Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 02 – Mean Girl Ghost

After being summoned to a high-ranking council at the Vatican and being made to seal a contract with his blood, Yukio is troubled by the blue flame he’s seen in his eye and what his new guardian Pheles intends to do with him. But he finds peace and solace at Shiemi’s, as you’d expect. He uses the possibility he’s dating her to get Rin out of bed, but really he’s started tutoring her again, which they both admit is fun.

The next extracurricular mission for the group is to deal with Mayuko, an evil ghost haunting a girls’ bathroom in the academy. Because Mayuko will only appear before girls, Shiemi and Izumo must take the lead. When Shiemi exhorts “let’s do our best” it irks Izumo, since that’s all well and good for a defender and healer to say; she’s going to be doing all the offensive work.

Despite this show being around for thirteen years, Izumo still doesn’t consider Shiemi a friend, nor does she want to be close to anyone but Noriko, to whom she vents before the mission. It doesn’t matter to her if Shiemi means her no harm, or on the contrary, will always have her back. Izumo still can’t get over how Shiemi saved her in the Kyoto arc, and feels she needs to pay her back.

The baddie-of-the-week turns out to be uniquely suited to Izumo and Shiemi’s complicated dynamic: Mayuko is a cluster of women’s evil thoughts, and she wastes no time spewing general caustic vitriol, some of which cuts to the quick. There’s also the matter of Izumo’s fox spirits being completely unmotivated to expel the ghost. Shiemi ends up bailing Izumo out again by having Nee produce an offering of freshly harvested rice.

When Shiemi is snagged by the neck by Mayuko’s hair tendrils, the foxes agree to get off their asses … for Shiemi’s sake, since she gave them rice. As Mayuko tries to choke the life out of Shiemi, she tells her that Izumo doesn’t even consider her a friend. But Shiemi is, as always, tougher than she looks, and claps back that she’s never met Mayuko and Mayuko knows nothing about her.

Izumo and the foxes successfully expel Mayuko, and after coughing and re-catching her breath, Shiemi gets up and thanks Izumo for saving her. Izumo would argue that the foxes only acted because of Shiemi, so it’s not legit payback, but Shiemi would be the first to tell her that she’s not keeping score; it doesn’t matter who saved whom last; just that they keep fighting together and protecting one another.

The mood is lightened by the not-so-timely arrival of the boys, who are all dressed in drag, which is something Izumo and Shiemi can laugh about together. With a scene of them shopping in the ED and the academy festival coming up next week, I’m hoping Izumo can continue to loosen her hang-ups and accept Shiemi’s friendship.

Yukio suspected from his summoning to the council that something is up in the exorcist world, and sure enough, all of the high-rankers, led by Arthur and a dude who goes by Lightning, are in Russia at some kind of lab where scientists have successfully built a Gehenna Gate that is gradually expanding.

Pheles drops a barrier on the site to stop time, but only for a few months; the gate will have to be dealt with or cataclysm will befall Assiah. Lightning already has a good idea who is responsible for the artificial gate: the Illuminati. They’re namesake of this arc and its big bad, and I doubt Rin, Yukio, Shiemi, Izumo, and the rest of the academy kids will be kept out of the fighting.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 28 – There Has to Be a Point

I’m a little mad at Jujutsu Kaisen. If it were a person, I’m not sure I’d be talking with them at the moment. It digs the hole a little deeper by making us relive the terrible moment of Amanai Riko’s death.

While I appreciate Suguru’s rage, and he clearly knows his way around summoned cursed spirits, his entire battle with Touji seemed futile; pointless. The mission failed, the damage done. Touji even told Suguru he was free to go. But of course, he didn’t go.

But once more, Touji is a tough customer. At first Suguru’s onslaught of spirits seems too much to handle, but then Touji slashes Suguru’s ace, the Rainbow Dragon, right down the middle.

When he summons a spirit that freezes time, Touji overcomes that too, and Suguru is left with a huge, nasty X-shaped gaping wound that doesn’t kill him, but sure as shit puts him out of comission, along with Satoru. It’s also heavily implied Kuroi is dead too.

