs don’t match what’s playing out onscreen. When Videaux and Mayuka pull up to Klaus’s garage, the music swells in intensity; when Videaux and Derrida discuss the tense kidnapping situation, the music is chill and upbeat. Plus, what’s even the point of the garage scenes? Didn’t Videaux take Graham to get serviced just a few episodes ago? Maybe it’s realistic that the car keeps breaking down, but it sure doesn’t add anything interesting to the story.

There’s also so much exposition in this episode. We watch Derrida do some reconnaissance, and he learns nothing, but then Videaux randomly shows up with all the answers, and we have to watch him explain everything for two scenes in a row. And then he just… chooses not to tell Derrida that Schmidt is sitting behind him, and abandons Derrida to deal with him alone? Those actions would make me heavily question Videaux’s loyalty and morality, but I don’t trust the show to follow through and have his sudden carelessness mean something. It’s just sloppy writing.

There are so many things I’m confused about. Why does Klaus say Graham looks “rough” when there’s not a scratch on him? How did Schmidt know that someone accessed the patch file? Why does Derrida scream all his lines? Why does Derrida assume that Schmidt knows everything that goes on in the government, just because he works for them? Derrida doesn’t even know what branch Schmidt works for.

The only moment that works in the whole episode is the thrilling moment when the car flies over the bridge and then sinks, and I thought we were in for a harrowing escapade as the gang struggled to escape the water—but then Graham is just a boat out of nowhere, so I guess that’s taken care of.

And oh, god. The idea that Mage has loved Derrida since she was a kid. You’re trying to tell me that she fell in love with her dad’s coworker when she was eight years old, and she still has the same weird crush at age eighteen? My god, I do not ship this adult dude with a barely legal kid he knew when she was eight years old. I sincerely hope that the “love” Yuri speaks of is platonic, and that Mage just loves Derrida like an uncle, because the alternative is the most unappealing love story I could imagine.

I’m waiting with bated breath for the moment we can return to the compelling time travel stuff, but at this point, I don’t even have high hopes for that.