English Dub Review: Vermeil in Gold: “A Dragonrider’s Beating Heart”

Overview: Alto (Mike Haimoto) and Vermeil (Monica Rial) take on Chris (Olivia Swasey), captain of the dragon riders, in an intense duel. 

Our Take: The gold squares, being the best of the best at the academy, are an intriguing new height for Alto to climb to. What’s more is the current members  and their collective abilities, one being Chris, captain of the dragon riders. Lex, the uppity douche rider, gets beat by her because of his loss against Alto. I fully had Lex pegged as nothing more than a one-note cliché of a hurdle for Alto to jump over. As a nice surprise, he defied my expectation in having real morals like the resolve to quit his self-possessed clique. Chris herself, is nothing special, thus far, in the mundanely superior persona she has. Hopefully though, similar to Lex, she proves to be more than that later on. Later in his recovery, Lex’s shared moment with Alto is sweet in how natural it is in Alto appreciating his familiar along with their overall bond over dinosaurs. 

Feeling guilty, we get a duel between Alto and Chris. Alto may not be the most original character as far as MC’s go, but I appreciate his backbone in challenging her formally. Thankfully, he is not able to one shot her, like he has practically done with the other adversaries he has faced. The gold squares are actually looking like they will be a legitimate challenge in Chris’s onslaught of fire blasts along with having a dragon as a familiar. Visually, it’s not too bad with there being some decent looking ice and fire shots taken but there’s nothing especially kinetic or artistically interesting either in their battle, even with Chris taking to the skies. 

When they started yelling their beliefs is when my eyes glazed over. Their crude arguments boil down to her believing Lex’s dinosaur is less than because it does not have wings like a dragon and his being reliant on the generic ‘friendship with familiars is real’ shtick. Ending on a cliffhanger of fire ice struggle, I am curious enough about the end result in who the victor is, the extent of Alto and Vermeil’s power and how they stack up comparatively to their stronger faction of the school.