What makes Touji’s easy victory so maddening is that he has absolutely no philosophical horse in this race. He’s simply an assassin hired by the Star Church to kill the Plasma Vessel, and the job is done. He delivers Riko’s body as proof, and it’s clear the church rep who receives it fell off the deep end a long time agooo.

The one single, insufficient consolation we can glean from this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is that Touji’s mediator straight up declines the offer to take him out to dinner, saying there are only two reasons for him to see him and no more: for work, and in hell. Touji seemed genuinely hurt by that rejection.

And then Satoru appears for round two.

Something’s off, Touji repeatedly says in his mind. This Satoru is different; more serene and unhinged…maybe even high. We learn that, after using the reverse cursed technique to heal, Satoru is currently at a state of being beyond simply seeking revenge for Riko. If he’s high, he’s high on the world itself.

And while Touji knows quite a bit about the Zen’in clan and Satoru’s Limitless abilities, he doesn’t know everything, and that’s why he dies. Satoru has his Red, and he has his Blue, and Touji is confident he can deal with both. But Purple? He ain’t ever seen that, and it puts a gaping hole in him.

With his last words, Touji mentions that the Zen’in will be taking his son Megumi in two or three years, and Satoru can “do what he will” with that info. But Satoru’s primary concern is recovering Riko’s body from the church. When a healed Suguru enters the church, there’s an eerie bluish-white light and constant applause from the brainwashed flock.

As Satoru somberly carries Riko out, he asks Suguru if they should kill everyone there. Suguru considers this, but says there’s no point; these aren’t the bigwigs who ordered a hit on Riko. But as Satoru walks into the blood red hallway, which might as well be hell itself, he asks if there really has to be a point to killing the followers.

Suguru insists that there absolutely has to be. After all, Jujutsu Sorcerers aren’t supposed to harm non-sorcerers. But in his current state, it’s clear Satoru doesn’t care about that, or much of anything.

This was another tough watch, packed with beautiful combat animation which only served to underscore how pointless it all was. Amanai Riko is dead, and for all their combined power, there’s nothing her former protectors can do about it, except grieve her if they wish (or can) and move forward.

Oresuki – 09 – Not Just a Background Character

Joro has gotten the hang of his new gig at Tsubaki’s family’s restaurant, and even Sasanqua comes by to have the guy in which she suddenly has interest server her and her gal friends. But when Tsubaki’s praise of his performance starts to sound like too much, Joro reveals his inferiority complex: he feels he’s just doing what he can as a background character while his more impressive friends accomplish greater things.

Since Joro’s job eats into his library time with Pansy, lunches are tense, especially with Himawari not there to lighten the mood (she’s prepping for a tennis tournament). Then, one night, Joro messes up at work, gets yelled at by an angry customer, and has to be bailed out by Tsubaki.

Pansy is already on record in her opposition of him working solely to repay his debt to her, since it’s nothing more than saving face. When she meets him after work, she says as much, and tries to assure him he’s okay and he’s already a good person. This isn’t a good time for him to hear this, so he snaps at her, something he immediately regrets.

This naturally makes things even more awkward in the library, but a chance meeting with a young lad named Hazuki Yasuo raises his spirits by reinforcing what Sun-chan tried to tell him. Basically, he can’t be afraid of “swinging and missing” or getting hurt, but has to “go all out” his own way.

The next day Joro apologizes to Pansy, but also tells her he’s going to keep working—not to repay a perceived debt to her, but because he simply wants to buy her a new book, something she not only accepts, but supports. But when he finally gets enough money, the book has already been sold—to Himawari.

All this time, she’s been putting off practice and saving up to buy him a book. What we have here is basically a “penance triangle”, with Himawari working to pay back Joro, who was working to pay back Pansy. At first, Joro is angry at her for risking everything, but as Himawari tells him, he matters to her as much if not more than tennis.

