Hello, old friend. That’s not even a euphemism: I wrote about the first Ao no Exorcist episode back on April 17, 2011! I last wrote about it back in March 2017. When the second season came six years after the first, I said it felt like riding a bike. Now it’s been another seven years, and, as you’d guess, it’s still like riding a bike … Or like slipping on your favorite pair of pajama pants.
While this latest Exorcist features some re-introductory exposition, it feels like the previous episode only aired a couple of months ago, if not more recently. Rin gets what he thinks is a love letter but is just an invitation from Mephisto to join him for a “Congratulations on Getting a Stay of Execution” banquet.
On the way, he encounters his classmate Gedouiin being harassed by a demon only the two of them can see. Rin kicks up the intimidation to spook the demon away, and Gedouiin is grateful, and Rin is excited to have made a new friend, and wants to help him more by finding a way for him to stop seeing demons if he doesn’t want to.
Before Rin can bring it up to Mephisto at the banquet (which consists of instant ramen), Lord Pheles temporarily transports them to Gehenna, where he has a bit of news for Rin: Mephisto is just the name he’s used in Assiah for the last 200 years. His true identity is Samael, King of Time and second most powerful person in Gehenna.
Despite Mephisto being a demon, he’s on humanity’s side. As a member of demonic royalty and master of time and space, Mephisto wants to make sure Rin’s head didn’t grow too big after defeating the Impure King in the last arc. He also notes that most demons tend to hide their horns and hearts as a matter of etiquette.
Mephisto offers to give Rin a vial of eye drops to help his new friend if he can accomplish a mission for him. That mission turns out to be an extracurricular class involving Rin and all his friends: Bon, Koneko, Shima, Shiemi, Izumi, and Takara.
The class consists of the group dealing with a demonic painting called “Family Portrait” that has been causing several students mental anguish (among them Gedouiin). Rin’s first instinct is to run at the portrait and slash it, saving everyone else from getting into danger.
This…doesn’t work, and indeed only makes things worse for everyone. Rin himself ends up in some kind of dreamscape in which none of his friends remember him and recoil from his presence. Then Koneko pulls him back to reality, something he did for the others.
The spirit possessing the painting is a shape-shifter that projects peoples’ worst fears. When Bon suggest taking it down with fatal verses, Konekomaru interrupts him, and takes charge. Thanks to his poor vision, he didn’t look at the painting, so he’s not suffering any effects.
He proceeds to bark out frank but accurate assessments about everyone else, one by one. In doing so, he shows them how well he knows them, making it easier for them to trust him as their strategist. The group is packed with talent, but need someone to direct and coordinate.
That’s what Koneko does. Equally knowledgeable about their abilities as their personalities, he’s able to deploy the right people at the right time while keeping Rin in reserve as their trump card. Discerning that the “Family Portrait” is actually four separate paintings, he has Rin, Shima, and Izumi launch a simultaneous attack.
After a brief glance at what Arthur is up to in Yemen, Rin gets the drops from Mephisto and gives them to Gedouiin. When his new friend asks about his tail, Rin comes clean: he’s a half-demon. When Gedouiin asks if he’s scared, Rin’s answer is pretty much Ao no Exorcist’s mission statement: “Sure I’m scared. But I’m lucky, because I’m surrounded by some great people!”
Those people—Shima, Bon, Konekomaru, Shiemi, and Izumi—are waiting for Rin outside, all wearing the same paint stains of victory on their uniforms as he is. Seeing that they waited up for him brings a smile to his face. It’s a great group—at this point, they feel more like a family—and the main reason I keep coming back to this show even after multi-year breaks.
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 