English Dub Review: The Great Cleric “On a Journey”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Luciel’s encounter with Bottaculli, Brod decides that he’ll need to get even stronger to survive whatever the corrupt healer might throw at him. Little do they expect the mysterious letter that’s about to arrive and change everything.

Our Take:

Luciel has reached the next stage of his training as he continues his quest to become the world’s most powerful healer/martial artist. Of course, it isn’t without making an enemy out of the greediest healer known to man, Bottaculli. So, what other obstacles will he face in this week’s episode? If you can’t tell from the previous episode, Luciel is in the Spartan training stage to increase his agility and power. Unfortunately, it means he must endure lessons that are twice as aggressive as regular training. It’s a good thing he has Substance X by his side, for better or worse.

But that’s not the only problem we’re facing today. As we’re all aware, Bottaculli plans to remove Luciel from the equation, which involves a letter he sent to the adventurer’s guild. Luciel’s letter is from the guild headquarters at the Holy City of Shurule, asking him to transfer to their guild. Of course, Brod and Galva knew it was a trap by Bottaculli, but the damage was already done. With Luciel becoming a Rank A healer despite his overall skill at Rank E, Luciel bids farewell to his guild family as he starts his new chapter in Shurule.

This episode would make for a decent season finale of The Great Cleric, with Luciel beginning the next phase of his journey. It’s even got the emotional vibe of saying goodbye to the members Luciel spent time with, and the brief reminisces of their accomplishments. The only problem, however, is that we’re only halfway through the season. Because of that, the emotional impact of Luciel moving to the next stage became mundane since we didn’t spend much time with Luciel and the other supporting characters. Maybe I was still pretty sore at how formulaic the series is in the previous episodes. It’s not without a humorous chat between Brod, Grulga, and Galba, but other than that, it’s a middling farewell episode that would’ve worked out better as the season finale.

From the looks of things, the series may have a chance to improve its narrative skills with its second half. Luciel is starting his training at the Holy City of Shurule, meaning it could feature some challenging adversaries for him to conquer. Not to mention, Bottaculli still lurks in the shadows, waiting to strike the place Luciel calls home. I hope that’ll be the case based on my middling experience with the series so far.