English Dub Review: The Silver Guardian “The Three From the Training Institute \ Rin’s True Identity”

Wait, full episodes? You have my attention!

Overview (Spoilers)

Having finally been made aware that there WAS a training course to introduce you to the game of Grave Busters, Suigin heads to the remote quarry. There, he meets his fellow trainees. One is his student council president, Shaw, who doesn’t really have much presence. The other, Titan, is extremely standoffish. They are joined by their instructor Rin, who takes them into the quarry. The place is infested with tunnel apes, and to make matters worse, they have a massive defense buff from their leader. Fortunately, the team has their Buster Items. Titan uses his tower shield/gauntlet to take out the leader, leaving the rest of the apes ripe for the slaughter. That’s good since Shaw is taking Rin more seriously than the mission. He follows her around like a lovesick puppy. Too bad that she’s the boss of the stage! In order to win, they have to beat her!

Courtesy: Funimation

Rin begins the fight by gauging their abilities, throwing a kunai at each of them. Hint: Kunai is a ninja weapon. Titan blocks it by summoning his familiar, rather than risk blocking a weapon with a special effect. Suigin dodges the blade. Shaw blocks the throw… with his face. The blade is buried in his forehead, and he doesn’t even realize it. She scans each of them to determine their Buster Item and is convinced that Suigin is hiding his true power. He’s wondering if that scan ability is unique to her. Huh, so it isn’t normal. Titan decides he isn’t going to sit back and talk, so he starts bashing her. In the meantime, Suigin activates his scarf’s special ability: it copies the powers of the first person to fall in battle. Well, that’s not helpful. Especially since Titan is carrying the team. Wanting to see how much HP she has left, Titan summons his familiar to scan her. Hint: Familiars can scan. Seems like I’m building up to something here. While Titan distracts her, Shaw uses his power of invisible flight to sneak up on Rin, but she still manages to stab him in the heart. After witnessing this, Suigin announces that there is no point in continuing, they can’t beat Rin. Copying Shaw’s power, Suigin zips around the level until he happens upon a little girl hiding in a minecart. This is the real Rin: Farin. She had been using her familiar to fight them, disguising it as her. A little trick that works like the ninja shadow clone technique. Now that he’s figured out her trick, the pair of them have beat training and can form parties. This isn’t enough for Titan, who has some serious psychological issues. He is resolved to murder EVERYONE!

Our Take

Okay, I burned through all of season one in two evenings and was thoroughly prepared for more of the same. Season one was comprised of twelve half-length episodes. Like many people, I loved the characters, but the short format made it almost impossible for the show to build its plot with any depth. Still, it was really enjoyable. I went into my night expecting an anime and a half. Imagine my surprise when I find that season two also launches with full episodes! What I find interesting is how they did this. Each half of the episodes are treated like two episodes, with a new episode title at the commercial break. Still, the pair of them is written as if they are one, with the first half not reaching a resolution of much, or breaking at an odd point. So, you might as well ignore the “two half-episodes makes a whole” mechanic.

I appreciate how this episode actually leaves clues as to Farin’s nature. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve watched that would make their big reveal “shocking” by giving you no indication that it is coming. Here, we are given a subtle clue (Use of ninja weapons) followed by a pair of clues that have to be taken together (she can scan, but that isn’t normal for anything but familiars). They aren’t heavy-handed clues either, so they’re easy to miss. It’s a fine balance that they managed to snag.

One of the other things that people loved about the first season was its animation. It had top-notch visuals. This season, I think they handled the cost increase of going to a full episode by dialing back on the animation quality. The frame rate is a bit lower, and there are a few more anime shortcuts. That does not mean it is bad. No. Even a slight decrease makes this better than much other anime I’ve watched. The crew left almost no errors. None that I could see, so they are at least doing their due diligence to put out a quality product. I have no complaints about the voice acting. Kyle Phillips just got done working with the new Kino’s Journey and King’s Game (A couple of bad anime, but I don’t think that’s his fault). Reprising his role as Suigin, he continues to give the character life. The coarse struggle of a working man touches the way the character talks without making him monotonous or trope-locked. It’s a good performance. Brittney Karbowski did not give true form Farin a squeaky-screechy voice. Thank you. I know there’s a temptation, especially since you are also playing the more mature-looking Rin. You might have wanted to give Rin your “coffee voice” and set Farin apart using a high voice. But you didn’t. You gave her a normal-sounding voice, and it made the difference.

Score

Summary

The return of Silver Guardian may not be triumphant-looking at first, but I applaud the fact that they haven't let it go into the crapper with the transition into full episodes. I give this episode eight familiars as shadow clones out of ten.

8.0/10