English Dub Review: Stand My Heroes: Piece of Truth “Piece 02”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)
Hatori, the red-haired man from last episode, meets with Rei in order to Takaomi’s offices to discuss a potential partnership between Revel and STAND. However, the meeting ends abruptly.

Outside the office building, Hatori and Rei run across two more members of Revel: Aki and Keita. Hatori invites Rei to join them at a local bar.
Meanwhile, Takaomi informs Kujo from the previous episode about the meeting between him and Rei. He states that the DCD seems to be moving in on their arrangement.

At the bar, Rei attempts to chat with the Revel members regarding STAND. Aki declines to listen to Rei unless she consumes an unknown drug. Rei caves into peer pressure and does so, surprising Aki. Ultimately, Aki still does not listen and leaves the bar. Keita follows, though is apologetic for his friend’s stunt.

Later, Hatori sets up a “date” between Rei and Keita. After talking briefly about the potential partnership between Revel and STAND, the two have ice cream, where Rei remarks at how kind Keita acts. However, back at the bar, Keita gets into a fight with a group of punks, leading Rei to become confused by Keita’s actions.

Around night time, Rei calls Aki on her walk home, only to find Aki right next to her apartment! Surprised but undeterred, Rei asks Aki about the reasoning behind Keita’s actions. Aki refuses to disclose this, choosing to let Keita tell the rest back at the bar.

The punks return to the bar, confronting Keita regarding money as reimbursement for the earlier fight. Rei tries to intervene, but the punks knock her down instead.

Keita and Rei then have a chat, where Keita finally discloses the reason for his actions. It turns out a criminal kidnapped him as a child. Thus, Keita wishes for none of his close acquaintances to have to go through the same amount of turmoil that he went through as a child. Following this discussion, Rei asks Keita about joining STAND, with Keita now considering.

Later on still, Rei meets again with Takaomi. Takaomi needs some time to consider joining STAND, but in return, hands a mysterious book for Rei to overlook.

Our Take
So…where’s the drugs? It’s a question I kept on asking myself throughout the entirety of this episode. From the perspective of this episode and the last, the show seems to be nothing more than a convoluted drama about the relationships between Rei and a million men, disguised as a drama regarding protecting citizens from drugs. I don’t mind the interactions between Rei and the men she meets, but I just wish there was more of a balance between the two here.

Rei’s entire role almost feels as though it’s just a scapegoat to allow her to meet an unlimited amount of men throughout the series. This brings me back to a complaint I had with the first episode: the amount of characters introduced. While not as many as the first, we are introduced to three more characters this go around. I will say that these three are more developed than the last batch of characters, but is it really necessary to include them? I don’t really think it’s entirely necessary to have them be apart of the show. Rather, Takaomi can serve as the representant of the entire Revel group, rather than getting to know three more characters in a sea of others.

In addition to that, the show continues to underdevelop the rest of its cast. The majority of the DCD is reduced to comedic relief this episode. The pink-haired guy whose name I cannot remember acts completely nuts over Rei cutting her hair, stating that he could have used it to find out more about her drug-resistance. Speaking of which, when on earth did she cut her hair? It’s a minor detail but one that I could have very well overlooked entirely.

Another piece that felt underdeveloped to me is an interaction between Keita and Aki at Keita’s home. Aki confronts Keita about getting too close to Rei, in which Keita assures Aki that he won’t. The scene is meant to foreshadow Keita’s later actions in the episode, but it just felt shoved in there and forced. I felt bad for Keita’s situation, but I couldn’t help cracking up at how out of nowhere this development popped up.

The storyline behind the show just feels…a bit confusing and underwhelming to me. I’m really not sure what to make of it. The majority of it feels, frankly, pointless. It almost feels “slice of life” at this point rather than a serious drama. There are several scenes throughout, particularly the interaction between Aki and Rei at her home, which seriously make me want to hit my head on the wall. I mean, what was the point? Why didn’t the show just move back to the bar so that Rei could ask Keita herself? Did we need to have a buffer scene between that? The majority of the show’s story just makes my head hurt.

However, amidst all of the poor pieces, the episode does have some good elements. I did admire the drama during the second half of the episode, as it felt quite genuine. I sincerely felt for Keita’s turmoil and like how he stands up for those he cares about. He truly cares for those close to him, not wanting to have anyone experience the same level of turmoil that he had to as a child. The voice acting also added to the tension surrounding these scenes. As a whole, the voice acting was pretty top-notch, adding a feeling of realism to the entire episode.

Overall, compared to its debut, this chapter in Stand My Heroes was a fairly weak affair. It had some decent moments, but the bad outweighs the good here. The show continues to struggle with underdeveloped characters, a story that makes my brain beg for aspirin, and honestly not knowing what kind of identity it wants to be. I sincerely hope it gets better from here. Otherwise, I’m going to have to stash up on some Ibuprofen for the headaches that are to come.