English Dub Review: SUPER HxEROS “HXEROS Showdown!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The HxEROS team heads to confront the governor, to see if she’s really the Queen Kiseichuu. They send Chacha over in disguise, but the Queen unfortunately recognizes her own daughter immediately, and lures her inside. The rest of the team jumps to the rescue, with Maihime of all people leading the charge. Unfortunately, their rescue attempt leads them right into the Queen’s trap, where they’re locked in an H-energy proof room (with two beds though, for exactly the reasons you’re thinking of!) while the Queen takes an entranced Chacha off to enjoy dinner and share the details of her ultimate villainous plan. The Queen reveals that the Kiseichuu have had to keep planet hopping because they siphon off the H-energy of any particular species too thoroughly, and are forced to move on to continue searching for sustenance. But she’s come up with an exciting new plan to solve this problem: keep humans as sexy livestock, and feed off them for generations. Chacha is horrified at the idea, but still under her mom’s control. Back in their extremely hotel-esque dungeon, the rest of the team comes up with a plan to build up H-energy and it’s, you guessed it: doing it. Momoka suggests it with glee, but Kirara, as expected, protests. With everyone else on board, our shy protagonist’s last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable is to insist that the lights are out so they can’t tell who they’re with while building up H-energy. Retto’s able to charge up the rest of the girls with barely a touch, (fantasy goes a long way here I guess?) but when he and Kirara finally hook up, it’s extra intense, despite being wedged between the two beds. The team has recharged just in time, and is able to burst out of the room just as Chacha’s running to save them, but about to be punished by her mom for doing so. We finally get to see everyone in their upgraded suits, get the full Power Rangers style introductions, but just then the Queen pulls a fast one and calls upon sexy Cthulhu (or some sort of pink land octopus) to attempt to finish them off. Retto and Kirara follow the Queen while the rest of the team takes on the tentacle-y menace. Can the two finally admit their feelings for each other to save the world? Will the team be able to resist the H-energy drain of the Kiseichuu’s ultimate weapon? Watch and find out, if you can handle extreme amounts of cringe.

Our take:

I’ve been desperately waiting for the final countdown of this show for a while now. Thankfully, the final episode is here to wrap things up nicely and send this horny series on it’s way! The boob physics get in one last final hurrah with total implausibility, particularly for the Queen Kiseichuu. Meanwhile Retto and Kirara’s relationship remains, at this point, unconsummated and still kind of unclear, but theoretically that’s to leave room for additional seasons or even a sequel. Although personally, I’m hoping this is where my viewing of this series ends.

One bright spot (aside from the visuals, which remain top notch) is the jokes and voice acting in this episode. Mallorie Rodak lends a spaced out edge to even one of this series funnier moments, when Sora remarks “An escape room with an orgy solution? Totally using that in a story!” Kate Bristol also gets an interesting moment as Maihime when she admits (kind of?) her love for her friend Chiya when Momoka gets a bit too cozy in the dark, followed by an adorable and vocally impressive embarrassed squeal. Brittany Lauda rounds out this series with some solid shrieking this last episode, with a shocked “What the what!?” when finding out the plan, and screaming at Retto that he’s a “Dumbass” while landing a quality punch.

The writing is ultimately where this series struggles, and it’s never more clear than in this final episode. Granted, I *do* understand why there’s not a huge focus on the plot, but when a show is a series, it helps to have some actual character development of some sort, rather than just piecing together a string of sex jokes and the occasional sincere speech from Retto in between gratuitous shots of cute anime girls in erotic poses. Seeing Kirara still be shocked and uptight at this point just…doesn’t make sense. Everything in the series was leading to her and Retto finally getting together, and when it only really happens for a moment, and the resulting conversation doesn’t really change how they interact with each other, it’s deeply unsatisfying.

However, this show’s really not trying to tell an intense narrative, and as I suspected in an earlier review, it’s not trying to make a story out of Kirara overcoming her hang-ups, accepting her sexuality, and drawing power from this realization (at least not explicitly, I suppose the comment about “fused H-energy” could suggest otherwise.) Overall, it’s a silly fanservice anime that doesn’t get too gross, so I will begrudgingly give it a point for that. Otherwise, I’m happy to quote last week’s title to finally say “Bye Bye Hxeros!” See y’all…never,  I hope.