Episode Rating: B+
This week the English simuldub begins, lagging two weeks behind. Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum are back reprising their roles from the dub of the first series, and all’s right with the world. While they had an unenviably tough act to follow in voicing the two protagonists, their performances are widely-regarded in the West as being as iconic as the originals, and the dub of episode 1 shows why. Ami’s performance of Holo conveys her energy and slyness a bit better, but Brina’s performance give the character a more pronounced haughtiness which fits just as well, and you can’t go wrong with either take on Lawrence. Of course, this is to be expected, since Brina and Michael have been voicing the audiobooks for the original novels over the last couple of years, but I know I’m far from the only long-time franchise fan who breathed a sigh of relief at the recent cast announcements.
For returning franchise fans, episode 3 covers the exact same scenes and conversations as its counterpart in the original and stops in the exact same place, further suggesting that this adaptation has no intent to pick up the pace and will stick with the six-episodes-per-novel pattern of the original two seasons. The visuals in some scenes are reimagined and some minor details have been altered in trivial ways (the Milone merchant Lawrence deals with used a hand-held abacus in the original but a tabletop version here), but this is ultimately the exact same episode.
For newcomers, episode 3 represents a shift from the relationship-building focus of the previous episode to a more decided economics focus. We get to see Lawrence in action as he deals first with a trading house merchant to sell his furs and then with a money exchanger as he tries to puzzle out what, exactly, Zheren’s scheme is. Along the way, he also gives Holo a lesson in money and all-too-often glossed-over complexity of a setting where a single standard coin doesn’t exist. Even in modern day, the stability and trustworthiness of a currency directly affects a nation’s power; for instance, the dollar being the world’s most trusted currency is no small part of the U.S. being the world’s most powerful and influential country. That’s doubly true in this setting, where the silver content of a coin more immediately and directly affects the coin’s value. Because of that, decreasing the silver content of coins is risky, since the currency would be regarded as less trustworthy if people found out about it. But what if it was being decreased in stages, at increments so small that even expert moneychangers couldn’t tell? Certainly sounds like a way to get more coins for the same amount of silver. Throw in some rumors that the opposite is happening, thus getting people to speculate in the wrong direction, and those in the know stand to make a hefty sum. By the end of the episode, Lawrence is starting to get a sense of just how big this scheme could actually be: big enough that Zheren is but a bit player to a vastly greater interest.
This episode also shows much better than the second what value Holo can contribute to Lawrence’s business. The previous two episodes revealed that she’s more than a little clever and catches on quickly, and this episode shows why you don’t want to have a battle of wits with her. How completely she bowled over the trading house merchant was a thing of beauty, and she can offer insights and alternate angles that Lawrence might not consider on his own. Lawrence is hardly helpless here, since he still has to use his business acumen to take advantage of what Holo can offer, but she makes for a fearsome back-up in many different ways. And she can apparently be bribed with apples and wine, too!
Just how big and deep is the scheme whose fringes Lawrence has now detected? Look forward to finding out next episode!
USA Anime 