Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 12 (Fin) – See No Evil

After all that battling and a tense meeting in Mephisto’s office, everyone’s head is spinning about Shima being a spy and a double agent. Rin thinks everyone still trusts Shima, but Bon only said that to save his ass from execution, while Konekomaru doesn’t have a clear answer. Shiemi thinks it would be nice if Shima could return to class with them like nothing ever happened, but even she has her doubts, and doesn’t like how that uncertainty feels.

As for Yukio, he’s setting up to be the next person to have split loyalties. Always the loyal soldier for Mephisto and True Cross (despite never really being able to trust him), Shima bringing up Lucifer calls to mind something we didn’t see back at the lab: Lucifer actually met with Yukio and asked him to join Illuminati. He told him he’s weak, but he can help him unlock his power. This weighs on Yukio throughout the episode.

During an early morning run, Shima and Bon happen to run into each other, and have something of a heart to heart. Shima isn’t lying about one thing: he’s pretty much true neutral, as he told Yukio. That means he can warn Yukio and not want Bon or Konekomaru or Izumo to get too badly hurt, but it also means he’s having a blast being a spy for both sides. Bon, who has always been like a brother to him, admits he still has “zero trust” in Shima, but still wishes him good luck, for at least he’s decided what he wants to do.

With Shura recovered, Mephisto sends everyone to a spa and waterpark for some much-needed R&R, and even Yukio can’t escape it. But he also pulls a prank on them, unleashing the Three Wise Monkeys to stir up some mischief. Yukio, Bon, and Konekomaru notice Shima acting strange and unusually serious and focuses, but it turns out he’s contemplating which girl to go down the water slide: Izumo, Shiemi, or Shura.

Rin, who also falls under the spell of the monkeys, declares that he wants to go down the slide with someone too, but that person can only be Shiemi, thus revealing who he has true feelings for once and for all. Unfortunately, Shiemi doesn’t hear it, as she and Izumo and Shura are already at the top of the slide stairs. Shima and Rin duke it out, collapsing the steps and nearly re-injuring the girls, but Bon uses a charm to cancel out the effect of the monkey and Rin and Shima return to normal so Shura can wreck their shit.

So, the spa trip wasn’t as relaxing as Mephisto had hoped it would be. Rin shows he’s not mentally still in elementary school by telling Yukio that he knows something must be on his mind, and that he can talk about it to him if he likes. But Yukio puts on a fake smile and just says he’s tired; it only exacerbates his inferiority complex to open up to his dumb little brother.

Yukio thinks he’s too weak and wants to get stronger, which means he could easily fall into the hands of Lucifer and the Illuminati. But that’s a story for another arc, which it seems will be coming far sooner than previous arcs. That must be why the series felt comfortable with these last two episodes serving as little more than an extended epilogue to Izumo’s story, and a sneak peak of what’s to come.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 05 – On the Back Foot

“An unfamiliar ceiling…”

Both True Cross in general and the Exwires in particular are in a bad way. The former, decimated into disarray by the Illuminati’s Seraphim and scrambling to pick up the pieces. The latter, deeply shaken by Shima’s betrayal and Izumo’s kidnapping. The dark dream that precedes her waking up in a stark laboratory does not bode well for her immediate or eventual safety.

Thanks to Takara planting a doll on Izumi, he can pinpoint her location, so the other Exwires are off to find her. That means heading to her hometown of Inari in Shimane Prefecture. It also means Rin and Shiemi flying on an airplane for the first time, and Shiemi making everyone what amounts to grass sandwiches. The little travelouge snippets of their journey are fun, but felt misguided considering the seriousness of Izumi’s plight.

One scene that does resonate well involves Rin dropkicking Bon in the back for being so gloomy. Bon is upset like everyone else that Shima betrayed them, since Shima is family to him. Konekomaru feels the same frustration because his failure to see Shima’s hidden intentions reflects badly on his future as an Exorcist advisor. Rin is grateful Bon and the others didn’t give up on him, so whatever they end up doing about Shima, they’ll do it together.

While the group has their jolly jaunt and try to stay positive, Izumo’s nightmare deepens, as her mother is wheeled in looking like a barely-alive mummy, bandaged and deteriorating from head to toe, clearly the victim of horrible torture.

Then a horrible porcine-looking little mad scientist Izumo identifies as Gedouiin trots in, reporting he’s gotten everything he can out of her mother, and must now choose another Izumo woman. If the choice is between Izumo and her little sister Tsukumo, there is no choice.

Really, gang? Shouldn’t you get to rescuin’?

Going from the sickening body horror and the promise of similar horrors in store for Izumo to the gang digging in to Inari’s delicious local food is some serious tonal whiplash. I get Rin wanting to keep everyone’s spirits up, but there’s just no urgency to their journey. It feels like they’re on vacation or on a field trip rather than doing everything in their (admittedly limited) power to locate and rescue Izumo.

Even worse, Izumo doesn’t want to be rescued. She can’t be, because then Gedouiin will just use her sister. While she accepts this, she doesn’t let Shima slink away without some kind of explanation for why he betrayed her and the others. His explanation: that he simply “got tired” of the whole cram school milieu, is underwhelming to say the least. Is he putting on the brave heel face on purpose here, or does he have a long game in mind?