Himawari ends up winning her tournament anyway, reinforcing how awesome she is. Before her first match, she shocks Joro, Pansy, Cosmos and Tsubaki by stealing a kiss from him, not-so-cryptically telling him there’s “someone she likes” now, complicating matters for the others.

Tsubaki also manages to subvert expectations by not having any dark ulterior motive to getting Joro to work at her restaurant. Turns out she wanted the job to help him build confidence in himself as someone other than “second banana”, but the main character which some truly awesome and amazing friends.

That brings us to the situation at episode’s end, in which Joro is back on that damnable bench, being asked by Himawari Tampopo to hook Pansy up with Sun-chan…here we go again…

Oresuki – 08 – Deep-Fried Joro-on-a-Stick

“What new devilry is this?”, Joro must be thinking when Yoki Chiharu, a classmate for all of thirty seconds, approaches him, bends the knee, kisses his hand and pledges fealty like he’s some nobleman.

Even if there’s no damnable bench in sight this week, it doesn’t change the fact that not a single woman in his life has ever been what he initially assumed her to be, nor are her intentions ever clear from the get-go.

Sasanqua, recently interested in his desk neighbor to the point of dying her hair, doesn’t like this one bit. Chiharu, AKA Tsubaki, claims to be paying Joro back for showing her (yes, during that baseball game a year ago) that it’s worth working your tail off for someone, as he was by buying consolatory skewers for Sun-chan. At no point does she drop the kind, dutiful, angelic act to anyone.

And yet Joro can’t help but think something smells rotten in Denmark. In a hilarious half-chuuni, half-rakugo inner monologue that belies his cheerful exterior, he warns himself again and again not to fall for this act, even as her act proves so goddamn effective, he doesn’t even care if he’s being deceived. At one point he asks the fourth wall why this angel wasn’t in the first episode!

Tsubaki joining the group causes almost immediate tension, as she makes and presents to Joro a lunch the same day Cosmos made him one. He accepts both, even though it’s too much food. Later, Pansy calls him out for trying to maintain the status quo. By accepting Tsubaki’s gratitude-fueled behavior, he can “dodge” Pansy and Cosmos’ love-fueled affection. “That’s not kindness, it’s running away,” she says.

When Pansy lends Joro a very valuable hand-written novel to read so they can talk about it later, he quickly loses it after Himawari tackles him in the street. That night he searches for it, and Ram and Rem from Re:Zero recover it for him under extremely suspicious circumstances, but it is totally ruined.

Joro vows to get a job so he can make enough money to replace the extremely expensive book, which not only means spacing out at lunch with the others, but cancelling all future library visits while he works…at Tsubaki’s family’s fried skewer restaurant. Again, Tsubaki has exactly what he needs when he needs it. Pansy states unequivocally that she’d rather he kept visiting her than get a job to replace her book.

But Joro is obstinate; he’s going to replace it, which means he has to work when he’d usually visit her, and which also means he’ll be spending a lot more time with Tsubaki, who finally potentially betrays to no one but us that she has some kind of “payback” plan in motion.

Whether that’s sinister or not remains to be seen; her expression is inscrutable. One thing is certain: maintaining the status quo, as Pansy is sure he’s so eager to do, is no longer tenable—not as long as Tsubaki has him all to himself. Closing note: Tsubaki could, in fact, be the girl Sun mentioned to Pansy a few eps back, whom Sun liked in middle school but who chose Joro. Perhaps Joro’s full memory of her hasn’t quite surfaced. We’ll see.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul – 22

While Charioce is in Eibos, trying to widen a rift, Jeanne is bringing demon, god, and man together in a grand alliance based upon their mutual hate of the asshole king, and Alessand is now in charge of the Orleans Knights, but a few of his subordinates wonder if they’re on the right side, and when Al tells himself he did nothing wrong, he doesn’t sound very convincing.

