English Dub Review: Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit “The Tenth Dragon”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After nine years, the trial of NINE’s leader—the powerful and prideful Warlock—has finally arrived. And at the courthouse, it’s a regular who’s who. Everyone is there, including: five Special 7 members, various members of Public Safety, a bunch of uniformed officers, a few cop killers, and that terrorist consultant who looks eerily similar to Warlock.

Warlock’s doppelgänger claims to be a lawyer and arrives to defend the imprisoned terrorist leader. He also makes an even crazier claim—to anybody who’ll listen—by insisting his client is innocent. The weird thing is: he’s right. Just as court begins, the “lawyer” reveals he is the true Warlock and the man on trial is nothing more than some random bloke he duped nine years ago. After removing the spell on that man, allowing him to die in peace, the real Warlock shoots the judge and prosecutor with deadly bolts of magic.

Gramps, Akane, and Bellemer are outside, protecting a myriad of innocent people from the chaos inside and a slew of potential NINE disciples who could strike at any time. Ichinose and Nanatsuki, on the other hand, are right where the action is, not far from Warlock and his intense dragon magic.

Meanwhile, Nijo, who took a bullet after facing off with his brother, bursts into Boss’s office. He informs the old man that Public Safety has been ordered to absorb Special 7 and bring the former team into police plaza for reassignment. This abrupt declaration freaks Boss out, so he orders Bellemer and the others to stay away from the office and advises them to lie low at the Pho restaurant.

Ichinose and Nanatsuki are too busy fighting Warlock to receive that message. Well, actually, Nanatsuki is holding off the premiere terrorist while Ichinose is forced to square off against his former partner, Luka. When it’s apparent the two groups have reached a stalemate, Warlock tells the story of what really happened at the airport on that fateful day.

Before do-gooder Luka could save Nanatsuki, Warlock shot the young boy multiple times. While Nanatsuki was legally dead, Luka somehow made a bargain for the kid to absorb some of Warlock’s dragon powers. This is why Nanatsuki—despite many close calls—has never been shot or seriously injured in the line of duty. Unfortunately, since the boy lived, Luka had to “die” and become Warlock’s puppet.

Back in the present, the guys escape the terrorists and meet the others at the restaurant—all except Nijo who is too busy having a gun battle with his semi-deceased brother. The other six members choose to rally together behind Nanatsuki. They understand that while the rookie may be the only one who can destroy Warlock, they’ll all be useful in the ultimate battle against NINE and the Dragon.

 

Our Take

After a misguided clip show, we’ve now had two action-packed and plot-forward episodes in a row. They also both ended with Nijo and his brother engaging in a shootout. While this is a solid step in the right direction, I fear Luka is being stretched rather thin. Since he’s now set up as an integral part of everybody’s life—Hell, he might even be Akane’s faceless boyfriend—it’s obvious that nothing bad is going to happen to him right away. Therefore, he and Nijo’s little gun battles are devoid of stakes. Luka can’t die until he gets closure with Warlock, Ichinose, Nijo, Nanatsuki, Boss, and yes, even Akane. That’s right, I’ve just decided that their relationship is canon; deal with it.

Oh, and just to raise the stakes a little more, Luka is also Bellemer’s birth father. I know she’s a homunculus, but perhaps he created her like a cenobite by ripping off pieces of his skin during an S&M sex act. As for Gramps, I guess he and Luka used to be bowling partners or something…

Okay, so we’re exaggerating a bit, but I seriously wouldn’t mind if our main characters had other motivations besides a couple of loose promises they made almost a decade ago.

I love this series’ pacing and can’t praise it enough. Aside from the clip show—which must never be mentioned again—the ramping up of this plot has been almost perfect. Each case laid down clues and built up tensions that will likely escalate until the final moments. A great example was the absolute shock expressed by the team when Boss revealed that the dragon in the mall was amateur hour compared to what Warlock has in store. That was only three episodes ago, and it sure felt like an epic battle at the time.

The payoff involving Nanatsuki’s powers was well earned and quite effective. With such a large and diverse world to play with, his “powers” could have emerged from anywhere or anything. With elves, vampires, homunculi, dwarfs, and the potential of undiscovered species, the answer was left up to our imaginations for weeks. However, with all the talk of dragons and the evil powers NINE hopes to gain, it’s appropriate that we now have a truly good character to bring balance to the instability.