I don’t know; all I know is he’s able to get Izumo to admit that they’re the same; that they’re both traitors, even though that’s nonsense. Yes, Izumo has been unable to tell anyone, even Paku, the deepest secrets about her past, because she’s never been able to completely trust anyone.

While Shima has justified that position, it’s also a product of her extremely fucked up family situation, which we’ll get into more next week thanks to Takara summoning Izumo’s familiar into a fox doll. Until then, I’m hoping the outsized goofiness of the gang is a sign that they’ve ultimately got this, and they’ll find a way to bring Izumo home without sacrificing her sister.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 04 – Angels and Demons

Damn Takara Nemu, the little shit! Izumo is about to be fashionably late for her food stall duty, showing she really does care about not breaking her word to Rin. Then Nemu fucks it all up by holding her there, messing with her head by handing her a kitsune doll she told Tsukumo never to let go of, and insisting she come with him, implying that some harm might come to her via giant toy mecha if she doesn’t.

Shura gathers the Yukio and the Exwires and orders them to split up and search for Izumo and Nemu. As he’s always carried a flame for her, Shima thinks it’s fate that he finds her first. He neutralizes both Nemu’s giant robot and his swarm of killer pink flying rabbits with his own heretofore unseen summoned demon, Yamantaka.

With Nemu on the ropes, it looks like Izumo is going to be okay thanks to Shima. Then she starts to head off to get the others, promising she’ll come back … and Shima stabs her in the back with his spear. The spear doesn’t harm her physical body but renders her unconscious. It’s abundantly clear by then that Nemu wasn’t the Illuminati spy; Shima was.

An Illuminati helicopter arrives and Shima’s short-statured, no-nonsense commanding officer alights with her officers to prepare to take Izumo away. By the time Yukio and the Exwires arrive, so has Illuminati’s leader, and Mephisto’s elder brother, Lucifer. He arrives with much pizzazz, amongst dozens of Seraphims that shatter the academy’s main barrier.

He’s come to declare war against the Knights of the True Cross, with the ultimate goal of merging Gehenna and Assiah and returning the world to nothingness, riding it of suffering. He advises his younger brother that it would be wise to join him, but Mephisto is emphatic in his refusal.

This whole time, the masked Lucifer is coughing up blood and clearly weakened, but even so Mephisto says there’s nothing any of them can do at the moment against the King of Light and highest authority in Gehenna. Even so, Rin charges at them with his blue flaming sword and is met by Shima, who tells him from here on in he can’t win unless he’s ready to kill humans, of which Illuminati is composed.

Shima reverts to his usual affable tone as he thanks his friends for trusting him until long (which for us viewers was thirteen years!) and boards the helicopter with Izumo and the other Illuminati officers, passing out as soon as the hatch closes with a cryptic expression that could be interpreted as regret.

But for now, I don’t give a damn about Shima’s possible redemption. Thanks to his treachery Izumo, the one person Illuminati claims to need for their grand plan, is now firmly in their clutches. Meanwhile, not just the main academy barrier but all the lesser barriers around the city are down, and the demons are swarming. The war that Lucifer declared is already underway.

Mephisto promptly orders Yukio and the Exwires to rescue Izumo ASAP. They’ll be accompanied by Nemu, who isn’t a piece of shit after all but a high-level exorcist Mephisto hired to supervise them. He played the villain in trying to get Izumo to a place where Illuminati couldn’t get her, but he failed.

As for Shima, Mephisto believes there’s no course but to accept the fact that he’s a member of the Illuminati. Rin grabs Mephisto by the scruff and tells him he’s not ready to believe that yet. This is a rescue mission of both Izumo and Shima, and even if he owes Shima a punch in the face, he’s going to get a proper explanation from him too.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 03 – Let’s Dance

The Cross Academy Festival is upon us, the main event of which is a dance that causes a flurry of couples and mad dash of asking out. Apparently, there has to be a boy and a girl couple to attend the dance, which is definitely the source material showing its age (like the cross-dressing last week). Heteronormative much?

Shima thought he was being proactive, but gets rejected over twenty times. Izumo, like Bon, has no interest in frivolous activities when exams are so near (a rare thing they agree on). Even her friend Noriko is already spoken for. Even so, Bon make a girl cry when he rejects her, while Yukio uses his status as a festival staff member to gently let down his would-be dates.

You might be asking, why doesn’t Rin just ask Shiemi out? Well, she’s not a student at the academy, so she’s ineligible … until she suddenly shows up one day as a transfer student. All that tutoring with Yukio was so she could enroll. Surprise! It only took thirteen years (our time) for it to happen!

This shocks Izumi, who suddenly finds herself eating lunch with Noriko and Shiemi. As Noriko is telling Shiemi how good the timing of her arrival is, and how most of the school is pairing off for the coming dance, Rin stops by to ask Shiemi to come with him.