Kaisar, hopeless idealist to the end, tries in vain to halt Jeanne’s march by trying to shoulder responsibility for El’s death by giving Al free roam of their hideout. But this simply isn’t about who killed El; it’s about everyone Charioce has killed, hurt, or caused to suffer or despair. Like most things with Jeanne, this has grown into something far bigger than herself and her own desire for revenge…though she does want that revenge.

When Nina and Favaro arrive at Eibos via Bacchus’ wagon, through the obscuring fog they learn what Charioce is up to: awakening Bahamut. Nina rushes into the stronghold and takes down everyone in her path with ease, and even outmaneuvers and overpowers Charioce. But even with his own sword in her hand and the opportunity to cut off his arm and the bracelet attached to it, she can’t close the deal, even when he goads her to “do it”,  and backs down. Which…is a bit disappointing.

Instead, Nina and Favaro listen to Charioce’s advisor explain how this day was always coming; when Bahamut had to be dealt with on a permanent basis to prevent him from awakening anew and destroying the world. Charioce was the king that had been groomed to deal with this mission, and it’s one he’s more than willing to sacrifice his life to achieve. The rift opens further, Nina and Favaro escape, and Charioce comes into possession of a fleet of huge, advanced airships.

This is all very cool, it is…but while it’s now been helpfully explained why Charioce did so many terrible things (to acquire the power to destroy Bahamut) it’s still a classic ends-justify-the-means scenario, and just because he’s puting his life on the line doesn’t automatically make him a martyr.

That applies especially if the ends don’t work out; Bahamut is awakened and blows up most of Charioce’s fleet. Was…that supposed to happen? After all this, is Charioce in over his head? Whatever the case, Jeanne is fighting the wrong war; Bahamut has instantly become the Most Important Thing to deal with at the moment. The rebellion will have to wait.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul – 21

Alessand goes through a lot of emotions as he stalks and kills Mugaro. There’s some excitement and satisfaction he’s proven his “worth” to the Onyx Soldiers, but also a crushing guilt and self-hatred. He is truly a fallen knight. He failed the test.

He also fails to get out undetected; Favaro spots him fleeing the scene of the crime, but rather than give chase, he takes Mugaro to Rita, who tries despretely in vain to save his life as everyone around watches, including Nina, who had been previously so distracted by her own woes.

It wouldn’t be much of a drama if Rita could’ve so easily saved Mugaro, so he dies, and the group is scattered and lost as a result. After grieving, Jeanne returns to the Land of the Gods with Sofiel and purpose.

Azazel—at times a father, brother, and friend to Mugaro—also storms off, after his hunch about one of Kaisar’s subordinates being responsible is proven true by Favaro.

And naturally, Alessand doesn’t get what he bargained for. He has the blood of a holy child on his hands, but when the Onyx commander shows what being an Onyx soldier really means—becoming host to a life-sucking stone that leads to an agonizing half-life—he immediately balks. I must say, Alessand has gone from harmless buffoon to loathsome wretch in shockingly short order.

Up in the LotG, Gabriel rejoices at the return of Sofiel and Jeanne, but also pained by the news of the loss of El. Never mind; the time for mourning is over, as far as Jeanne is concerned. Sofiel transforms her into a holy warrior, and they prepare to return to the surface world in force to exact their revenge.

Azazel has less luck, at least initially, with his superior Lucifer, and Azzy has to take a book to the face, but he eventually convinces him that Jeanne is indeed moving against Charioce, and there will never be a better time to strike. Whether any kind of coordination is in the cards, we’ll have to see.

And then we have Nina. Ever since Mugaro’s death, her demeanor has been muted, and she admits to feeling numb; like Titus Andronicus, she hath not another tear to shed. She cleans and cleans until, while cleaning Bacchus’ wagon, she finds Mugaro’s dress, and the tears begin to pour, as she recalls raw anguish similar to when her dear father died.

After her good long cathartic cry, Favaro visits her in the wagon, but has no certain answers to her questions. When Nina gets up and shows her face, Favaro is surprised to see it’s no longer soaked with tears; instead, she wears a face of stern determination; of focus.

