English Dub Review: SUPER HxEROS “HxEROS Forms”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After proving her impressive abilities by assisting Retto Enjo against a powerful Kiseichuu, Kirara Hoshino is officially being recruited to the HxEROS team. But, she’s not immediately sold on living together with Retto, Momoka, Sora, and Miahime and takes considerable offense at the source of her powers being her incredible horniness.

Our take:

What did I say about harem hijinks? This episode gives us a look at Retto’s daily life in a house with three girls, starting with a panty raid wakeup call courtesy of his dog, followed by finding sleepyhead teammate Sora Tenkuji curled up in his bed after wandering in half asleep in the middle of the night.

Our good natured protagonist is mostly unphased by these sexual situations, although to be fair, he can’t really afford to be getting nosebleeds every time something like this happens. Having just watched the American Dad! episode with The Weeknd guest starring, his reaction reminds me of the “where do you buy a bed without girls in it?” moment more than anything.

For a series that’s at least 75% fan service, there are some unexpectedly wholesome moments throughout the episode, but they’re interspersed with genuinely WTF scenes, which results in an overall weird feeling and strong recommendation to watch this series alone (which is really a best practice for most anime, honestly.)

This week’s plot only barely expands on the first episode, with Daman Mills (recently heard as Kai in BEASTARS) as Anno smarmily explains that the team should live together for “emergency deployment purposes” and team building, but offends Kirara by saying that all the team members are similar in that they’re “filthy with erotic energy!”

Forceful Momoka, voiced by Emily Neves (Mio Yamagishi in Fruits Basket and Gine in Dragon Ball Super: Broly) tries to smooth things over, but somehow calling Kirara “Piranha” only makes things worse. The writing could use some work here for sure, but Neves manages to keep her tough but upbeat vocal energy at full power, both when reprimanding Retto to steal her panties himself next time, and while attempting to warm Kirara up to the idea of living with the rest of the team.

Mallorie Rodak gets a few extra lines compared to last week, and does a great job of differentiating Sora’s voice from her similarly coiffed Goblin Slayer High Elf Archer role by playing up the sweet spaciness.

The weirdest parts definitely come in the way of the dog interaction with Miahime (Kate Bristol, aka Pikachu), the flashback to an intense hug between younger Kirara and Retto, and the boob sweat being apparently the most erotic part of the two of them lying naked in a car after fighting off a wasp Kiseichuu in the present day.

A surprisingly sweet aspect comes from the fact that Retto’s heart is pure. He truly loves Kirara and wants to protect everyone on Earth from the relationship damage he and others have suffered from the Kiseichuu. Kirara being incredibly overpowered, but embarrassed by admitting to the cause is also potentially interesting, although if I’m forced to admit that ultimately this story is an empowering tale of a young woman embracing her sexuality as a force for good, I’m gonna be pissed.

So far, it’s still a fanservice fest low on plot, but heavy on “plot”. Hopefully as the fighting style gets a bit more context (is it the watches, or what?), the origins of the Kiseichuu get explained, or Kirara gets some character development, things will get more interesting, but that ultimately all remains to be seen.