Rin is prepared to ask her out to the dance, but Shiemi wants to say something too: she’s going to ask … Yukio. Mind you, this out of any romantic interest in Rin’s brother. It’s just she’s spent a lot of time with him and can see that he’s been burdened with stuff of late, and thinks he could use a break from that stress.

Rin doesn’t quite grasp this, and believes this is Shiemi rejecting him for Yukio, who gets to Win Again. He’s devastated, and decides to give up on the dance and work the onigiri stall. Unfortunately, Yukio gently shoots down Shiemi the exact same way, word for word, he declined other girls’ offers. That leaves both Rin and Shiemi without dates for the dance.

Shiemi decides to participate in the haunted house, and puts her all into it, but Noriko points out to her that Rin definitely intended to ask her out, and asks who she likes more: Rin or Yukio. Shiemi answers she “likes” both as precious friends, but Noriko is only interested in who she likes romantically. Shiemi laughs and says it’s simply “too early” for her to be thinking about that stuff, which just reinforces how pure, innocent, and inexperienced she is about such things.

We know Izumo has feelings for Rin, but is too stubborn to do anything with them but let them stew. It occurred to me that no one actually asked her out to the dance, they just accepted she wasn’t interested. But Rin does end up asking for her help at the food stall, presenting her with an cute working outfit to wear.

When she tells him there are plenty of women he can ask for that, he tells her because this is work it has to be a woman he can trust. The words It can’t just be anyone ring in Izumo’s ears a lot differently than Rin intended. Izumo gives in, but tells Rin he should “learn to see people’s hidden sides,” then telling him she doesn’t trust anyone as they part ways.

That night, as Noriko is heading out for the dance, she tells a studying Izumo to be honest about her feelings. She’s late to help out at the stall, but they’re doing fine anyway, to the point Rin gets a break. He wants to bad to dance with Shiemi, and just like magic, there she is, resplendent in her yukata, the crowd parting around her like a sea as she comes into focus.

He approaches her, she explains what she’s doing there, he tells her he ended up making rice balls, and she laughs and starts to tear up, so ridiculously happy she’s able to talk to him like this again. That’s when Rin asks her, straight up, to dance with him. She blushes and clutches her garment, thinking about how this means he feels “that way” about her, and recalling Noriko’s question of which brother she likes more.

But while she does admit in her thoughts she likes Rin, he taps her forehead, having inferred her wish. He takes her by the arm and they both approach Yukio and ask him if he’ll dance with them. They all take each others’ hands and spin around to the music, happy as clams. Shiemi’s beaming smile is everything. In the end, everyone got to enjoy their youth!

It’s a good thing, too, because this festival is most definitely a Calm Before the Storm™. In the stinger, the Vatican reported that there are Illuminati spies among the exorcists, including one in the Japan branch, and Shura is charged with discovering who it is. There were times I suspected Yukio, but the silent but omnipresent Takara Nemu emerged as the prime candidate.

That was only reinforced at the lovely mood-killing final scene. Izumo, using the excuse of not wanting to break her word, put on the outfit Rin gave her and is headed down to work with him. I was worried she would see Rin dancing with Shiemi (and Yukio) and feel crestfallen or betrayed, but something worse happens.

She doesn’t even make it to the festival before Nemu stops her and presents her with “Kamiki Tsukumo’s precious mascot”, a stuffed fox spirit. Izumo’s furious reaction confirms this is some messed-up shit, and the season’s storm is about to arrive in earnest.

The Eminence in Shadow – 24 – Another World Is Not Enough

A group of ruffians start threatening seemingly defenseless employees of Mitsugoshi (Gamma’s corporation), but soon wish they hadn’t, as the three girls they’re harassing are actually full-fledged members of Shadow Garden. Alpha is leading a comprehensive purge of any and all threats to Mitsugoshi.

But economic battles in the Royal Capital aren’t just fought with daggers or swords. Po and Skel rock some Mitsugoshi knockoffs they paid out the ear for, while Cid wears the genuine article. His wardrobe is seen to by the girls, and it occurs to him they’ve gone too far in copying the culture of his home world.

To that end, Cid declares he’s going to “reclaim what’s mine”, and adapts an entirely new persona for that task: the “super elite secret agent” John Smith. Sure, why not?! He meets with Yukime in secret to discuss the escalating trade war between Mitsugoshi and the established Major Corporate Alliance.

While those two tear each other apart, he and Yukime agree to “take everything.” Yukime also has a personal stake in this, as she owes the leader of the MCA, Gettan the Sword Devil, a date with her own blade after he scarred her with his. When the MCA coordinates major sales in all its affiliates to leech customers from Mitsugoshi, Cid learns that Gamma & Co. even started their own bank and issue paper currency based on a gold standard.

They learned how to do all of this by listening to partial stories about his world’s economy back when they were little (he namedrops “MHK”, a trusted educational source on Japanese TV). As the Postcard Memory that ends the scene makes clear, Cid is serious about letting the MCA crush Mitsugoshi so he can crush them, then start a whole new corporation…I guess just so he can say he did it?!

After discussing the concept of using paper money to create and extend credit to all of the people all while maintaining the same base amount of gold in a central bank, Cid—ahem, John Smith floats the ideal of creating counterfeit money. She says they’d get caught quickly due to the fact the money they hope to fake is only in use in the capital.