Like Azazel, like Jeanne, she’s done crying. And if Charioce will continue to hurt and kill her friends, she’ll take it upon herself to stop him, no matter what it takes. Not long thereafter, Jeanne speaks to the people from on high: rise up against the mad king who killed her only child and intends to kill many more.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans – 42

I may have railed a lot against Jasley as a villain, but in exchange for putting up with him, I got to behold one of the most visceral IBO battles yet, so good in part because there’s no foreplay and no dawdling. All our Tekkadan boys are stone-faced and businesslike in their hugely satisfying, meticulous taking-down of Jasley’s larger fleet. We start in the middle, when things are already going badly for ol’ Jazzers, but he still holds out hope Iok will come to bail him out (he won’t).

Hush gets to do some stuff in a new suit, and I kinda liked while he held his own, he wasn’t out there dominating or anything. He also got to crack a smile. When he and Shino return to the ship to refuel, reload, I also appreciated the scenes of out-of-breath pilots taking a breather and grabbing a quick bite and drink while they can.

Also fun is the fact that from the very start of the episode, the Jasley we’re shown seems…different. He may have the bigger fleet, but they’re all unreliable mercs, and he somehow looks smaller and more vulnerable on his paisley-lined bridge, swapping his pimp duds for the same spacesuit as everyone else.

As things go worse and worse for him and his defensive line begins to crumble, he keeps yelling mostly to himself about how none of this makes any sense: he’s a good earner, he deserves the top spot he’s trying to take from McMurdo. He’s simply unprepared for the intense level of resolve the foes he so easily made are carrying with them. He’s literally kicked a hornet’s nest.

He sends out human debris pilots, in hopes they’ll be a match for Tekkadan. Zack asks if it’s really okay with Chad and Dante to be fighting…their ‘own kind’. Chad get one of the better lines in an episode full of them: “Our standings and backgrounds don’t matter. Everyone with a weapon is equal. We just crush them.”

All hope of the cavalry arriving is lost when Jasley contacts McMurdo to try to work something out, to get him to call off his Tekkadan dogs. But McMurdo turns out to be a lot less old and out of touch than we might’ve thought last week when Jasley was able to undermine him so easily.

No, Iok isn’t coming; McMurdo had a talk with Rustal, who is keeping Iok in check and ignoring Teiwaz affairs in exchange for Teiwaz forgetting about the Iok’s attack on Turbines. And since Tekkadan isn’t part of Teiwaz anymore, the only person Jasley has to sort out his problems is…Jasley. It’s a great little phone call…so devastating.

Does he jump in his souped-up mobile suit and take the fight to Tekkadan? No; when Tekkadan is close enough to start taking potshots at his flagship, he calls Orga to surrender. I guess Orga could work out a pretty sweet deal with Jasley, but it’s clear Orga just wants to watch him beg, and isn’t even that entertained by it.

With that, he sends in Mika, who asks Orga what to do, standing over Jasley’s bridge with his weapon drawn. Orga says crush ’em; Mika crushes them, and that’s that. With Jasley gone, and Naze, Amida, Lafter, and all the others he killed avenged, Orga breathes a deep sigh of relief.

Everyone agrees that while the departed probably aren’t too happy with what they did (and what they had to give up to do it), they still did the right thing. Now Tekkadan can truly move forward towards kingship of Mars. And they don’t need Teiwaz anymore.

Instead, they’ll be joining the Gjallarhorn revolution that announces its existence not long after Tekkadan finishes things with Jasley. McGillis has rightly pinned the blame for the SAU-Arbaru conflict with Rustal, and now that Teiwaz and Rustal seem to have an understanding, it’s possible Tekkadan might fight against Teiwaz in the future. And now that Tek’s cut ties with Admoss as well, Kudelia finds herself on the outside looking in.

But for now, they have a powerful ally who shares their ideals, and will fight beside him as he roots out the rot of corruption that has plagued Gjallarhorn too long. Orga and McGillis’ original deal still stands. In hindsight, Jasley never really had a chance to disrupt it.