English Dub Review: Tales of Wedding Rings “Episode 5”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Satou and company continue their journey for the next ring. Hime becomes jealous of Satou taking care of Nephritis. Soon after, a large caravan appears before them, which is the Land of Fire, Needakitta. They ask for an audience with the princess, but…

Our Take:

The series may have taken notes from The Last Airbender regarding the powerful elements, but it does have ways to prevent it from being a carbon copy of the iconic Nickelodeon show. This week’s episode is one of them, with Satou and the gang heading off to get the fire ring next instead of retrieving it last like in The Last Airbender. I guess it’s better to get the challenging one out of the way now than save it for the climax.

The fire ring belongs to Princess Granart from Needakitta, a moving kingdom of merchants and cat people. However, like Nephritis, Granart isn’t willing to marry someone without a simple condition. She’ll marry a man who can beat her in a match. The problem is that Satou is still weak against her profound strength, even with the light and wind rings in his possession. However, Satou later finds that Granart is willing to throw the match against him to fulfill the prophecy. Of course, being the loyal gentleman he is, Satou isn’t going to let that stand and insists on fighting a fair battle against the fire princess without using his rings.

Along with confronting Granart, the episode also showcases Hime’s jealousy when Satou spends quality time with Nephritis. Fortunately, they eventually make amends when Nephritis assures her that Satou loves her, although I won’t be surprised if Hime becomes jealous again when Satou marries Granart. If that’s the case, then I’m going to have a chat with someone who came up with this harem prophecy. As for the episode itself, it does a fine job introducing Granart as a fiery yet beautiful warrior, and the mixed-gender spa sequence has a humorous moment we’ve seen multiple times in other shows and movies. Although it struggles to convince me of the show’s middling quality, it does make me curious as to how Satou would prevail against a formidable opponent without his rings.