But Cid doesn’t care if they’re caught…he wants them to be caught. No matter what, news of the fake money will spread across the capital and trust in the entire paper currency system will gradually evaporate. He intends to capitalize on the ensuing bank runs, where they can really clean up. Yukime believes he’s test her sincerity, but in truth, she kinda came up with the whole plan for him!

That night, Cid finds himself feeding a half-naked Delta meat from his noodle bowl. When she smells foxes on Cid, he says he was hunting them. Fresh from a bandit hunt ordered by Alpha, she’s eager to hunt with Shadow, and won’t take no for an answer as she hangs off of him.

As Rettan’s underling Garter reports that the bandits aren’t working, he mobilizes the “Clovers”, his elite assassins. Cid indulges Delta and they do some bandit hunting in the sewers…or rather Delta does all the killing while Cid checks out their loot.

Among the bandits is Delta’s real-life brother, from when she was known as Sara. In an act that underscores her therianthrope might-makes-right philosophy, Delta kills him on the spot, declaring she’s not interested in weak brothers. She’d rather Cid kill her father, the chief, and make lots of new, stronger children together.

Delta’s late brother Zabra turned out to be one of those Clovers Rettan was hyping up. Granted, he was the weakest, but I imagine the stength gap between the strongest—or even Rettan himself—and Delta, let alone Cid, is wider than the Pacific Ocean. I’m looking forward to watching this war to tear down and rebuild the capital’s economy unfold.

Spy x Family – 27 – Time to Space Out

SxF remains content to play around in its world rather than leap into any new big story arc, and there’s nothing more playful than a segment that’s all about Bond, our big lovable borfer. He starts getting premonitions about his untimely demise, and learns that Yor forgot to buy dog food, so she’ll try her hand at making him some food.

The result of that hand-trying could well be life-taking, so Bond escapes the house and wanders the city trying to pick up Loid’s scent. If Loid is coming home late due to his work, Bond resolves to help him with that work so he can come home early…and feed him.

Loid is initially shocked when Bond shows up, especially on his own (and it’s odd that we never cut to Yor looking for him; surely she could outrun him). Loid’s mission is to steal a vial of truth serum from a lab that just so happened to run the animal experiments Bond was involved in.

Believing Bond wants revenge (not just an edible dinner), Loid allows Bond to help out. Bond proves useful both in being able to find a deserted path to the lab room, alert Loid when people are coming, and aid in the incapacitation of said people when they come in.

It’s cute, and I love Bond’s design and his “borfs”, but if there’s one major takeaway from his segment, it’s that I might be one of the rare people who prefer the dog in smaller portions. The remainder of the episode checks in on Damian, who was absent last week.

Fresh off being praised by his father for the first time, Damian is determined to study hard and gain more Stella so his dad will praise him more. The studying leaves him sleep deprived, and for his lateness he’s sent to the dorm mother for chores.

His friends want to go to the movies with him, but when it’s clear he can’t go, they intentionally get in trouble so they can serve their punishment with him. Henderson notes that this is a most elegant demonstration of friendship; Ewin and Emile aren’t just toadies and suck-ups.

When he sees how much fun they’re having, Henderson assigns them a new “punishment”—going on a nature research trip with the groundskeeper (or “custos), Mr. Green. It starts with a harrowing canoe trip  across “rapids” and down a “towering” waterfall.

But neither turns out to be what it seems when Mr. Green stops paddling, and when after falling overboard Damian learns the water is only knee-deep. Emile and Ewin propping him up in the water at the cost of their own lives was another sign of how much they care for him.

The purpose of the trip is made clear when Mr. Green provides the basic tools for fishing but has the boys actually catch the fish for their picnic. And while the freshly-caught, freshly-grilled fish is tasty and rewarding, Damian can help but feel like he’s wasting time.

However, Mr. Green impresses upon both Damian and the others the importance of “spacing out” while on the journey to academic achievement. All Damian was doing was grinding himself down into a sleep-deprived wreck; it’s not a winning strategy for becoming an Imperial Scholar.

Instead, Damian occasionally has to have days like this, when he and his friends were just hanging out and goofing around on Eden’s very beautiful grounds. I’ll admit, I missed Loid, Yor, and Anya a bit in this segment, but it was a fun enough diversion, and Damian never ceases to entertain with his tsuntsun moments.

Spy x Family – 26 (S2 01) – Burdens of the Butthurt

After a mostly serious encounter between Loid and his target Donovan Desmond closed out its first two-cour season, Spy X Family returns to its spy sitcom roots and shows that Wit Studio x Cloverworks haven’t skipped a beat. The show looks and sounds just as good, and comes with fresh, inventive OP and ED with two suitably bangin’ songs.

It also eases us in with the simplest of premises this week: Yor got shot in the butt on her latest assassin job, and while she (presumably) got the bullet out, it still hurts like hell. When she comes home, Loid mistakenly believes she’s in a bad mood because he made her run an errand, but the next morning her face is even more sour (Yor’s face game is in rare form this week).

