English Dub Season Review: Bungo and Alchemist -Gears of Judgement- Season One

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As the show beings, a young man in Greece named Melos is fed up with the local king, who’s nothing but a tyrant. He quickly gets caught by the tyrant and is about to be executed when a mysterious stranger makes a deal to take his place for one day while he goes to his sister’s wedding.

It’s the start of a crazy journey that sees Dazai fully embrace his role as an author — one of the magical fellows fighting back against a form of evil known as Taints. These Taints try to enter into books and trap their authors inside, but they can be defeated by bringing about the true ending of the tale.

Our Take:

Bungo and Alchemist is an intriguing story on the face of things. Famous authors adventuring into their stories to fight back against literary evil is a compelling case for a show with a unique angle to it. The show itself can’t claim to be entirely original, however, as it’s actually based on a mobile game. Despite this dubious claim to fame, Bungo and Alchemist is an entertaining series that, for the right kind of person, will be a lot of fun.

You’ll probably know how you feel about the show just by examining the main cast. They’re described by the promotional material as being “handsome historical figures from the field of literature”. Yes, there’s nary a female figure to be found, which just tells you what kind of viewer the show is aiming to attract.

The good thing is that the main character himself is decent. Dazai is a fiery, anger-prone author who is easy to root for against the shadowy forces hellbent on destroying works of famous literature. The boss of the whole operation, who takes the form of a talking cat, is pretty delightful, too. That’s where the good stuff stops. None of the other characters make a big impact, and there are times when the show seems like it’s just throwing new faces at the audience in hopes that someone will stick.

At least the production value for the show isn’t awful. The animation itself isn’t overly flashy or impressive, but scenes are shot nicely enough and even if none of the characters are especially memorable, they all have designs that aren’t outright offensive. I actually really like Dazai’s hair! The soundtrack and direction are alright, too.

The English dub also earns a thumbs up from me. The scripts sound natural enough and there’s no awkwardly out of place dialogue like sometimes happens in other series. Zeno Robinson does good work as Dazai, and Dino Andrade makes for a charming feline. The supporting cast members are solid as well.

Overall, Bungo and Alchemist is one of the shows that won’t be very enticing to very many people, but to those who are interested in a show comprised of literary boys transforming and fighting against evil, it’ll surely be a good use of time. There are definitely worse things to watch.