English Dub Review: Stand My Heroes: Piece of Truth “Piece 08”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)
Rei meets up with Miyase to discuss the drug document findings from the last episode (which, as later shown in a flashback, are shown to be Square, the base drug for Plus). Miyase had no idea about this data and is now uncertain about his relationship with the Kujo family.
Later on, with permission from Aoyama, Rei meets up with Miyase at the Kujo garden to ask whether or not he’d be willing to cooperate with the DCD’s investigation. Miyase then asks Rei if she’d be willing to work with someone who still believes in Kujo’s innocence. The two agree shortly after.

Back at the DCD headquarters, the members discuss what to ask Miyase now that he’s cooperating with the case. In addition, one of the members ponders that the whole investigation would be easier if STAND would cooperate with the DCD. Fortunately, Rei has a plan up her sleeve.

Rei heads to STAND’s offices to politely ask for any new information on Kujo to be given to her, given how they wish for her to recruit Kujo. They decline, which Rei takes to mean that Kujo is a part of STAND’s current investigation.
After a chat with Aoyama, Arakida calls up Rei to apologize for his words way back in the first episode. Rei denies the apology, stating that Arakida was completely right with his words. Arakida then gives Rei a tip on the case: if an unknown corpse related to the case can be identified, it may secure Kujo’s cooperation.

Soon after, one of the members of Revel texts Rei to let her know the victim’s name from above is Yuki Hibiya. Rei then meets with Miyase again to see if he has managed to dig up anything on Yuki. Miyase pulls out a USB drive filled with information on Yuki, including his involvement in the creation of Square.

Seeing this information as their ticket to Kujo’s cooperation, Rei and another member of the DCD ask two higher-up government officials to suspend Kujo’s invitation to STAND. This ultimately leads nowhere though, which leads the other DCD member to suspect corruption within the government.

Rei then excuses herself to meet with Arakida, but arrives to an empty office. Suddenly, Hattori shows up and tells Rei that she shouldn’t have dug as deep into this investigation as she has…

Our Take
This episode is the poster child of a kid not bothering to clean up their mess. I know that makes absolutely no sense right now, but hear me out. Hopefully, the following will at least make some sense, more so than today’s episode did anyways.

I legitimately have little to no idea what is going on anymore. There’s such a glut of information dropped here that I can’t make heads or tails of anything. After writing the above summary, the main story actually sounds decently entertaining and easy to follow. This, however, is not what the show’s like at all. The presentation is all-around confusing, ruining nearly any enjoyment it may have had on myself and others. I had to repeatedly go back and forth here to truly understand the nitty-gritty details within the dialogue. Even then, I barely understood what was going on! It’s such an absolute mess that I think I’d rather dive deep into my trashbin then try to comprehend this.

Another thing that irritates me about this episode is Rei allegedly “relying” on her drug-immunity condition at some part during this series. However, every scene she’s been in throughout the entire series has her acting the same way. She does her job well and takes it in stride. Perhaps she’s improved her investigative skills (though I feel they were great to begin with), but not once did I ever see her as “relying” on her condition.

The only substantial evidence is when she was attacked with chloroform in the first episode. However, does that really constitute as “relying” on her condition? This part does not feel developed at all, and it makes it even more irritating when Rei agrees with this assessment later on! It would make more sense if there were more scenes towards the beginning of the series where she simply relies on her condition, and then slowly starts to move away from it. However, with the only evidence being that one scene, it doesn’t feel substantial enough to claim as character development.

The one scene I actually did receive a bit of enjoyment from was when Rei and Miyase are in the flower garden. I liked the softer nature of this scene here, a nice way to take a breather from the mystery unfolding. The tender dialogue and hints of chemistry between the two are lovely to bear witness to. The animation during this scene isn’t as expressive as it could be. Overall though, it’s decent enough compared to other near-static animation throughout. It still conveys a pleasant conversation between the two with a teaspoon of romantics to keep the drama pot boiling.

I swear I am seriously trying to take pleasure in watching this series. There is an abundance of potential here that’s wasted by sloppy dialogue and non-focus on developing characters to their true potential. One would absolutely believe that a drama involving unsolved drug cases would be a smashing good time all around. This episode, however, only proves the contrary.