As Yor can’t very well tell Loid why she’s making such faces—nor can Anya, who knows because she’s a telepath—Loid believes he needs to improve Yor’s mood in order to shore up their marriage of convenience, and that means a carefully curated date.

He leaves Anya with Franky, but when Anya says she wants to tail her parents, Franky is all for it, as he has nothing better to do. Loid discovers the tail instantly, but pretends not to notice. What he can’t help but notice, however, is that throughout their date, Yor simply won’t sit down. She can’t, because she fears her butt will hurt more than it already does.

At the fancy restaurant where Loid got a reservation for dinner, Yor has to at least pretend to sit at the table while keeping her tookus an inch from the seat. By dumb luck, a new waiter at this restaurant just happens to be the only survivor of Yor’s mission. Anya can sense his intent to kill her from outside, which could lead to her revealing her assassin skills.

The waiter’s first attempt is to use a whole blowfish worth of poison on Yor, but as an assassin she’s built an immunity to most poisons, including this one. But while the poison doesn’t kill her, it does offer extraordinary pain relief. Finally able to sit, focus, and relax, Yor starts to enjoy herself.

His first avenging plot foiled, the waiter is prepared to build a makeshift bomb and blow both Yor and himself to smithereens. Anya, having heard his plans in her mind, dons a new black spy suit, infiltrates the restaurant via the ventilation system, and sets up a Home Alone-style gauntlet of booby traps that defeat him.

Where she got the spy suit so quickly, and how she’s able to follow the bomb making directions so perfectly, hardly matters; we’re dealing with heightened reality here! What matters is that Anya is a complete badass when she warns the waiter to give up trying to kill Yor and get back to his ordinary job and girlfriend.

Of course, if the waiter hadn’t been there, Yor would have never been able to enjoy her dinner, or the walk afterwards which affords a beautiful view of the city and traveling amusement park. The whole reason she sucked it up to go with Loid is that she didn’t want to blow their cover by never going on dates, which would have made her co-workers suspicious.

But now that she’s gone on a date, she had a lot of fun, and wants to do it again if it isn’t too much trouble…when her butt doesn’t hurt. Loid says he’d love to take her on another date soon. Alas, the next morning the blowfish poison has worn off, Yor is back in agony, and Loid once again mistakes her demeanor as being in a bad mood.

Honestly, this episode had me at “shot in the butt”, which is not only an inherently funny situation, but also just funny to say. Hayami Saori’s “butt-hurt voice” is also funny, as are all the date scenes of her standing when she should be sitting. I’m sure things will get more serious again at some point this season, but for now I’m enjoying the silliness.

I’ll close by adding: is Yor’s domestic life starting to adversely affect her assassining? Not only did she get shot in the butt, but the waiter wasn’t the shooter. That means she allowed two people to survive when she thought she was done, both of whom overheard her phone conversation. Seems kinda sloppy for the Thorn Princess!

The Fire Hunter – 08 – A Good Boy Comes Home

Koushi takes Touko to the tree beneath which the capital’s Treefolk dwell. When the rusted door won’t open, Kanata senses one of the Treefolk, a young child, who beckons for them to follow when Touko requests medicine.

Unfortunately, these Treefolk don’t make medicines, nor can they even go out into the forest. Calling themselves failed experiments, they live out their cursed lives under this tree, possibly hoping a couple kids come by so they can deliver an infodump about the relationship of gods, humans, and beasts.

We learn more about Tayurahime, the Lady Goddess, and Tokohanahime, her sister and the first Fire Hunter, and how the flame fiends were an effort to pass the flame that made both gods and humans combust on to wild animals.

On their way out of the tree they’re attacked by a spy familiar, but Akira arrives out of nowhere with Temari to keep them at bay. When two more spies appear, a god arrives to stop the fighting and tell Akira, Touko, and Koushi to beat it.

After that, Koushi takes Touko and Akira to his home, where Touko says goodbye to Kanata. Koushi tells Touko to hang on to the sickle, as she may find more use for it than he will. Suddenly separated from Kanata, and with quest suddenly complete, Touko can’t hold back her tears, and Akira carries her home, where Kaho gathers her in a hug.

But between the fact you can’t spell Toukohanahime without “Touko” and the fact she still has a fire hunter’s sickle tells me Touko’s role is far from complete. The Flickering Flame is up there in orbit, a massive and sinister-looking weapon that might just have a mind or will all its own. And if it can be mastered, humans will no longer have to fear the forest…or something?

Honestly, I’m still a little uncertain what the heck is going on, and the animation ranges from barely animation to no animation at all, but the shot of the satellite made me intrigued for how this is all going to play out, so I shall press on.

The Fire Hunter – 07 – Lamp Child

This episode stands out as the first one where Touko and Koushi finally meet, but that doesn’t happen instantly. Kira and Touko part ways when the latter says the dog Kanata knows where to go, but when Koushi returns from his excursion with Roroku, Kira tells him about the girl and hound…and also that while she loves her dad, she’s not ecstatic about him treating Koushi like a piece of property.

