English Dub Review: Death March to the Parallel Word Rhapsody “City Defense That Started with a Death March”

Another date, another interruption. New quest get.

Overview (Spoilers)

Satou sent the ladies off for some shopping while he goes off with Zena to find a new place to live. The Gate Inn is a bit too central to the city, and racism against his demihuman “slaves” has made the place uncomfortable. The Oddjobs place gives him a few options near the west side that meet his price range, but none are ideal. A murder site, a place across the street from a brothel, and a house with a hidden criminal hangout underneath it. The search is still on, but Zena deserves another date, and it’s time to go to the theater. Along the way, they run into the girls, each decked out in their new outfits. The theater show is a bust. An insipid tragedy as boring as it is poorly written. Afterwards, he discovers the play’s source material was significantly different, and had been mangled when nobility got involved and made it less incendiary to them. Afterwards, Arisa and Zena have a distressing disagreement as to who is the real source of the problem in the play. He diffuses the situation by getting meat skewers for everyone.

Not much time for fun, though. Fang Ants are arriving in a swarm. The city guard is working as hard as they can, and Arisa’s magic barrier can only do so much, even if it is a really high level. The girls arm up to protect The Gate Inn and whatever other civilians they can. Satou spots the door busted in on the Oddjobs place, and runs in to render aid. Though he manages to kill the monster, but can’t get the woman out from her hiding space from all the venom the things pat all over. Two vines flow out to pull her to safety. The manager of the Oddjob is a forest spirit, which is distinct from elves despite the appearance. As the group of them recover, the guards kill the remaining bugs. Liza returns with a sack full of monster cores. Problem is, a greedy town guard is trying to buy them on the cheap with extortion. Satou doesn’t cave, selling them at their full market value, with the name of the guard on the receipt. That influx of cash warrants a good meal for everyone. Afterwards, a few grateful citizens take him out for a drink… at a brothel he wasn’t expecting. On his way back, he finds a pair of huddled forms under attack from some monsters. He takes them to the Oddjob house. After all, one of them is a princess of the forest spirits…

Skills Learned: Mediation, One-Handed Mace, Coercion, Calculation, Chiropractic Massage, Sexual Techniques, Pillow Talk, Seduction, Keen Hearing, Unlocking, Straining Ears.

Titles Earned: Beginner Merchant, Gray Merchant, Paramedic, Lock Picker.

Our Take

Despite the exciting title, the action in the middle of the episode, and those eyebrow-raising skills he acquired, this episode plays out rather slow. We spend yet another episode around town, studying culture. The problem is, we aren’t studying anything that was interesting. I know, it’s probably important later, and it serves to show more of Arisa and Zena. But spending so much time talking about a boring play… is boring. We also see more shopping. I’m actually getting tired of watching him shop around with various women. If you want to show us the culture, show the culture. Don’t spend another episode in the bazaar.

The action portion was similarly underwhelming. As we get a swarm of monsters, the combat is almost non-existent. The only thing we really see is that Arisa is OP. Is her magic powerful enough to blanket the entire city in a barrier? Sure, it’s an imperfect barrier, but we are talking miles! After that display, he shouldn’t have a single problem with her protecting all the girls. She could easily put up a barrier to keep a door locked. After that, everything is just wrapped up. We have no big finale, just a whimper that served no purpose but to introduce the Oddjob Manager. Up until this episode, I’ve been okay with how things have been written, but this episode is a load of boredom with a side of tangential “meh”. Even the animation is lukewarm here. It feels as if this episode was a victim of the budget. It fills space and introduces a couple of characters, but the rest of it accomplishes nothing.

The voice acting doesn’t have a massive amount to work with. Despite that, Monica Rial (Arisa) and Julie Shields (Zena) took their bit of time in the debate to give us some solid voice acting. The two put emotion into the argument, and it made the whole thing feel tense in a normal world kinda of way. Monica has been killing it compared to the other actors in this series. She truly stands out amongst them in giving Arisa personality and presence.