English Dub Review: RErideD: Derrida, Who Leaps Through Time “Those Who’ve Come Together”

What’s better than a cool assassin? TWO cool assassins.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Yuri takes Derrida to Mage’s grave. He refuses to believe she’s dead, and she refuses to believe he’s Derrida. Suddenly, a badass lady in a cool hat shows up and starts shooting at them. She and Videaux battle it out, and the group escapes into Graham. Videaux explains that the woman is “Donna, the White Death,” an infamous assassin. She shoots at their car, but they drive away.

Donna calls Andrei to tell him she’s changed her plans. Yuri berates Derrida for getting her involved. In some kind of airship, Donna follows them and shoots at Graham. Videaux takes them over a rocky mountain and into a base camp. Donna fires missiles at the cave, blocking the way out. Andrei watches in horror on a screen in his office.

Videaux leads them around the supply camp while Yuri takes pictures. She once again refuses to believe Derrida is Derrida (how many times are we going to do this same scene?). Derrida helps Videaux fix his car and says he’ll pay him someday. They leave out the back exit—meaning that Donna’s actions were totally meaningless—and head for a city market. Yuri explains that this city was built after the war started and became home to many refugees. Derrida says goodbye to Yuri, but she has a change of heart and takes him to her apartment. Yuri shows Derrida some photos of her and Mage growing up together: her parents fled the country, but Yuri and Mage stayed here, fielding constant visits from police asking for Derrida. Yuri then admits that Mage is actually alive—Yuri faked Mage’s death and has been searching for her friend to no avail. Finally, she believes Derrida.

Derrida leaves to get Videaux, but the air fills with fog. Ange appears and points to Yuri’s window, where an explosion instantly goes off. Yuri is hanging from the windowsill. She falls, but Derrida catches her. Yuri tries to go back for Mrs. Hudson and her pictures of Mage, but Derrida stops her. Graham pulls up, and Videaux drives them away, explaining that he saw some shady guys lurking around who probably set off the explosion. Donna once again expresses her displeasure with Andrei. Yuri reiterates that she wants to look for Mage with Derrida.

Our Take

Sigh.

This story reads like a robot had a cool idea for a sci-fi story set on Earth, but had no idea what real human emotions are like or how people interact with one another. All the emotional moments, especially coming from Derrida, feel so phoned in. His supposedly anguished sobs at Mage’s death are over-the-top but not believable, both because of the dialogue writing and its delivery. The graveyard scene is so drawn-out and overdramatic that it’s not even sad. And I really don’t get why Derrida goes on about how it’s impossible for Mage to be dead. Um, hello? People can die at any time. “I’ve been gone for ten years and this is what I wake up to?” Derrida moans. He calls this new world a “twisted nightmare,” and demands, “What the hell is wrong with this godforsaken place?” It’s like he thinks the world was sunshine and roses before he went to sleep. Sure, things are worse now, but it’s not like he didn’t know his boss was a shithead and there was a war going on.

I also don’t get Yuri’s repeated disbelief at Derrida’s identity. I mean, she knows that cryo chambers are a thing, right? And she knows that Derrida disappeared, and that Mage believed he was still alive. And when Yuri compares him to her photos of Derrida from Mage’s eighth birthday party, he looks EXACTLY THE SAME, so I’m not sure why she’s so hesitant to believe it’s him. Also, why does Yuri still have the photos of that party on her camera? How does she even still have the same camera ten years later? Hasn’t technology advanced at all? Maybe it wasn’t because of the war, but consider: Grahams didn’t exist in 2050, did they? Why would cars advance but not cameras?

At least the graveyard scene has lovely lighting and haunting chime-filled tunes. As soon as Donna arrives on the scene, I’m drawn to her cool hat. It’s a really good hat. But, um?! Is Donna the same assassin that Andrei hired the last episode? We’re led to believe it’s her, considering she keeps calling Andrei and seems to have the same no-nonsense attitude towards him. But why does she look totally different now?! And if it’s a different assassin, why did Andrei hire two assassins? Why was that at all necessary for the story? Donna is also such a generic assassin character without any real personality to make her stand out. Videaux says Donna is “an assassin who will chase her prey all the way to the depths of hell.” Okay. Thanks for giving us a trite phrase that tells us literally nothing about her. Also, how is this infamous assassin so ineffective? Why can’t she land a single shot on this huge car, or on people standing right in front of her? And what was the point of her caving in the entrance to the cave if there was a back exit too?

Some little details about this episode are charming. I like that Videaux tells Yuri during the car chase, “Mouth shut, you’ll bite your tongue off.” I like that Derrida flippantly says he’ll be Videaux’s servant for life if he can’t find a way to pay him back. And I adore that Andrei has a piece of technology that warns him, “Spill imminent. Warning: milk tea will spill. Milk tea has spilled.” That’s so funny. I wish this world was populated with so many more of these clever little inventions.

But so many other elements just don’t make sense. Why would Videaux be okay with Yuri taking pictures in his secret hideout? For a gruff bodyguard in the midst of a war, he’s very trusting. Speaking of which, is the war still going on? Who were they even fighting? When a conflict like this is such a big piece of the storyline, it can’t be explained away by just saying “the war.” Also, where is Derrida expecting to get money? And he laments that Mage is in danger because he gave her “that thing,” but WHY DID HE GIVE HER THE THING IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The dialogue is hokey and unrealistic. Yuri says that Derrida’s weeping “didn’t look like crocodile tears.” To ask why there are so many people living in the city they go to, Derrida just demands, “What’s with this place?” Yuri is dumbfounded that Derrida can remember details about Mage’s party, and Yuri responds, “To me, it’s like it was just yesterday.” No, for you it was yesterday. Did they forget he was in a cryo chamber?!

After last week’s solidly okay episode, I thought things were starting to look up for RErideD. But in the end, this episode doesn’t come together at all.

 

Score
3.0/10