English Dub Review: Battle Game in 5 Seconds: “The Final Ability”

Overview: When Yuri (Laura Stahl) is defeated against that of Oogami (Jalen K. Cassell), Akira (Robbie Daymond) must step in to end the war between the Red and Green teams once and for all. 

Our Take: Each of the final battles that took place against Kuroiwa and Oogami played to the strengths of the main characters they faced off against Akira and Yuri, respectively, in what should have been a slam dunk for both sides.  Unfortunately, that seems to have been wishful thinking. 

There’s a strong emotional maturity present within Yuri as she tries to make him realize his pain and by extension his humanity but nonetheless try to defeat him. This is much more powerful than the standard weapon of empathy, or as many have coined it, Talk no Jutsu, that can be much more simple and straightforward. A heart-to-heart that brings both Yuri and Oogami to unavoidable blows with one another. Unfortunately, their bouts continue to be plagued by the same old stiff and stale CG and 2D animation, not even being elevated, quality wise, for the finale. What is worse is how undercut Yuri’s role is in the conflict with Akira coming up to pick up the slack and not even in an compelling way with how mundanely he takes down Oogami comparatively to his ingenious strategizing against his former enemies. 

At the very least, there is hope for better executed future conflicts in that of Blue team’s leader, Iori Omoto. He is very much set up to be a crueler mirrored version of Akira, emphasized by his arm cannon ability or at least a power that allows him to use it. With how many times it’s been utilized, the arm cannon is definitely starting to lose its intrigue so hopefully, similarly with Akira, there’s more to Omoto’s capabilities than meets the eye. There also seems to be some new intriguing faces and challenges ahead, like possibly someone who is close to Akira, maybe a relative, as well as more scheming from Mion, respectively. “The Final Ability” very much ends as a clean jumping off point with Akira and Yuri having passed the trails and moving on ahead into their next challenge. Too bad the path to get there floundered what could have been a stronger ending more befitting of the dynamic main characters and the smartly constructed battles thus far.