English Dub Review: Ishura “War Commences”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Yuno the Distant Talon and Soujirou the Willow-Sword are attacked by deadly assassins from Lithia.

Our Take:  

Following our character introductions in the first five episodes, the series gradually starts picking up a bit through their respective arcs.  Beforehand, we were left wondering when these sets of characters would encounter each other, considering the previous episodes were more anthology-driven for their characters.  Fortunately, this episode has given us that answer as Taren’s plan to ignite an inevitable war between Lithia and Aureatia comes to fruition.  That answer comes from Soujirou and Yuno, who encounter familiar faces during their trek to Lithia: Shalk the Sound Slicer and Higuare the Pelagic.  Although Yuno and Soujirou are the only ones standing, Higuare takes Yuno hostage while Soujirou battles Shalk to the death.

As that battle continues, the episode shifts its focus on Hidow and Hargent from Main City, who witnessed an attack by Taren the Guarded.  They also received word that Soujirou and the others didn’t survive the ambush.  But Soujirou’s showdown with Shalk has yet to be decided.  Despite that, Hidow calls upon his last line of defense, Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, who then begins her pursuit with her secret weapon: a robotic spider known as Helneten.

As mentioned, Ishura finally started to pick itself up with “War Commences”.  It serves as an engaging climax of the season and benefits once again from its animation.  The highlight of this presentation is undoubtedly the fight between Soujirou and Shalk, whose 2D style clashes effectively with Shalk’s CGI model.  This is something that most anime shows struggle to accomplish regarding the mixture of 2D and CGI animation, and I’m glad to see that Ishura is another example that didn’t fall victim to that curse.  The season’s second half has a chance to finish strongly now that the war has started, and “War Commences” showed signs that it’s off to a pretty solid start.