English Dub Review: Chronos Ruler “Memory and Reminiscence”

Where Kiri’s family tree gets even stranger.

Spoilers Below

Kiri and his dad, Victor, have spent the last twelve years hunting Horologs, demonic creatures that consume people’s time. This causes them to forget their past, and age regress until they cease to exist. To be specific, the pair has been hunting for one particular Horolog. The one that ate Victor’s time. They um… They just found it. Currently feeding of the citizens and visitors of the casino town of C’est La Vie, and larger than any they’ve seen before. Their attacks have next to no effect on him. Then, they’re interrupted by a newcomer. No, not a new enemy. Mina here leads off by hugging Victor!

Mina is under the impression that she’s Victor’s wife. That can’t be though. Kiri cites that his mother (who was named Nana, FYI) died over twelve years ago. Not only that, she looks even younger than Victor does now! She claims that all of Victor’s memories in his diary are inaccurate And to answer the age issue, she reveals that she has also been bitten by a Horolog, and age regressed. Kiri doesn’t trust this girl, not at all. Victor seems to, though, and the group of them get on a train headed for Chronos HQ. Kiri continues his questioning, but she isn’t having it. She doesn’t even veil her threat. She tells Kiri that she’s going to kill him outright.

This episode was funny, actually. We lead off the episode with the two boys having a bit of a spat over their sleeping arrangements, and then over Victor allowing a thief to get away with their money. Their relationship is quite the odd couple, and adding Mina into the mix from here out is a promise of hilarity. Despite that, the story here is quite somber, especially given the theme of regrets. The story of this episode feels like one I would expect a couple more episodes in. The concept that the characters don’t know what they think they know typically waits until we’ve seen their powers more fully. This episode introduces more of the concepts behind the powers they use. It also starts introducing the main villains, though we don’t see the Big Bad just yet. The giant Horolog and his briefly-seen partner are still just small fries.

I’m very pleased with the animation on this show. Though it doesn’t have the crazy direction of the pilot, this episode does make smart use of CG and traditional animation. The CG is also done well enough that it was able to transition between that and traditional animation without covering it up. It looks almost like they rotoscoped over the computer model, and faded between them. Even when there wasn’t CG, the animation quality was well done. The voice acting was solid, and I felt like Victor was great. Mina was high pitched, but she kept her voice from going into screechy or whistle register, so she didn’t hurt my ears. This show is starting to grow on me, and I’m looking forward to more. I give this episode eight mysterious girls out of ten.