English Dub Review: Helck “Shock”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The winged warriors are revealed to be somehow enhanced humans, with one of them knowing Helck personally. The fight goes well for the demons, but the humans manage to open a powerful portal that pulls Vermillio and Helck inside to some sort of island.

OUR TAKE

And so ends the first arc of the series…or at least that’s what I thought was going to happen. Maybe it’s the end and the island is the next arc but it seems like a few more things are left unresolved. The biggest reveal among these being both the identity of the winged warriors being enhanced humans AND that at least one of them knows Helck personally, apparently being a reincarnation of some kind through methods that see them reborn into a more enhanced body that has wings and magic and so on. We already got the hint that humans in this story’s world are a bit more on the awful side, but it seemed like that was just because we were beginning the story from the demon perspective, which was a novel approach. Instead, it seems that humans actually are a bit terrible if they’re willing to die and come back as other creatures just so they can invade the demon realm and claim land in it. We know that Helck pretty much hates all humans, which is surprising considering he is one, but based on what we see from this “Edil” guy, I guess it’s hard to really argue with that.

That said, we still don’t really know that much about Helck himself and his own hatred for humans, and we’re now four episodes into the series. I know I probably sound like a broken record on this, but the reason I keep bringing it up is because it’s becoming increasingly strange. Well, that, and I still cannot stand Vermillio and her dub acting, so it’s not great realizing that she’s the protagonist that we’re really following for this story. Helck continues to be basically an enigma here, just being a very strong human who hates other humans and wants to rule over demons. Or rather, I guess that last part has kind of gotten lost in the shuffle here, as now the whole demon lord tournament has been left by the wayside with Helck and Vermillio being lost in this portal to a weird island. Now, let me lay out my speculation for what exactly is going to happen here: Now that Helck and Vermillio are going to be alone, or at least the only one the other actually knows, this will be a chance for Vermillio to slowly let down her guard and come to like Helck for the person that he is. Not a bad idea for a plotline on its own, it’s just very predictable. Guess we’ll get to that next week.