English Dub Review: ēlDLIVE “Your Voice…”

In space, no one can hear you open your email.

Spoilers Below

Chuuta’s on top of the world. He’s loaded with confidence and seems to be a legit elDLIVE officer. He’s been transferred from Division 2 to the horribly understaffed Division 4. At current, that division has only one member: Vega Victor. Chuuta heads down to earth to rendezvous with Vega, who is in the middle of a chase. The criminal is a member of Daymill, and gets the drop on Chuuta using a body-substitution technique (like the kinda ninja would do to swap with a log). Fortunately, Vega arrives and uses his SPH claws to not only take down the villain but disable his self-destruct. Looks like one baddie that is gonna have some hard time ahead.

Back at headquarters, he and Vega get to know each other a bit better. He insists they get to know each other on a first name basis, no titles or sirs. His warm, personable management style gives Chuuta feelings similar to when he’s around his Aunt Mimi. He wonders if this is what it would be like to have an older brother. After school, Vega appears again, this time professing to the civilians that he’s Chuuta’s cousin. Tateyan invites him, Chuuta, and Dr. Love to visit the local art museum with him, and they all say yes. After all, what better way to get to know a planet’s culture than to study its art?

Misuzu, on the other hand, is having some serious problems of the psychological variety. She’s beating herself up about how she had behaved towards Chuuta while she was… Okay, that is just a loaded situation right there. We covered it in the last episode, so you can read about it there. She runs into the Chief, who hands her a data drive for when she runs into Chuuta next. She heads straight for Division 4 offices, practicing her apologies. Chuuta isn’t there, but Vega is. He forgot that he was invited to the museum as well, and scampers off. So, what’s so great about this exhibit? All nudes, all the time, that’s what. Strange thing is, some of them look oddly close to the ladies from elDLIVE… Who are also present to see the guys getting their blood pressure up. They have absolutely no defense, and their lies are feeble.

In the middle of it, Chuuta gets an email on his elDLIVE badge communicator. “ElDLIVE is covering up the Mount Taketori Incident”. Misuzu shuts it down. He can’t check his HOLOGRAPHIC badge in public where anyone can see it. You know, like Tateyan? Who’re three feet away? Yeah. Didn’t think that through, did ya? Once back at Headquarters, he looks the email over further. Someone has been concealing the information about his past from him. He’s worried that the chief may have been in on it. In the halls, he runs into Vega again. Literally. Vega’s stack of books goes flying everywhere, including the catalog from the museum. Hey! Wait a minute! That museum is called named the Pierrot Museum! If you haven’t been reading the tags, you might have missed that this show is produced by Studio Pierrot. I see what you did there. Anyways, he asks Vega what he should do about this cover-up. V-bro says that he should conduct his own investigation, starting by tracing where that email came from. Chuuta heads over to data processing and hooks up his badge to trace the email. Red alert sounds. A virus has taken down the SPH radar! The bridge crew traces the entry point for the virus as… Chuuta’s badge in data processing?

If things couldn’t get any worse, a Daymill capital ship appears. Normally, ships can’t exit warp that closes to elDLIVE headquarters, but the SPH radar was down. The leader on the ship makes his demands: Turnover Chuuta and Dulough, or they will conquer Earth. The main cannon on the enemy ship is strong enough to take out headquarters in one shot. Dr. Love has another plan. His labs around the planet were each armed with planetary defense cannons. When fired in unison, it takes out the main cannon. Yay! Earth is safe, right?

Wrong! This wasn’t Daymill’s only ship. All around the world, other Daymill ships have appeared. It’s an invasion! Daymill gives the heroes one hour to comply. Chuuta comes up to the bridge, offering to surrender. This whole thing was his fault, he should pay the price. Chips slap him. Chuuta is elDLIVE, and this isn’t just a Chuuta problem. It’s all their problem. Chips and Chuuta head down to Earth to hide out and buy time. Chuuta, forever filled with self-loathing, wanders the city in a funk. It gets so bad, Dolough begins to vanish. Suddenly, all the televisions in the city are filled with the same message:

“Daymill is on the move. They’re after Dolough. Your elDLIVE headquarters is compromised. One of your officers is a spy. Be careful, Chuuta.”

Translating this message takes the last of Dolough’s energy, and he falls silent. This being the final nail in the coffin for Chuuta’s ego, he wanders off to a local shrine to wallow. He is met there by Vega and Misuzu, who are both worried about him. Misuzu hands him the drive, given to her earlier that day. She reveals that it is loaded with every ounce of information that elDLIVE has on the Mount Taketori incident. elDLIVE and the chief aren’t covering anything up! They trust him with this information and want him to have it. They believe in him, and the only thing that matters is that he can defend the earth, as a member of elDLIVE!

I did like this episode more than the last. Is the show really picking up… with one episode left? Really? Do you wait this long? Oh, well. The art is some of the best I’ve seen out of the episode, and no, I’m not talking about the nude exhibits. There is a heavy emphasis on the eyes in this episode, and they are just a little better drawn than usual. Though I know they typically do a blushing shine on Misuzu’s cheeks, it just looked like they put more effort into it in this episode. The voice acting was kinda standard, though, and I noticed when the leader of Daymill talked, he didn’t always sync up properly. Chalk it up to the universal translators, I guess. I give this episode eight nude paintings out of ten.