English Dub Review: Drifters “Footsteps”

Step lightly.

In a desert wasteland, Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus are in the middle of a heated argument while a member of the Octobrist Organization, named Kafet, (Yes that’s his actual name) observes them from afar with binoculars.  Kafet is ordered by his Boss Abe, to bring the Drifters to him in preparation for the war against the “Ends”.

The two elf boys and their village are punished for aiding Toyohisa by a troop of sub-human hating human knights called the “Orte Empire” which in a nutshell are “Medieval Nazi’s” lead by a hatefully smug bastard named “Aram” whom with a calm-yet-gleeful sadism wants to deliver said “punishment”. (Their punishment results in having half their village massacred because they weren’t supposed to leave the farm from which they are being held captive in.) Seeing the smoke from the burning village, Toyo heads directly towards the conflict with Nobunaga and Yoichi in tow.

As you would expect, the Drifters completely slaughter the knights. Then Toyo, after witnessing Aram’s cruelty, isn’t having any of that. So instead of killing Aram in one-on-one combat, Toyo disarms and beats his face into submission by using the sturdy wooden sheath of his sword. Afterwards as the beaten & bloodied Aram tries to crawl away, Toyo then proceeds to convince the elves to kill Aram themselves in an uprising. By the end of the episode, Toyohisa has the makings of a small army with a loyal troop of elf men and an adviser in Nobunaga.

Lastly, we’re given more information about Murasaki, the man in glasses Toyo met before coming to the new world. Perhaps most importantly, we learned he is not alone in that world. A creepy girl named Easy also exists there as well and seems to be gathering people similar to the Drifters to send to the new world that she calls “Ends”. With Murasaki represented by light and Easy by the dark, the two seem to be waging a war against each other for control of the world.

The Octoberists’ boss Abe decides to cancel getting Toyo, Oda and Yoichi to their location as the castle he’s in is about to be under attack by the “Ends” showing brief shots of them in silhouettes with foreboding music in the background and it cuts to black with a “To Be Continued”.

Overview:

This week’s episode does a good job of showing us more about all three of our main Drifters. We see that Toyohisa is both a brutal warrior and a soldier with a particular code and set of beliefs best exemplified by letting the elves take their own revenge. At the same time, we see Nobunaga start to resort to potentially underhanded tactics in pursuit of conquest and manipulating the populace. Yoichi gets a bit less, but even he gets dialogues with Nobunaga showing a similar familiarity with such tactics and a willingness to clean up the stragglers who ran. It’s building them slowly for what is to come, but still giving each a fairly defined role within the group. It makes for a good balance. Plus, the action is extremely fluid and well produced.

Given that this is the 2nd episode, We finally get an Openning with the song “Gospel of the Throttle” by the band “Minutes Til Midnight” which can be viewed by clicking here.

Funimation regular, Monica Rial (Stocking from Panty & Stocking and Bulma from the Dragonball franchise) does an excellent job capturing Easy’s creepy & menacing nature despite recycling her Stocking voice a bit but in a more serious tone which I’m ok with.

We also are granted some more knowledge of the world that our protagonists are in, a world dominated by humans but that is cohabited by Elves, Dwarves, and more. We also learn that there was at some point a war between these races, and the humans came out on top and drove the other races to enslavement and even “Stole their women” of the Elf village. (Oh trust me, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there…)

A random thought that I had was that it was that we now have all of these historical figures in what might be considered a standard fantasy setting. However, all of the Drifters seen thus far predate the “standard fantasy setting” becoming standard by several hundred years, so it makes perfect sense that Toyo would have no idea what elves are. I don’t really have anything to add beyond that, it just made me laugh at how it creates a reason for Toyohisa to need the fantasy tropes and races like elves explained to him without even really trying.

So far, the first two episodes are a solid introduction to the series. We see the setting and character backgrounds established with plenty of action along the way. Some bizarre humor too, though I understand Hirano’s style of comedy that accompanies the animation isn’t well received by everyone and this style was often utilized in Hellsing:Ultimate. I’m excited to continue following the series and seeing how much care & attention is put into this adaptation of the manga.