English Dub Review: SUPER HxEROS “XERO Game”

Overview

Last episode ended with Kirara regaining her true memory/personality/whatever after a brief regression caused by a silkworm Kiseichuu, but this episode is all about Genmuchuu, a moth? firefly? winged beetle? some sort of flying bug Kiseichuu with tentacles who can manipulate dreams. So of course we’re treated to the sexy dreams of both Retto with a harem of Kiraras from every age (gotta appeal both loli and oppai fans, I guess?) and Kirara with a vision of domestic near-bliss of their married life together. After Chacha helps break Retto out of his trance, we meet two new characters from the Tokyo HxEROS branch, Shiko Murasame (Michelle Rojas, who also voices Tohka Yatogami on Date A Live) and Moena Wakakusa (voiced by Kristen McGuire, who’s also the titular character in Helpful Fox Senko). Since this battle is taking place on the border between the two cities, these newly introduced rivals attempt to put Retto in his place with an H-energy duel or something that’s basically just dry humping. I don’t even know at this point. Chacha jumps in to save the day, the team takes care of the Kiseichuu, Moena and Momoka recognize each other, and Shiko leaves with a crush on Retto.

Our take

I guess there’s still a tiny bit of plot to be squeezed out of this tired old story, but it’s telling that they have to bring in new faces, and more importantly, boobs, every episode to keep things rolling. Always interesting to hear familiar voices though, and Michelle Rojas and Kristen McGuire may catch the ears of Assassination Classroom fans, where they voice Toka Yada and Hinano Kurahashi, respectively.

So this episode continues with the weird, slightly creepy, meandering and only semi-sensical plot that we’ve seen in the past, although this time it’s with a “trapped in dream” sequence that, while it of course takes on the general vibe of the rest of the show, is a storyline that I feel has become shockingly common in both animation (I saw it recently in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts with the Tad Mulholland initial storyline) and live action (the episode of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with the demon Batty-Bat comes to mind.) I can’t say for sure if it’s actually becoming more common, or if I’m just noticing it more, but it’s definitely an interesting storyline that can, depending on how it’s used, range from an interesting, inventive way to move the plot forward, to simply a way to cram more tits into an episode. Can you guess which option this particular episode uses it for, dear reader? I’m sure you can.

While introducing a rivalry with the Tokyo branch and seeing Retto enter a pheromone-induced “beast mode” is potentially interesting, in the end it serves the same old purpose of getting us even more nudity, although I have to give the character designers credit for imagining new methods to show of breasts, including just the front of a shirt/cardigan combo to have dissolved off. After he’s woken from his dream world, Retto’s next challenge is to cause the newly introduced rivals to lose by releasing their H-energy. This feat is supposedly a challenge, since Shiko had, prior to this encounter, supposedly been unable to feel physical touch, due to her HxEROS gear draining her of sensation. The logic of how the gear works in this anime is just whatever.

In the end, this episode is about the same as every other, with another Kiseichuu down, another girl added to the harem, and our team off on their way towards future naked adventures. Hooray.