English Dub Review: The Vampire Dies in No Time “Shin-Yoko Battle Royale”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Lewd talk has taken over the town, and Ronaldo is powerless. Mr. Lewd Talk teams up with Yakyuken to encircle the city in a bubble of lewd talk that makes physical strength worthless. The only way to be strong now is with lewd talk, but Ronaldo isn’t sure he can do it until he finds an unlikely ally. Later on, Draluc tells the story of how he first met John and the armadillo became his familiar.

Our Take:

Funimation has released another dubbed episode, and this time it’s the penultimate episode of The Vampire Dies in No Time. The eleventh outing of the show includes Ronaldo going up against a tough enemy team-up, plus the heartwarming tale of Draluc’s first encounter with John. But do these things make for a good episode?

During the first half of Shin-Yoko Battle Royale, my answer would’ve been a resounding no. The segment that gives the episode its name is nothing but a copycat of storylines we’ve already seen in previous episodes. It’s telling that the show wasn’t even able to make it a full season without resorting to repeating plots already done. Usually that doesn’t happen until a show has at least a handful of seasons under its belt, so ‘congrats’ to the team on that, I guess. Basically, this half of the episode is just one big long excuse for the show to include as many lewd lines as possible. But the ones they use aren’t even that lewd, just stuff about body hair and boobs, mainly. I couldn’t wait for it to be over, and was really feeling like this could be the worst episode of the season, until…

The final two acts of the ep are sort of one longer arc, and they’re all about everyone’s favorite armadillo. John has been a fixture of the show since the beginning pretty much, but we’ve never known exactly how he came to be Draluc’s familiar. This second-to-last episode fixes that, as we’re treated to the story of how Draluc was given John to nurse back to health when he and his family were spending time in South America. John and Draluc become good buddies, but when Draluc sees how happy John is with his own kind, he decides to leave him behind.

John, of course, won’t be left behind that easily, and he embarks on a cross country voyage that lasts for weeks, if not months, and eventually finds his way back to Draluc’s castle where the two of them reunite and finalize the ritual blood drinking that bonds them together. It’s a much more unique tale than the first half of the ep, and who doesn’t love a cute little armadillo ball rolling around the countryside? It’s certainly not as exciting as some episodes of past, since there’s little dialogue and John isn’t exactly the most action-oriented animal (although he sure can protect Draluc when asked to)—but the novelty and heartwarming aspect definitely made it a standout. Also, seeing Draluc cope with missing John by filling his room with vaguely armadillo-shaped  balls was hilarious.