English Dub Review: The World Ends With You: The Animation “Joshua”

Overview

Neku’s second game is nearly over, and he trusts his partner less than ever. What is the rebel Game Master Minamimoto planning, and will Neku be able to handle it if he keeps Joshua at arm’s length?


Our Take

Neku once again saw a couple of his friends disappearing in front of him. He’s frustrated because of it and doesn’t want to lose anyone anymore. Even the reapers aren’t immune to noise this time. So, he decided to back them up.

Neku and Joshua also have to face off against Minamimoto on their most important day of this game. Just seeing both Neku and Joshua fight against their obstacles and survive together with high stakes helped make the proceedings pretty intense as well.

Overall, I thought this episode was pretty thrilling. Fairly well-paced and put together. There were some awkward moments, like randomly having Beat show up so they can resolve a storyline involving a pendant before the battle with Minamimoto. On the subject of Minamimoto, the gamemaster once again was pretty strong and In order to defeat him, both worked with each other until Minamimoto attempted to blow himself up in an effort to take them with him but Joshua did something unthinkable to make Neku regret not trusting him and now Neku has to consequently partake in something else entirely…