English Dub Review: YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World “An Ordained Fate” and “The Transfer Student’s Friend”

Takuya learns a lot about his father, the Reflector Device, and girls.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

An Ordained Fate begins with Eriko and Takuya transporting Mitsuki to a sickbed in the school. Eriko tells Takuya to watch over her care because the Niarb mind control is still in effect. Of course, he ends up turning his back on her and winds up a prisoner. Luckily, he uses the Reflector Device just in time and escapes. He and Eriko visit Ryuzoji’s secret base, where she tells him the true story of Abel. But when they’re caught, Mitsuki sacrifices herself to save Takuya.

The Transfer Student’s Friend sees Takuya teaming up with his old pals Mio and Yuki once again as he tries to befriend Kanna the mysterious transfer student. When Kanna collapses as he’s walking her home, Takuya decides to stay with her since she lives alone. Nothing much happens in the romantic department, but Kanna does reveal that she knew Takuya’s father and that he trusted her with a big secret – she can’t reveal it until the time is right, however.

Our Take:

After a long break due to the Fourth of July, Funimation has finally posted the two newest simuldub episodes of YU-NO for our viewing pleasure. One thing I have to say about this series is that it keeps delivering on the crazy plot twists. This time around, we get a lot of new information about the characters, the motivations, and even the Reflector Device itself.

The first episode finishes up the Eriko arc, concluding Mitsuki’s mind-controlling and Eriko’s private investigating. It’s an episode that’s heavy on exposition but also includes enough action to keep viewers entertained. Even the exposition is interesting enough that I didn’t really mind it too much. Essentially, what I got from it is that Eriko isn’t really one of his school teachers after all, but is instead an extraterrestrial who was once a research assistant to Abel, a scientist who was investigating the phenomena where all events can be connected back to one single cause. Long story short, he did a dangerous experiment and his body got taken over by a Class A Dimensional Criminal? So now his soul is stuck in space until someone can reunite his body and spirit… or something like that. This weird dimensional criminal did the same thing once he got to Earth, abandoning Abel’s body and replacing it with Ryuzoji’s. What’s even weirder is that the criminal keeps their memories when he takes their bodies over, making it very hard to tell when they changeover occurs. (Although I noticed he tends to do a kind of Naruto-esque run when he flees, so maybe that could be the giveaway?)

The first episode ends with Mitsuki’s death, and Takuya’s father telling him that he has to find Kanna and give her the eight jewels before she can create a new path forward for him. This leads right into the second episode, The Transfer Student’s Friend, which sees Takuya getting the band back together, so to speak. I guess Arima has finally realized he’ll need everyone’s help that he can with this dimensional shape-stealer, and so having him and Kanna joins the historical research club is a pretty smart move.

Most of the episode is taken up with him visiting Kanna’s house. I was a little apprehensive at first, given that Takuya can be somewhat of a “walking libido”, as Mio dubs him. But oddly enough, he seems not to want to do anything with Kanna. At first, I was struck by this being a bit out of character, but toward the end of the episode, he tells her she reminds him of his mother… hmm. She has a lot of knowledge of the situation, plus it’s revealed that Takuya’s dad was sending her money up until he disappeared. Could Kanna be connected with Takuya more closely than he realizes?

The dub in both episodes was pretty solid. Whoever is translating the show seems to be doing a good job making the sometimes far-out dialogue sound natural and realistic for the most part. As realistic as Takuya’s dialogue can sound, that is. “You and your friend should be far more careful, meddling in affairs that don’t belong to you.” I was scared of Ryuzoji before, but now that his true form is revealed, he’s even creepier! “First it’s trespassing, then we move a corpse… might as well finish the day with some property damage.” I don’t love many things about Takuya, but his propensity for burns like this is a good one. “I don’t listen to music.” Kanna is so weird, and her being a re-made version of Takuya’s mom might be the reason? “This feels like fresh pudding!” If she does turn out to be his mother, this scene would be a whole lot weirder. “Of call the people in the world, why would she leave it up to a walking libido?” I’m very glad Mio and Yuki are back for this arc. “How’s the porn industry been treating you?” I love how the dub writers don’t seem to give a crap when it comes to Takuya’s burns of the foreman. I wonder if they were just given the okay to make their relationship as confrontational as possible. Whatever the case, it’s hilarious!

An Ordained Fate and The Transfer Student’s Friend are two pretty okay episodes of YU-NO. They did a good job of wrapping up Eriko’s arc while hinting at new information yet to be revealed. The start to Kanna’s arc was a little slow, but that might be a good thing when it comes to her character. Hojo was a weird guy, but I’m curious as to how he’ll play into things. Could Kanna really be his special friend on the side? I’m looking forward to Takuya getting to the bottom of things next week.