English Dub Review: Tsurune “Five Arrows”

“The team just hasn’t been the same. Not since…the accident.”

Overview

After the gang finds out about Masaki’s accident, they’re unable to focus, not knowing his condition. The girls give them a pep talk about how Masaki would want them to get their heads in the game, and they perk up for his sake. However, the boys perform poorly in the competition, as Masaki remains on their minds.

They gather with one another to discuss why following Masaki’s advice hasn’t been working, when Minato reveals he’s finally figured out Masaki’s true lesson: the secret to hitting their targets is to focus on one another as a team — not themselves.

Kaito has a serious case of teen rage, emotional that Minato would think to go against Masaki’s literal advice for each of them. Minato yells back — for what might be the first time in the whole series — and calls Kaito by his first name, prompting a fight. Things slowly calm, and the boys finally heed Minato’s words.

Kazemai ties with another school for the 8th place spot in the tournament. The boys go up and hit all their marks, keeping Minato’s words in mind. They nab their spot in the tournament — and additionally get to talk to a hospitalized Masaki on the phone, who appears to be okay.

Our Take

This was definitely a tension-filled episode, but a few things kind of cut the emotional impact short.

To start with what was done well, Minato’s reaction to Masaki’s accident was pretty impactful, considering that his mom was killed in a car-related crash. He started going into panic attack mode, and probably would have spiraled if Seiya hadn’t stopped him. The mental strain that was put on him lasted throughout the competition. It wasn’t target panic: it was…regular panic (dun dun dun.) They could have even taken this further, but for time constrictions, it’s understandable why they didn’t.

Speaking of emotionally charged reactions, it was pretty great to see Minato get visibly angry for once. He’s a character who lacks outright passion, so the fight between he and Kaito was a great development moment. However, Kaito’s lines were just…embarrassing to listen to. It’s hard to take someone who says “DANG IT!” seriously. No one can really pin this on the VA, since it was the dialogue’s fault. Oh, English dubs.

The solution to everyone’s shooting ability was…vague. Even with Minato’s explanation, it still didn’t elaborate on why the team members were picked for the spots they were placed in. It might have also been a time restraint thing, but they definitely could have taken time from other scenes to develop that.

On the topic of pointless scenes: the girl characters finally did something! They…made the boys feel better?

Here’s a good writing tip: if a character can be taken out of the series without there being a real affect on it, then the character doesn’t need to be there. All the girls do is explain what the boys are doing, and with one episode left, there doesn’t seem to be a plan for developing them. They’re the weakest characters in the show, for sure.

On the whole, there was a lot of beautiful imagery that accompanied the important scenes, but the character reactions were either too little or too much for certain scenes. With one episode left in the season, hopefully there’ll be something that can wake the audience up in a natural way.