English Dub Review: Tsugumomo “Duel”

We duel with the latest episode of Tsugumomo.

Spoilers Below

Kiriha and Kazuya are in training for their fight against Sunao. There’s a larger amount of math involved than I would have thought. What it comes down to is that Sunao basically has not chance of losing, and everyone knows it. But the sword points out that that Kazuya is a malison cleanser and might be more powerful than they think. Sunao is just terrible to her tsugumomo and my heart breaks every time. He’s the sweetest little sword there ever could be. I hope he’s right and she gets to go live in Kiriha’s gang.

The opening credits reveal a secret I might think should have come up by now: tsugumomos can use their spiritual energy for projection and create copies of themselves. It’s weird that hasn’t happened already but I’m sure it will now.

The local goddess (still in child form) lets the team know that she’ll be overseeing the duel. Also, a malison cleanser’s life will be at stake, and that’s too risky. They’ll be using glass dolls in their place – any damage the fighters sustain will be transferred to the dolls, but the tsugomomos can still get hurt, even killed. BUT they also have PROJECTIONS! I feel like this should have come up in training earlier. But whatever, I’m sure he has it down after one bath time conversation.

Kazuya is concerned about Kiriha and the possibility of her being damaged, because they’re probably secretly in love. He sees his mom in a dream and she pretty much tells him the same thing. It’s kind of weird. But we all knew this was coming. Anyway, Kazuya says he loves hanging out with all the girls so he doesn’t want to mess things up. But these are spirit girls. They probably work differently.

Before his mom leaves, Kazuya expresses some confusion about who the lady is in front of him. Apparently this whole time he didn’t know she’s his mom. I did not know that. But she’s not surprised – that part of his memory is sealed away so he can’t connect the dots.

And then the duel begins! Sunao is still very intense. The little sword is just so hard on himself and it’s killing me. Kazuya is blaming all the problems of the world on himself again. Kiriha is quiet on the matter.

They’ve established that whatever formation Kiriha takes as a sash, the sword will be able to cut through her. I really don’t see how they aim to win. But apparently these new projections aren’t as strong as the real thing, so that’s convenient. The stakes feel very mixed here – to the four players within the circle, this seems life or death, while the two local gods calmly watch on, practically with popcorn in hand.

Kiriha is seriously hurt, so much that Kazya dodges an attack by ducking onto the ground. He doesn’t want to use a shield weave because Kiriha will probably be a goner if he does. At that final moment, he pulls out a brand new technique. The hand weave absolutely shocks Sunao – it shocks her so much that the episode ends.

That was pretty fun. Most of the episode was taken up by the duel, which was exciting, but also a little average. Two objects fighting just doesn’t feel too dynamic. It looks like nothing is ever going to beat the giant sentient library monster. Next week’s finale has more to wrap up than just who wins the duel. Kazuya’s future is uncertain, especially now that we’re actually acknowledging that there’s something weird going on with him and his mom’s sash. If past patterns continue, Tsugumomo should be following up the semi-bland duel with a real knockout in every sense of the word.

SCORE
6.5/10