English Dub Review: The Ones Within “ERASE MY REALITY”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Anya and Himi are selected for Paca’s next challenge: obtaining a rare chemical from an underground bunker in a ruin. The only catch is that they can’t tell a lie while they’re doing the challenge.

Things start out easily enough but quickly fall apart when mummies start attacking them. Eventually, they find themselves in a chamber deep underground where they encounter a strange, talking wall. Before they can retrieve the chemical, they must answer three questions.

Our Take:

In going with the theme of this week’s challenge, I won’t lie about ERASE MY REALITY: it wasn’t a very good episode. Though I didn’t find it particularly unenthralling while watching, after reflecting back on it I found that it was a pretty messy episode.

The overall concept of the challenge is interesting enough – forcing two people not to lie during the journey to obtain a rare item underground. But I don’t think it really explored this concept to its full potential. There could’ve been a lot more humor derived from not lying, as well. The two people selected, Himi and Anya, don’t exactly have the greatest chemistry together. I thought it would be cool to see their dynamic at first, but I don’t think it worked out very well. Anya is basically a walking anger management ad, yelling almost every one of his lines. It gets old pretty quick and I found myself wishing that someone else had been paired with Himi, because she’s great! The big reveal at the end of the episode is super unexpected. Based on the flashback Anya had, I was definitely thinking that he would talk about that. But instead, Himi mentions she killed her big brother. While I’m pretty sure it isn’t as black and white as presented, it’s still a shocking thing to hear from the timid girl.

“This one time he spent like an hour trying to help a beetle get outside.” Anya is a lot nicer underneath, just like most tough people portrayed in entertainment. Anya’s big brother passed away in a motorbike accident getting him mint chocolate ice cream, and it’s clear this has impacted him in a huge way. Himi is a good match for Anya in some ways, like her savageness: “When we passed by the light, I noticed the bags under your eyes are darker than usual.”

This episode focuses a great amount on Aki for an episode that doesn’t even feature him as one of the main Let’s Players. (He volunteers to go on the quest, disregarding Yuzu’s concern about his broken arm by claiming to be ambidextrous.) Not only do some people suspect him of being a plant or something, but the challenge involves listing five of Aki’s admirable qualities because apparently, he’s on both Himi and Anya’s minds.

The dub this week had some awesome lines. “Get ready for a heart-throbbing, couple-making adventure!” Paca is a little too happy about the matchmaking going on in this episode, but hey, I guess weird Alpaca people have to get their kicks somehow. “But I had perfect attendance!” Aki does act really suspiciously in some ways, like always being so helpful and perfect. “Get out of here! And bring me another pudding!” Karin bossing around Paca is pretty hilarious. “Why not a damn panda?” Anya’s hatred for Alpaca is adorable.

ERASE MY REALITY is a weird episode of The Ones Within. There was a lot of nice potentials that the episode exhibited. But there was also a lot of wasted chances to push things further. It was also really messy, with several one-off cutaways that didn’t seem to relate to any theme of the episode or affect it in any way.