English Dub Review: Our Last Crusade or a Rise of a New World “Paradise: The Transcendent Demon”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Risya meets with Salinger in his prison cell. She offers to help him escape in exchange for assistance with the Empire’s invasion of the Sovereignty. Though initially disinterested, he does agrees to the terms. He then shatters the screens that compose the walls of his room, while ominously referring to his goals as king.

Alice sneaks into Iska’s room, and finds him staring out the window. She asks if he’s having trouble sleeping, but he says he’s just enjoying the view. Alice warns him that while it may look tranquil, the prison tower houses a powerful political prisoner. She refers to him as Salinger the Demon, which Iska thinks sounds harsh. They’re interrupted by Rin, who informs Alice of the chaos at the prison tower. The two witches take their leave, but not before Alice is able to hand Iska a handkerchief to replace the one he’d loaned her at the play in Ein.

Jhin, Nene, and Mismis are still searching for Iska when Risya calls to tell them about the chaos that’s ensued as a result of Salinger’s escape. The three have to improvise to get out on their own, which results in Mismis running out to distract the guards, allowing Jhin and Nene to somehow take them down. Mismis calls Iska, who discovers Alice has slipped him the key to his handcuffs in the handkerchief. He’s able to escape and meet up with the rest of his unit to retrieve his swords.

Rin faces off against Salinger, but he defeats her using the power of low rise pants. During their battle, he reveals his plan to collect astral powers from the royal family in order to transcend them. He argues that being born into privilege has made them complacent and unfit to rule. Rin uses her last bit of strength to glare at him, and he aims to finish her off for it. Luckily, Iska appears at the last minute to intervene and deflect the spell with his astral blades.

Our take:

After a few weeks without a new dub for this series, I was actually looking forward to some lighthearted nonsense. And boy, did this episode deliver. It kicks off with Salinger’s official introduction, which answers the question “what would Jareth the Goblin King look like if Labyrinth was an anime?”

And things just get more ridiculous from there.

Visually, this episode is exceptional. The subtle, yet dramatic ice shift serves to emphasizes Risya’s escape offer, while the extreme closeups of both her and Salingers’ eyes while they discuss gives the impression that this series is finally getting real. I, for one, am excited. Salinger is what that this series desperately needed: a genuinely intimidating character who’s here to cause lasting conflict.

Daman Mills ( Moroko in Dragon Ball Super: Broly and understudy to Chris Ayres’ Frieza) is impeccably cast in this role. His performance pitches deeper than the original Japanese, with just enough edge to give this nonchalantly powerful astral mage some truly insidious undertones.

After “The Founder” was so quickly dispatched with, and basically nothing came of Mismis’s fall into the vortex, I was seriously starting to wonder if we’d see a real villain in this show. If the series was going to lean solely on Alice and Iska’s romance in the midst of a so-called war for conflict, it didn’t seem like it had a lot of options left for plot development.

While it’s not totally clear what Salinger’s motivations are beyond his quest for power, his assertions that the Nebulis line is unfit to rule should make for an interesting character arc. And if his showdown with Rin is any indication, his actions scenes will sizzle. Fantastic framing, dramatic narration, and plenty of aesthetic enhancements (in this case, floating embers from the nearby fire.) What more could you ask for, really?

Maybe some actual character development for Iska or for Mismis to shut up. But in lieu of that, I’ll take Rin’s new opinion on Iska after he saves her skin.

Overall, it’s a solid episode back after a bit of a break. Here’s hoping this show keeps finding new ways to transcend!