English Dub Review: Akudama Drive: “The City of Lost Children”

Overview: Brother (Daisy Guevara) and Sister’s (Laura Stahl) unknown origins are finally revealed and also a fellow Akudama and ally betrays the group. 

Our Take: At long last, we finally find out what all the hubbub is about as Brother and Sister’s tragic past finally comes to light in “The City of Lost Children.” For the most part, this backstory was just effective enough for the time it was allotted. The cinematography is teeming with harrowing shots that paint a perfect picture of the utter horror that washes over Brother upon his devastating realization of his true origins. You’d almost want to frame them if they weren’t so dreadful. And better yet, there’s no unnecessary dialogue that takes away from the nuance either. However, while it works well, it does feel a tad rushed as probably to make time for the next big revelation. As a result, the A.I. known as Professor, the original Black Cat, feels pretty glossed over and the kids’ relationship with him is never explored all that much. Also Sister comes into the picture late as well, which while very earnest, suffers from a shorter length like the other scenes mentioned, at least, for the time being. I say that because there are still five episodes left and there could be more that could retroactively rectify this issue so I remain cautiously optimistic. Either way, it doesn’t hurt this episode in any significant way, it just left me wanting more and believing the importance of their backstory was deserving of it. 

And speaking of that other revelation…there’s also an unexpected betrayal from Doctor. Her siding with the Executioners definitely threw me for a loop. Based on her interest in Brother and Sister, I expected she was cooking up some kind of scheme but more so thought it’d be something regarding their immortality for her own self-interest. I’m curious if she’ll be utilized as an antagonist to the remaining Akudama in the remaining episodes. After, we learn about Brother’s plan to escape Earth with his sister to the freaking moon of all places. But before there’s any time to even process that, his hopes of a moonlit paradise are burned by that old hag leader revealing it was all a sham. Just a blast of information firing on our synapses at this point guys. 

We are then treated to bloody good time as Cutthroat and Courier fend off multiple executioners while Swindler escapes with Sister and Brother gets captured by Madam Bitch. At this point, Cutthroat hacking and slashing away at literally anything has a guarantee of always being fun to watch. The stellar fluidity of said scene only helps boost that. One thing though, it is irritating how most of the more graphic scenes are censored but blame isn’t the studio’s in the slightest. Japanese broadcast standards are, unfortunately, still a thing that exists. And you just love to see it on shows that are rated TV-MA of all things, you know for mature audiences! Granted it’ll probably be rectified in the eventual uncut version and Blu-ray/DVD releases, but it still sucks though when there’s an awkwardly placed black bar when I just want to see Courier put a bullet between an Executioner’s eyes!

As the episode closes, the fate of Brother and Sister hang in the balance and “The City of Lost Children” generates much anticipation and tension going into the next chapter of the series.