While Koushi left the city and went into danger with a roving hunter Yuoshichi doesn’t trust, Koushi explains that the experience lent him crucial information for his research and the entire operation, including the fact that Spiders don’t combust before natural flame, and that Roroku can help them bury bottled lightning around the palace and factory in preparation for the battle to come.

Back at Shouzou’s family’s house, Kaho continues to stay by his side, and delcares to Touko and Akira that she’s decided to marry him. Ever since she was sent away by her village she’s thought only of death, but not that everyone, even Touko, have stepped up to help keep her alive, she believes it’s her turn to protect someone: in this case, Shouzou. Also…the Spider kid Kun might be able to warg into bugs?

When Akira declines to take Kanata on a hunting trip, Touko decides to have the hound lead her back to his master’s house in hopes of finding his family there. They only get as far as the front door when a strange ghostly figure appears in the street. That figure is distracted and then neutralized via skyfire by Koushi, and he and Touko run through the rain from what he calls a spy of the gods.

When they find a resting spot, Koushi tells Touko how Kira told him about her and Kanata, and introduces himself as the son of the hunter who saved her. Touko prostrates herself and sheds tears of apology, but neither is needed; for Koushi, this is welcome news. He feared his dad abandoned him and his mom and sister, so it’s comforting to learn he died saving someone’s life.

When Kanata catches the scent of something, Touko spots who she thinks is one of the Treefolk who live in the Forbidden Quarter. Koushi promises to take her there, if she tells him everything she knows about the Spiders’ fire. Little do they know that a spy of the gods is still tailing them. But hey, at least Touko and Koushi have finally crossed paths. With her objective completed, what’s next for the Lamp Girl?

Spy x Family – 25 (Part 2 Fin) – The Front Line

Disguised as a professor, Loid assesses the current situation as the Eden College Social Gathering commences. There is no way to infiltrate the gathering without actually belonging there. Since Anya earning enough Stella to become an Imperial Scholar is probably out, that leaves Plan B.

Like Loid, Damian longs to be in the presence of his father (for obviously very different reasons). But while his older brother says he’ll tell their dad Damian wants to see him, he also tells Damian not to get his hopes up. Damian probably doesn’t need to be told this. But he has to try.

Anya has to try too. She can read Loid’s mind since he’s in range, and doubles her efforts to be close to Damian so that she can face the “final boss.” Of course, this gives both Damian and Becky the impression she’s stalking him. And she’s not not stalking him.

Loid, who is far better than Anya at staying hidden, watches Damian head to the place where he said he’d be waiting for his father. But when Damian reconsiders since he’s so sure his dad won’t show, he can’t do anything about it.

But Anya can. She tells Damian she can tell he’s scared (and he suspects she can read his mind…which he can…) just as she was scared to show her dad her low test scores. But she also knows her dad loves her, even when he’s mad at her, so she’ll keep showing him her tests scores. While he tsunderes Anya off, Damian gets her, and heads to the meeting place after all.

Anya waits with him from afar, and Becky waits with her, assuming she’s in love with Damian and wants to meet his dad. But Anya soon falls asleep. As Becky has Martha carry her to the car to take her home, Loid walks past in his professor disguise, carrying the same keychain she has on her backpack.

It’s that keychain that provides Loid the excuse to speak to Damian. He planted it in the meeting place for Damian to find, then takes the opportunity to take a knee and profusely apologize on behalf of his daughter, being nothing but submissive and deferent.

While he’s apologizing, Donovan shocks his son by arriving. Loid then introduces himself and formally apologizes. In these first critical moments, he takes as much of the measure of Donovan as he can, while formulating the right conversational path to get the most out of their encounter.

Once, then twice, Donovan cheerfully tells Loid that he needn’t go so far to apologize for a trifling quarrel between children. Loid knows not to push further against such a man as cautious and wily as Donovan, so he doesn’t. But Damian is another matter.

Loid proceeds to elegantly and expertly make use of Damian and his justified daddy issues as a conduit to open a meaningful dialogue and make himself memorable and appealing enough for Donovan to take notice. Damian is angry his dad isn’t angrier, but Loid and Donovan bond over their shared inability to truly know or understand what their kids or thinking.

Loid doesn’t really agree, but Donovan’s comments help him to better understand Donovan’s political philosophy, which is the first step to steering him towards one less likely to lead to the East-West cold war going hot. He even gets a solid dig in by assuming Donovan makes time for Damian, when he’s never done any such thing.

Even so, Donovan notes that this is an oversight he hadn’t considered, but acknowledges. After Loid showers praise on Damian for a report about his father that he claims Anya really liked, he prepares to take his leave. His final request to Damian is that he try to be friends with Anya, as she likely wants to be his friend. In an unguarded moment, Damian says he feels the same way … before turning beet red and rejecting the idea.

Once Loid departs, Donovan turns to Damian and asks what he wanted. Damian says it’s nothing, but then remembers Anya’s words about having to show your test scores, and stops his dad to tell him all of the good things that have happened to him so far in class.

