English Dub Review: Skeleton Knight in Another World – “A Secret Revealed, and a Bond Forged”

So, when it comes to the intro to Skeleton Knight…, I never pay attention to the actual animation to the show. Let me tell you, this is worth the watch alone. That said, the episode…showed some things.

Things started out very unsettling. Things involving rape always get me feeling uneasy, but there is something with the opening scene that just irked me. It doesn’t detract from “A Secret Revealed, and a Bond Forged”, it’s just very unnerving seeing someone in a position of power use drugs or some derivative to force themselves on to people, and that’s exactly what was done tonight. Luckily, since Skeleton Knight… is on Crunchyroll, there’s a line where content like that stops, and I’m perfectly okay with this instance.

After sneaking into the Lord’s manor, Arc and Ariane confront Lord Tryton, and with one, singular, swift kick to the pork and beans, the elf kidnapping ring, and Lord Tryton’s groin, no longer function properly. Of course, as Arc was stealing the gold reserves Tryton had, the building starts to explode, and the two make their escape. You can tell from here that the friendship between Arc and Ariane is really blossoming, which is good. I like when the foil to the main character shows growth to the point where they’re not taking themselves too seriously, and Ariane does that well by inviting Arc back to the Elfland, Lalatoya.

They finally delve a bit into the how Arc landed in this land, with a hearty “who knows?”. Arc finally showed his skeleton face to Ariane, showing his…true self to her. We have a lot of growth and expansion of the plot, and I am beyond happy. I am beyond excited to see where things go from here, because the growth in Arc is as important. There are still glimpses to him being the weird horny nerd who wants to meet hot women and get the fantasy game trope experience. But there is a bit of a juxtaposition with him leaning more towards the right thing besides just the tropes involved. Just when I think I can’t be surprised, Skeleton Knight… does something to keep me on my toes.

After the sudden dick kicking session for Tryton, we meet more nobles of the world, this time, the Rhoden family, who are the ruling body of the Rhoden Kingdom. Well, at least the naming conventions are easy to adhere to, I suppose. Again, there’s more growth, because you see more of the political machinations of the world as a whole. It’s no One Piece level worldbuilding, but the world has a lot of expansion in the course of two episodes. We finally meet King Karlon as well as his children, as well as his kids; Princes Sekt and Dakares, and Princess Yuriarna. Sekt and Yuriarna seem to want to get things back on track and get the elves good graces, where Dakares is very quick to defend Tryton.

You see more on the friendship between Arc and Ariane, as well as Ariane and Ponta. I’m really digging the less action heavy episodes of Skeleton Knight… because I love the exposition of the world. I want to know more of the world that’s there, because I’ve gone in blind.

When the episode cuts back to the Rhoden Kingdom, Yuriarna is talking to her handmaiden, Ferna, where the handmaiden is showing a lot of political aspirations for Yuriarna. I want to make a note of this, because I feel that the handmaiden will make a move to get Yuriarna on the throne, in some sort of Game of Thrones type of move. As the episode ends, Arc and Ariane finally make it to Lalatoya.

I want to get this out there now, because I wanted to make sure this was fixed when I finished “A Secret Revealed, and a Bond Forged”. There were no technical issues this week. The audio was synced up correctly. Thank you, Crunchyroll. One thing is fixed. Now if we can just broadcast from your site, the world would be in a better place.

I cannot say enough good things about “A Secret Revealed, and a Bond Forged”. If there was ever a perfect title for an episode of a show, this was it. Tryton’s elven slave trade was busted wide open, and the bond between Arc and Ariane is getting a lot stronger. I appreciate that there is a huge step from where we started, with Ariane thinking Arc was just an incompetent fool, and Arc showing that he is a worthy ally.

I wrote off Skeleton Knight… at first glance, only because Isekai is a genre that has been beaten into the ground so bad, this horse should have been made into glue years ago. But there is a charm with Skeleton Knight… that shows like Sword Art Online, That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, and even Digimon never hoped to have. As of this review, Arc is a witty main character, and Ariane is the perfect foil. If Skeleton Knight…gets any better, it may crack my personal top 20 anime list.