English Dub Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War “Memories Burning Crimson”

Overview:

After encountering the Ashen Chevalier and witnessing the might of the Empire’s hero, Rean Schwarzer, Lavi, and the gang have a short layover in Celdic before their next train. But waiting there for them is the Intelligence Division’s Lechter.

Our Take:

Now when I say it’s getting disappointing, I don’t necessarily mean the story, animation, or anything. No, what is getting disappointing is that none of the game’s voice actors have reprised their roles. What makes it more frustrating is the fact that they announced that everyone would be reprising their roles prior to the dub premiering. Even more baffling is that Lechter Arundel had his dub voice actor, Max Mittelman, in his last appearance but is now voiced by Matt Shipman for some reason. Nothing against him but I was expecting Max, and everyone to return for that matter. I would be a little less upset if they didn’t announce the entire cast would be returning in the first place. I’ll be intrigued to find out what is holding everything back.

As for the anime itself, it was an okay episode. The cast actually had some decent moments but I just can’t get invested in them yet. Outside of Lavi, I have a hard time remembering some of the names of the characters. There’s clearly a bigger picture thing going on with North Ambria but it just hasn’t gotten interesting yet. For an anime that seemed like it was supposed to shed some light on an unknown part of Trails lore. Instead, it seems to be relying on fanservice by including characters we know and love, which would be cool if they were able to get the VAs back.