Then, to Damian’s surprise and boundless elation, his father says “Well done, keep at it.” Simple and boilerplate they may be, hearing his father say these words absolutely makes Damian’s year. And if he’s on better terms with his dad in no small part thanks to words from both Anya and her dad, then perhaps in the future he’ll be less inclined to call her a stubby-legged uggo stalker.

That helps Loid’s cause. But what’s so great about his discussion with Donovan is that he’s not simply operating as a heartless agent of the state trying to manipulate an enemy VIP and his son. I mean, he kinda is, but he’s also uses his experiences as Anya’s father, not a spy, to actually improve the relationship between Damian and Donovan.

It works like a charm, and it was thrilling to watch. As for Anya, she must’ve needed to catch up on some sleep, since she’s still out cold when Loid comes home, her having been delivered there like a package by Becky earlier that afternoon.

The long-awaited first meeting of Twilight and his primary target marks the end of Spy x Family Part 2, ending on a high note. Whenever Part 3 comes around there will be plenty to chew on, from the continued development of the Forger family and Anya and Damian’s friendship, to the potential for the family’s mutual secrets to be revealed to one another. I shall eagerly await Part 3—and hopefully not fall asleep on a stoop as Anya did while staking out Damian.

Spy x Family – 24 – Rebuilding the World

Annihilating Fiona in tennis proves not to be a cure-all for Yor’s replacement anxiety. It’s gotten to the point where Loid observes her walking into lampposts while muttering and the neighbors gossiping about adultery.

Taking her out for drinks only heightens Yor’s distress, as she assumes the bar to be the venue where he’ll officially declare he’ll be moving on with Fiona. That’s not what he’s planning to say, but before he can get a word in edgewise Yor champs her fancy cocktail and then chugs his scotch to soften a blow that will never come.

Once Yor’s lips have been sufficiently loosened by alcohol, her rants make Loid realize that this goes beyond her worrying about not being an adequate wife and mother, and passes into jealousy territory. Assuming Yor has developed romantic feelings for him, he turns on his practiced Twilight charm.

But while there’s definitely something to Yor feeling something for him, his advances are far to powerful, and her reduced inhibitions mean she has not problem kicking him in the chin and sending him flying. He manages to to a mid-air flip and land on his feet, but the kick landed, and Loid goes down.

He wakes up from a dream of his mother humming a lullaby to him to find his head in Yor’s lap as she sings the same tune (though with improvised lyrics). The mere fact her song reminded him of his mother, and of a time when he felt happy, safe and loved even in the midst of a terrible war, speaks to Yor’s latent skills.

When she says of course he’d want to move on from a “musclehead” like her, he recounts to her the story of his mother, and sees that same strength in her with Anya. While he, Nightfall, and the other spies have been working tirelessly to rebuild the world, Yor has already rebuilt it in their home: made a place where Anya feels safe, happy, and loved.

That’s why he’s honored to have Yor as a wife and mother, and has no intention of replacing her with Fiona. As for Yor, Yuri was once the only thing she cared about in the world, but now she can add her new family to that short list. It’s a home she and Loid built that she doesn’t want to leave anytime soon.

In the second half, Becky notices Anya watching Damian from afar and assumes she’s in love with the twerp. In reality, she’s trying to befriend him since eight Stella are out of the question. But Becky assumes she’s just being shy, and tells her the best way to get a man’s attention is by looking as good as possible.

To that end, Becky invites Anya on a shopping trip to a department store she rented out in its entirety. A shopping montage ensues, with Anya trying on increasingly avant-garde clothes and Becky cheering her on all the way even though she’s increasingly unsure what’s going on.

All this Fashion exhausts Anya, while Becky realizes that at the dorm party where they’ll be able to be out of uniform, she needs to come up with an ensemble to impress her darling Loid. Moving on from that, the girls keep shopping for shoes, glasses, accessories, and then have some tea and lunch at the store café.

When Anya appears colorless and says she’s near death, Becky asks her if she didn’t enjoy shopping with her. In response, Anya brightens up and assures Becky that she had tons of fun, as this was her first time shopping with a friend. Hearing Anya say “friend” really moves Becky.

As her maid and chaperone Martha drives the tuckered out girls home, we learn why that is: Becky had trouble making friends prior to enrolling at Eden. She came off as an arrogant bully and found socializing with commoners to be beneath her.

Considering her father runs one of the country’s largest conglomerates, it’s not surprising her to-the-manor-born upbringing caused this aloofness. Combine that with her precociousness, and Becky thought she had the entire world and everyone in it figured out before she turned eight.

It was Martha who told her the first step to being a true and proper adult is accepting that she didn’t know all there was to know about everything and everyone. Watching Becky interact with Anya, who may well be her first true friend just as she is Anya’s, Martha can see how far Becky has come since attending Eden and meeting Anya.

It warms her heart to see Becky with a real friend she can be herself with. That genuine happiness is more attractive than any couture outfit, as evidenced by Damian blushing when he sees Anya and Becky the next day, walking and laughing with their matching sheep keychains.

Spy x Family – 23 – The Flames of War

The Campbell siblings have no shortage of dirty tricks to try to stop the Phonys, from a net that moves up and down, a wind machine that affects trajectories, to a hidden sniper firing court-colored rubber bullets. But even they couldn’t have known they’d be up against a couple of elite spies.

