English Dub Review: Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit “From Zero to Seven”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

And so the final battle begins. Nanatsuki is holding his own against Warlock but despite the best efforts of him, Boss, and Ichinose, they can’t keep the man and his dragon aura down. When Bellemer, Gramps, and Akane arrive on the scene, things get better but the Seven can’t seem to stick in that final nail. It doesn’t help that Nanatsuki and the others want to arrest Warlock instead of kill him, but that’s how the Special 7 do. They are the good guys, after all.

They’re going to need a plan. Unlike Boss and Nanatsuki’s dragon powers, Warlock’s is dependent on all the followers he duped. Without their support, Warlock would be as powerless as a little baby. Bellemer—because she’s a ninja, hacker, and all-around utility player—pulls a reverse Ghostbusters II and uses her many drones to keep the spirit of his followers far away from their gruesome leader.

After getting word from Nijo, Ichinose requests that his partner move the fight to a nearby park to give them a new advantage. Being the super cop he is, Nanatsuki catches the terrorist leader off-guard and jumps off the roof while holding his enemy close. The rookie lands hard on the ground while Warlock floats beautifully like the fairy Navi from The Legend of Zelda series. Also similar to Navi, Akane and Ichinose soar to the ground while riding on a pair of Belle’s expensive, weight-bearing drones.

Nijo and a reformed Luka join the fight, causing Warlock to lose his confidence after realizing he no longer has control over his faithful puppet. With Nijo’s long lost brother and Ichinose’s long lost partner—who’s the same person—helping the team, Warlock gets even weaker. The advanced teamwork brings about the fall of the evil dragon aura, allowing Nanatsuki to slip a pair of handcuffs on the powerless, defeated Warlock.

The great terrorist refuses to believe he’s beaten and draws on all his magic to free himself from such pesky human-made restraints. Nothing doing; the old timer’s magic is all worn out and all the dragons are finally dead. Even Nanatsuki, in a burst of hubris, relinquishes his powers right in front of Warlock.

In the aftermath, Luka leaves Tokyo, saying goodbye to only Ichinose. As penance for his many sins, he plans to go around the world doing good, like Caine from Kung Fu, or Jules from Pulp Fiction who left a life of sin to be more like Caine from Kung Fu. While Nijo is bummed that he’ll never get the fairy tale reunion he wanted with his brother, he is content getting to work with those who knew and learned from him.

The Special 7 return to work, forced to pick up the slack for all those arrested members of Public Safety. Plus, members of NINE are still out there, making their specialized unit a necessity for the foreseeable future, at least until all evil has been extinguished from their world.

 

Our Take

Speaking of the ending, those wacky Special 7 officers are a little too happy to get a murder case. Sure, they get to keep their jobs, but somebody just died. Try to show some decorum, Bellemer and the others. Especially Belle, though. What’s up with her? Maybe Boss/Secret Dragon Man really isn’t as great a father as he claims.

So, Luka had all his moment with the necessary characters, as I predicted, but his exit felt a little rushed and convenient. The guy just regained his true self after nine years and he already has access to Nijo’s source and enough cache to get out of Tokyo undetected. That’d be a pretty tall order for a king, or even Pablo Escobar.

I guess we could assume that Nijo spent years building up his underworld connections just in case his brother happened to be alive. Or better yet, to get himself out of town after he killed those he believed responsible for killing Luka. But that doesn’t explain how those brothers exchanged so much information in such a short amount of time. Because, in the end Nijo was surprised to hear his brother had “vanished.” If he were in on it the entire time, he wouldn’t have even come looking for his childhood role model.

And now, on to the rookie. Nanatsuki, you’re a pretty good guy, and a true blue police officer, but such stalwartness didn’t leave you with much of an arc. You started out the exact same way you ended—above reproach.

Come to think of it, only a few characters had legitimate character arcs this season—Nijo, Luka, and Ichinose to a much lesser extent. With that in mind, it’s rather surprising how little focus was given to Nijo and Luka throughout this twelve-episode run. Nijo drew focus away from Nanatsuki and Ichinose for an episode or two in the middle, but even toward the end when he and Luka were having their series of final showdowns, their screen time was limited.

Why did the creators do this? Perhaps, they wanted to lead with the positive and incorruptible instead of the damaged and malleable. If so, that’s too bad. This could’ve been an even better show if they leaned into the grit every now and again.