Drifters

Episode 6

Given that Drifters is written by the same man who wrote Hellsing, Hitler's eventual arrival in the plot was not the least bit surprising. Kouta Hirano seems to have a thing for using Nazis as villains/references, so the inclusion of Hitler seems like a no-brainer in a series based on tossing famous historical warriors together. Still, the way he's used in this week's episode is interesting, as it seems to be playing into the show's exploration of the ambiguous nature of heroism in times of war. Oda Nobunaga discovers the Fuhrer's portrait after they finish raiding the Orte palace, and it turns out that, before his apparent (second) suicide, he was seen as a heroic figure to the Orte people, a symbol of revolution and prosperity. Olminu even remarks that it was unclear whether he was a Drifter or an End, which further highlights how muddy the moral waters of this conflict have become. We're living in a world where Hitler is a figure of prosperity and peace (to some), while The Villain Who Is Almost Certainly Jesus is the tyrannical leader of the Ends, though in the eyes of the demi-humans, he remains a symbol of peace and liberation.

The point is that war doesn't have any easy answers, and while Drifters hasn't made any direct thematic statements to such a point, the idea is at least being heavily suggested. The point is further pressed when Oda stops Shimazu from executing the rapists they captured at the end of last episode; while another story might have gone the “We're Better Than the Enemy” route of sparing the Orte prisoners, Oda finishes what Shimazu started and summarily slaughters them. Nobunaga simply wanted to take charge of the proceedings, in what seemed like a combination of responsibility and ego. If Drifters has any point to make outside of “Wouldn't It Be Cool If Samurai and Cowboys and Orcs and Elves All Fought each Other?”, it seems that it would be to explore the fundamental ugliness and brutality of warfare. Our “heroes” are just as capable of taking part in brutality as the enemy, and not only that, they enjoy it.

It's all surface level discussion so far, though. What Drifters excels at above all else is spectacle, and unfortunately this episode was lacking in that department. Outside of the scenes dealing with the aftermath of the Orte Palace siege, everything else this week was devoted to setting up next week's battle and introducing us to some new characters. The most prominent of these is Count Saint-Germi, who seems to be based off the real-world Count of St. Germain. He's okay. The cartoonish drag queen stereotype is not my cup of tea, but it's honestly almost too dumb here to be actively offensive. It's very typical of how these sorts of characters are treated in this kind of anime, and while it's regressive, I was more put off by how boring the character seems so far. Outside of lazy gay jokes, he didn't offer much to the story outside of dryly setting everything up for next week.

By the time the Ends showed up and the credits began to roll, I was a little surprised, because it felt like very little had happened this episode. Not to mention, the art suffered noticeably this week, with off-kilter faces and stiff animations popping up frequently enough to be noticeable. The animation quality in general has dropped in fair accordance with that Three Episode Rule, but 4 & 5's dips were scarce enough to be ignored. Not so in this case.

In the end, this was a passable setup episode, no more, no less. It wasn't boring per se, but it was a little underwhelming to be sure; Sleepy EASY was probably the most entertaining part of the week, and she only showed up for a minute or so. Hopefully the budget and the bombast will return in full form next week, as The Black King and his Ends prepare to make their next move against the Drifters.

On a more positive note, the Drifters Simulcast Dub premiered on Funimation over the weekend! Seeing as the first episode is almost entirely concerned with introducing the main trio, their actors were the only ones who had any real time to shine. Overall, Josh Grelle, Robert McCollum, and Justin Briner did a solid job as Shimazu, Nobunaga, and Yoichi respectively. Grelle in particular did good work in keeping Shimazu relatable while also communicating the ferocity he's capable of bringing to the battlefield.

The most interesting thing about this dub was the decision to have the main Japanese trio speak in a slightly affected, overly-formal manner. It's nothing too conspicuous, and it helps stress how out of place these men are in their new world. ADR director Christopher Bevins was the line producer on Romeo X Juliet, and adaptive scriptwriter Patrick Seitz worked on both RxJ and Hellsing Ultimate's dub, so it makes sense they'd opt to go for a similar dialogue style here. The shtick is dropped for the jokey bits, which is fine, though I can't say they work much better in the dub. In fact, their shouty nature sticks out even more in English to my ear, cementing them as the worst aspect of the show overall.

This is a solid production though, and I'm eager to see how the rest of the cast fares in future episodes. I'm especially curious to see how they handle writing for the many different time periods and cultures all the Drifters come from, not to mention hearing Jeremy Schwartz as The Black King, aka Evil Ringwraith Jesus™. I'll let you know more as the dub continues in the coming weeks!

Drifters is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.