English Dub Review: Deep Insanity THE LOST CHILD “Revolution”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Now trapped in a time loop himself, Shigure struggles to unravel the mystery behind EL-Cee and Iceman’s plots.

Our Take:  

If you thought the previous episode was the last we’ve seen Shigure and the Platoon, you might want to think again. After witnessing the somewhat shocking end of its tenth episode, we finally get to see more of what has been happening with Shigure after his “demise”. The second-to-last episode has the former Platoon member getting stuck in a time loop, thanks to the Akura crystal that Vera gave him. He then uses this strange occurrence to change the future and save his friends from their tragic fate.

The episode finally embraces the time-loop plot element that’s been teased since we first knew of Vera’s powers. It did appear that I was rewatching the tenth episode at first, given that the events played out the same way. However, they were altered differently due to Shigure’s actions. Instead of wasting the entire storyline with a montage of Shigure’s attempts to prevent their deaths, “Revolution” uses this element to expand on specific character developments, mainly Vera, and EL-Cee’s true purpose. While it doesn’t add anything new to its formula, its approach to providing a compelling high-stakes narrative is acceptable enough to get me interested in the season finale.

The most prominent part of the storyline is where it delves even further into Vera’s desire to kill EL-Cee. In the episode’s final moments, Shigure discovers that Vera attempts to eradicate EL-Cee before she merges with Iceman and destroys the planet. Unfortunately, it will also mean that she’ll kill her younger self. The second half of the season has continued to make solid progress in developing Vera and the internal torture she’s been through despite a few narrative issues. This episode is unsurprisingly no exception to this, and I hope the finale gives me a fitting conclusion to her intriguing arc.

Overall, “Revolution” delivers a Groundhog Day-themed storyline that focuses on building up to its finale instead of an unnecessary time loop montage. The result is another enjoyable episode that took full advantage of its familiar trope. It also happens to be the most violent chapter in the show, as it killed off the characters in a bloody fashion twice. Thankfully, they’re tame enough to avoid getting a mature rating, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious before getting into this episode. With the season finale on the horizon, only time will tell if Shigure will be able to rescue his comrades and escape from this time prison for good.