English Dub Review: SUPER HxEROS “Snow White and the Color of the Sky”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

While the Kiseichuu plot amongst themselves to take over the world, things are going well for our still newly-formed HxEROS team. We’re starting to learn a bit more about the other girls in the house, both as members of SUPER HxEROS and their lives outside of guardians of humanity’s sexual energy. Maihime Shirayuki is sweet and soft spoken at home, but at school she’s an annoying klutz compared to her athletic, charismatic best friend, Chiya. But is their relationship strictly platonic, or actually the source of Maihime’s power as HxEROS White? Back at the house, Kirara accidentally sees Sora’s erotic drawings, causing Sora to feel embarrassed, and requesting Kirara pose as an artistic reference to balance things out. Sora’s true power is revealed when the team has to go defend her favorite bookstore, but will she be able to save Kirara and the books in question?

Our take

At least one of my questions from last week is answered in this episode, but a thousand more have risen up to take its place. Yes, other team members go to school. But now the Kiseichuu are all working together, regardless of species? And they have a queen, who gets a “villain standing ominously with the earth in their claws” scene? AND they can, at least according to Maihime’s weird and slightly foreshadow-y dream, capture and “have their way” with humans? It’s a lot to take in, but thankfully combined with a heaping helping of humor and nudity to aid the act.

Seeing Maihime attend Saotome Girls High School confirms that she’s a student as well, while explaining why we never saw her at Retto and Kirara’s school. Although it hasn’t been explicitly shown or stated yet, it’s a safe bet to assume Sora attends somewhere as well, since she wears a different school uniform.

But mild curiosity about the academic pursuits of our main cast aside, “Snow White and the Color of the Sky” is our chance to learn more about Maihime and Sora. It’s a bit of a shame that their exposition is crammed into the same week, since honestly they’re two of the more interesting characters.

Maihime, who fills the “mom” role at the shared house is shown to be a bi disaster when out on her own, but thankfully she’s able to save the day when Kiseichuu 4A (they’re a grower, not a shower), a sort of mushroom/worm/jellyfish creature attacks her high school. We get a bit of a Monty Python moment when one of the villainous insect’s tentacles turns out to actually be Retto (don’t worry, he gets better), before Maihime summons the confidence that Chiya has for her to make short work of the beast. Some humor also comes from the dub itself, with Kate Bristol (famously the voice of Pikachu) attempting to make her character’s Snow White-esque soprano trill intimidating when telling the Kiseichuu “you made a big mistake coming here!”

Overall, it’s enlightening and fitting for the character, and while it’s an extreme stretch to take the Maihime/Chiya relationship as LGBT+ representation, I’m willing to pull a muscle to assume that’s the case.

The latter half of the episode focuses on shy Sora, the reclusive artist of the SUPER HxEROS house. The source of her power is revealed to be dirty manga, which she both reads and draws. Not much else is explained about her character, which is fine at this point. The humor points come from Retto bursting in on her and Kirara’s life drawing session in a way that mimics the manga Sora’s created, although she didn’t anticipate the recorder her muse was posing with ending up in our poor male protagonist’s butt.

Sora’s H-energy materializing in the form of wings is an extremely on-brand touch for anyone who’s even drawn a little bit of manga (I’m embarrassed to say I know this from experience), while Mallorie Rodak (Yukino from Fairy Tail) lends a quiet power to HxEROS Blue with her vocal performance.

The end of this episode is considerably more sinister than previous installments, although I’m hoping that means next week will feature some of the explanations about the Kiseichuu that I’ve been so desperately craving. Unfortunately, only time will tell.