English Dub Review: RobiHachi “Never Get Involved in a Buddies’ Quarrel”

The Oddest Couple.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Nagaya Voyager reaches its last checkpoint before Isekandar, Hinaga Junction, then it’s just a quick warp and a skip the main event. But it looks like the crew might be in for their biggest roadblock yet: any blacklisted persons won’t be let into Isekandar, and that includes Robby. Hatchi loses it, leading to a massive argument that pulls up every annoyance and awful habit the two have had with each other since their journey began. Water consumption, toilet paper replacement, fire hazards, snoring, drinking the others’ drinks from the fridge, ALL the stuff.

This leads the two to do the old “divide the ship in half with a giant wall” trick and the two decide to never talk to each other again. But over time, both Robby and Hatchi reflect about the positive aspects the other has left on their lives, which is good timing because their wall catches on fire and forces the two to work together to put it out. With their quarrels settled, the two reprepare to head to Isekandar, come what may. In secret, Hatchi decides to pay Robby’s debt in full, allowing them to enter the gate with no trouble. After all their travels, they finally prepare to land on Isekandar.

Meanwhile, Yang decides to just let Robby get caught in the Immigration Bureau’s net and capture him that way, not knowing they’ve made it past. And unbeknownst to THEM, a group called the Luna Guard are in hot pursuit of the Nagaya Voyager after tracking Hatchi’s most recent payment.

OUR TAKE

With only two episodes from the finale, it looks like we’re doing a Bottle Episode that takes place just about entirely inside the Nagaya Voyager instead of going down the gimmicky planet of the week. Given that we ARE pretty close to the end, it would make sense for the show to look inward and focus on the dynamic between its two leads before the final two episodes where things could get serious. It actually reveals a bit about their home life on the ship that either we weren’t really aware of or it was just subtly hinted at before now. It even has a pretty thematically resonant resolution with the candle that Robby gave Hatchi being the thing to burn down the wall the set up to keep them apart!

But I guess my main issue with this whole thing is that…this feels too small for this far along. Don’t get me wrong, I like me some character study episodes over flashy action or gimmicky sci-fi any day, but this issue with the roommate stuff feels like it should have been half a dozen episodes ago when they were first getting to know each other, not this close to the end. Putting it here pretty much only highlights how underdeveloped both Robby and Hatchi are as either individuals or as friends to each other. I’m glad they made up, as their friendship has certainly managed to be believable over the past ten episodes, but this still feels so low energy after everything that’s happened.

Though that still finally puts us on the planet the show has been hyping up since the start: Isekandar! This thing has been hyped up almost as much as Anthem, Duke Nukem Forever, or any given recent Star Wars movie, so there’s a lot of pressure on this show’s shoulders to deliver something fresh. It can’t just be Space Vegas, can it? And either way, what can we do to wrap up this journey and these characters’ arcs that can feel satisfying and conclusive? Will Robby react badly to Hatchi taking care of his debt? How are the Luna Guard connected to Hatchi’s rich parents? What will Yang do once he finds out that Robby is a free man? And will Hizakuriger ever get a dark and gritty reboot now that fan nostalgia has hit its peak? Guess we’ll find out in as we touch down on the beginning of the end next week.