English Dub Review: The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? “Presumed Dead? Are You Kidding Me?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Back at the Baumeister household, second son Kurt receives word that Well has been supposedly killed looking into some ancient ruins. This is an odd letter to send given that Well and his friends have only just completed their respective training of two years to become adventurers, now going by the group name of Dragon Busters. As such, their first official mission is a royal request to…investigate some ancient ruins. Hmm. These ruins have apparently claimed lives of much more well known adventurers before, which the group soon understands why when they are transported to the bottom of a dungeon and must escape by traversing several traps and enemies. Luckily all the training pays off as the group practically walks through a swath of mechanical golems.

But five days later, they’re still fighting to get out and the capital assumes they all must have died. So that opening was actually a fast forward? Still, the party presses on and eventually makes it to the final chamber to face a DRAGON golem, with Iina taking a major hit that even Elise has an issue healing right away and Well struggling against its blasts. Elise uses a spell called Miracle’s Light to boost his power, though with a kiss added to give him extra motivation. After recovering, they find more golems, though these can be taken to the capital for good use.

OUR TAKE

We enter the final phase of the season as everyone in the party has leveled up and can now contribute to the battle, all getting their own new spiffy outfits and special attacks. This is something I’ve been wanting since they all formed so that Well didn’t seem like the only one carrying everybody, but I suppose it’s better late than never. Actually just about all of this seems like stuff that we should have had early on, at least to save us from so many of the dumb concubine jokes. With only four more episodes left, we don’t have a ton of time to really get into the real adventuring stuff sadly, but maybe we’ll get into that in the second season!…hahahaha I couldn’t even say that with a straight face.

Well, we do have our first hintings of where these last few episodes are going, as Well’s reputation in the capital has put quite the target on his back, including amongst his own family. I’m not exactly super thrilled that Kurt and all the nonsense about the Baumeister family is going to come back into the story, but I supposed it makes sense considering it was part of how the story began and the whole line of succession stuff, while really dumb and pointless, is in the title after all. I can’t imagine that Kurt himself is going to be an actual threat as he is now, so if we’re going to be focusing on him and the family stuff, it’s likely going to be a bit more of a complicated problem that Well won’t be able to just blast his way through with magic. At least, that’s me being optimistic about that, which this show hasn’t exactly always given me reason to be.

Still, I’d say this episode was certainly a marked improvement over the rest to being…perfectly acceptable. This and last episode kinda feel like what the series should have been pretty much near the start, which I only keep bringing up because it’s just so frustrating that we’re only getting to that now in the second half! Having all the characters be somewhat interesting and equally contributing members of the party, having the politics actually impact things in a notable way, heck, even using Well’s family to be more of a multi-faceted part of the story, this all seems like something you put really early upfront. With only a third of the season left, there isn’t a ton of time to play with that, but I guess we’ll see how they handle it.