English Dub Review: Mission:Yozakura Family “Yozakura Blood”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Taiyo and Shinzo face off against Nohman in the collapsing hotel, but Taiyo is gravely injured by a mysterious man. Before he can fully recover, the Yozakura estate is invaded by more minions using the fake Yozakura blood.

OUR TAKE

Oh hey, we got to have a moment with one of the less important Yozakura siblings! I mean most of them have gotten time to have at least a moment already, but really just in episodes dedicated to them. I hadn’t exactly thought about it, but there was definitely a worry that Mutsumu, Kyoichiro, and MAYBE Futaba would be the ones who would get priority in terms of character moments while the other siblings stayed confined within their base character traits. So, it was quite the pleasant surprise when Shinzo, who even had to share his focus episode with another sibling, actually got to shine by getting out of his Oscar the Grouch trash can and getting truly involved in the fight. And what better way to show that, while the Hazakura drug is clearly a considerable threat, a single individual using it will never hold up against a true blue Yozakura (or green, in the case of Shinzo). However, while that victory against Nohman would have been pretty sweet, we need a reminder that we’re in the more serious part of the story now, so we have this mysterious white haired stranger show up and horribly injure Taiyo for good measure.

But even after that, we can’t savor the win of both defeating Nohman and evacuating everyone from the hotel, so the Yozakura base is besieged by a small army of Hazakura drug users, some with better compatibility with the drug than others. And on top of that, they’re led BY the mysterious white haired man who maimed Taiyo. Now, right off the bat, we get some interesting details about him when we see him save one of the hotel visitors from the collapsing building, so he seems to at least care about helping people. But then why is he working with Makoto Kawashita, who has anything BUT good intentions, as well as attacking all of the Yozakuras at once? On top of that, he clearly has access to their security, and Kyoichiro thinks he has their mother’s ring to get into the building. And I’m gonna pretend I didn’t already look up who this guy is weeks ago and hang onto the mysterious mystery that this mystery guy is. Though I’m sure we’ll find out very soon what has already been very heavily hinted at and implied. And if not…I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing where it goes!