English Dub Review: YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World “Escape from the Quarry”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Takuya is still in prison as the episode begins, but not for much longer. Amanda, the leader of the resistance has been imprisoned in the quarry as well. Bazuku really likes torturing her. Luckily, Deo, Kurtz, and Takuya come up with a plan to allow them all to escape.

Along with the other prisoners, Deo and Kurtz stage a riot against the guards. While they’re creating a commotion, Takuya frees Amanda. Together, they go to deal with Bazuku, who has commandeered one of the guard towers and is shooting at prisoners and guards alike, laughing as he fires. Kurtz uses the old ‘sword thrown at the tower’ trick to shut it down. Takuya and Amanda barely escape with her lives thanks to a fully-grown Kunkun. But Kunkun isn’t strong enough to carry them both, and after flying them a good way through the desert, she collapses. Her final wish: to be used as food, I guess?

Our Take:

It was fun while it lasted, but we’re officially out of the quarry! I don’t know about you, but I enjoyed seeing Takuya get put in his place for a little bit, at least. This episode is mainly concerned with the escape. It’s a jailbreak episode. And it does a fair job at moving the plot forward and staying unpredictable enough to keep things interesting. Most of that is due to Bazuku – he winds up being a lot more fun of a villain than I expected based on his introduction last week.

As the episode starts off, not a lot is going on. I assumed that after the end of last week’s episode, we would jump right into the prison break. Now that Amanda has arrived, the plan for escape can move forward, right? Well, I’m not sure what the resistance’s plan was before all this, but Deo and Kurtz don’t seem to have any idea what to do now. It takes a couple of brainstorming sessions with them and Takuya to nail down a plan of action. And Amanda is being tortured by Bazuku all the while, even losing an eye maybe? Unless it grows back, which in this show, you never know. Honestly, Amanda is pretty useless so far. I was excited about her last week, but for a leader of a resistance movement, she’s pretty lame. She doesn’t help with the plan for escape in any way, and even hinders it when she’s taken by surprise by Bazuku. Heck, she’s ready to end her life at the first sign of trouble, saying she’d rather end it here than take a chance walking in the desert. I mean, aren’t resistances supposed to be built on hope? They just had to let Takuya teach a resistance leader about what it means to resist.

I’ve got to talk about Bazuku because, honestly, he was the best part of this episode. My early impressions of him the last week or two have been pretty negative. He seemed like a stereotypical villain, lording his power over his wards as he tortures them. But Escape from the Quarry really deepened my appreciation for him. He’s a fun, goofy guy! He’s over the top like all good villains should be, but he’s got smarts as well. (Well, except for when he gave Takuya a sword. That decision cannot be justified away.) He even pays his guards a competitive wage! And hey, it’s always nice to get some bi representation, even if the person is a heartless villain.

Let’s move on to Takuya and Amanda’s big escape from the tower. Ugh. Kunkun grew up, and of course, now that hobgoblin has human boobs and long blue hair. Kunkun is actually really disturbing when you think about it, especially with the whole ‘become one’ thing. I wasn’t sure if being eaten was really what she meant with her last wish.

This week’s dub is good because Bazuku got some hilarious moments. But first, the one time when Amanda showed some gumption: “We want the Divine Emperor. We’re gonna shove his head directly up your ass.” Yeesh! No wonder they picked her to lead the resistance. “Persistence is one of my better qualities,” Takuya speaks the truth. It’s also one of his most annoying. “You know something? If you weren’t a sworn enemy of the state, I’d want to hire you myself.” You know what? Aside from all that torture, Bazuku isn’t so bad. “You’re all being paid very competitively for taking on the risks of this job!” This line killed me.

Escape from the Quarry won me over with Bazuku’s performance. Not only is he cunningly villainous, but he’s stylish and not afraid of telling the waiter to take back the steak if it’s overcooked. Honestly, he’s an icon. Am I overthinking this whole Bazuku thing? Maybe. Will the show be as exciting without him next week? Probably not.