English Dub Review: Ishura “Fire From the Sky”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Soujirou encounters a worthy opponent, while Alus the Star Runner gets surrounded by wyverns.

Our Take: 

The war between Lithia and Aureatia continues to heat up, especially after experiencing the show’s first casualty of one of its protagonists.  This week’s episode focuses on two of the show’s characters this time around.  The first is Soujirou, who survives his grueling fight against Shalk and arrives in Lithia.  He then confronts Nihilo and her spider-bot, whose web attacks are more deadly than sticky.  Of course, due to Soujirou’s obsession with fighting those stronger than him, he sees Nihilo as his next opponent.

However, the main focus of “Fire From the Sky” is the long-awaited showdown between Regnejee and Alus.  The battle makes up most of the episode, with Alus battling his own kind after escaping the flock years ago.  Regarding its structure, this is more of an action-driven episode compared to previous episodes, which relied on dialogue-driven moments to elevate its brief violence and world-building.  It certainly has enough tension and visual flair to accompany its animation and action, but it’s also not without its brief issues with the CGI effects for the wyverns.  It doesn’t look as insulting as the CGI dragons in The Misfit of Demon King Academy.  However, the frame rate of the wyvern movements during a few scenes was pretty jarring as opposed to those with smoother fluidity, periodically taking me out of the action.

Overall, “Fire From the Sky” continues the show’s thrilling arc with an action-driven wyvern-vs-wyvern showdown.  It’s still a shame that Soujiro winds up getting the short end of the stick again regarding his screen time.  Fortunately, the plot’s tension has enough merits to elevate the show’s third act despite the rough CGI for the wyverns.