English Dub Review: To Your Eternity “The Boy Who Wants to Change”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Gugu, a young kind boy, had a big brother and their goal was to live in a better place. Gugu sold produce for money and often sees a cute girl at the market. However, his big brother steals their savings. Then Gugu saves the girl from a rolling log, but his face is disfigured in the process. Three months later, Fushi meets Gugu, at Booze Man’s distiller. After showing how he can shift forms, Gugu begins to like Fushi and shows him around the place and how to talk more. However, when the cute girl stops by the place she falls in love with Fushi which irks Gugu. After receiving some advice from Booze Man, Gugu works to improve himself.

Our Take:

This episode was nice and I enjoyed Gugu’s interactions with Fushi.

The episode’s shift from the supernatural to the humans interacting with Fushi is good. The animation and voice acting was nice. Gugu’s voice was good at displaying his age and morally right character. The episode also gave information on the culture to the town in chunks with Gugu’s story. That was well done.

For starters, Gugu’s past is the first thing we watched was a bit confusing. However, it serves its purpose in getting us to emphasize with him. Gugu gets betrayed by his brother and grows to rely on himself. Then there’s Gugu’s crush over the wealthy girl. It’s a cute nostalgic moment for the audience. In addition, there’s the wealthy girl’s fawning over Fushi which adds salt to the wound of his appearance.

Gugu’s bond with Fushi is cute and unlike March who fills the role of mother- Gugu is like a small brother. It’s interesting to see Fushi fulfill his role to the children while they act as his mentors. However, there’s one difference and that while March cherished her life Gugu did consider ending his life with the truck carrying the logs. Living and dying are a part of the human journey. Fushi experiencing it with these children is an interesting method for his purpose in the world. On a minor note, Fushi refusing to go into the forest was a small development to Fushi becoming more human. It’s an idea to show that Fushi is affected by the events in the last episode.

Overall it was a simple episode introducing Gugu. It appears that Fushi will get more simulation with Gugu and his crush on the rich girl. Hopefully, the adult will help him understand the nuances of romance.