Throw adversity at a couple of lunatics like Twilight and Nightfall, and they’re going to keep finding a way around it. Once they’re both in rhythm making impossibly acrobatic yet precise moves, it’s game, set, and match. The Campbells poked a couple of bears, and simply got mauled.

Whether it was Cloverworks or Wit Studio that animated this episode (or both), the “tennis” action was never not fantastic looking, adding a sense of legitimacy to a thoroughly farcical game. When it comes time to claim the painting, Cavi suddenly says it’s the one piece he can’t part with.

But Loid and Fiona prepared for the possibility the secret police would get to Campbell before they got to the painting, so Loid simply disguises himself as Campbell’s valet and pulls the ol’ painting switcheroo, Thomas Crown Affair-style. The mission is a complete success, and the two spies high-five.

Fiona drops Loid off to find Yor in the park with Anya, and decides she needs to challenge and defeat Twilight’s Strix wife right then and there … in a game of tennis. Thanks to Anya, we can witness Fiona’s ridiculous thought about how it’ll go down, as well as Yor’s worry about Fiona replacing her.

Yor also plays the bumbling novice perfectly when she whiffs on what starts off as a badass assassin’s serve. But the thing is, she didn’t whiff; she simply hit the ball so hard it went through the strings of the racket like Play-Doh through an extruder (or human beings in Cube). The concassé’d ball is a little masterpiece of comic timing and trick animation.

Even when Yor holds back on her serve, she hits the ball so hard it goes faster than sound, creates a shock wave that digs into the ground, and lights up like a comet. Fiona tries her best to absorb the serve and volley it back, but her racket simply isn’t up to it, smashing to bits.

Fiona, defeated utterly, runs to her Trabant and races off, not letting Loid or Yor see her mask crack to reveal the seething, churning tempest of emotion within. Yor, who is simply relieved she fought Fiona off this time, very empatically tells Loid that she Won, leaving out the “for Us.”

The punchline of this two-parter is that while the code hidden in the painting indeed leads to finding Zacharis’ Dossier, but it turns out to be a diary filled with photos of pretty young actresses. These are the “dark secrets” that could “re-ignite a war”, not between East and West, but between Zacharis and his wife. I also loved the uncommented-upon sight of the gaudy rings Fiona took from Campbell on Handler’s hand.

But after the punchline comes a moment of realization for Loid when he sees that Zacharis managed to maintain a happy marriage and family after burying away his creepy dossier. Keeping a marriage and family happy isn’t easy, as evidenced by a clearly frustrated-looking Yor at the end.

I imagine she was underwhelmed by Loid’s reaction to her win over Fiona, and still worried about Fiona continuing to try to usurp her. Sure enough, the episode wraps up with Fiona in the mountains strengthening her serve with a racket made from a boulder as the wildlife watches in morbid curiosity.

Spy x Family – 22 – Love Means Nothing

A painting in the possession of the wealthy tycoon Cavi Campbell is believed to contain a code that, if unlocked, could reveal dark secrets about the East or West that could reignite a war. It’s up to Twilight and Nightfall to retrieve the painting. But Fiona doesn’t intend to steal it, she intends to win it.

Cavi runs an underground no-rules, anything-goes tennis tournament called Campbelldon. Fiona dons ojou ringlets and Loid a sporty headband as they pose as an amateur husband and wife team, the Phonys. Secretly, Fiona hopes to show Loid that she’s the only one worthy to be his fake wife.

The crowd bets heavily against them as their first opponents are former pros who went into the mountains to train and are here to seek tougher foes. They get their wish, as both Loid and Fiona mop the floor with them. Despite only “dabbling” in tennis, every one of Loid’s serves is a devastating ace.

Fiona goes above and beyond in trying to look as cool and amazing as possible, her resting stoic face belying the colorful imagery of Loid being so impressed he sweeps her off her feet and proposes they enter the “doubles game of life.”

Loid had previously practiced a bit with Yor and Anya, and I kinda wish we could have seen more of that, especially considering Yor rarely knows how to hold back when it comes to physical exertion. Still, Yor is anxious about the possibility Loid is with Fiona. Anya offers her mom words of comfort … that don’t give away the fact she can read her mind.

Loid and Fiona’s next opponents are a pair of brothers who injected themselves with a new experimental doping cocktail (again, anything goes in Campbelldom). But they are undone by their insistence on trash-talking, which quickly gets under Fiona’s skin and leads her to literally beat them into submission with a flurry of smashes.

Before the final, the spies are taken to a waiting room, where they discuss strategy against their opponents: the son and daughter of Cavi Campbell himself. They’re sure to have more than a few tricks up their sleeve. As Fiona resolves to go even harder for the sake of impressing Loid, he takes her hand.

She initially mistakes him for making a move, unable to restrain himself from her magnificence. But he’s really looking at the cuts, sores, and blisters on Fiona’s hand, and tells her to stop pushing herself so hard, as spies who lose their cool don’t live long.

Fiona pulls her hand away and appears to stare daggers at Loid, but in reality, she’s elated beyond reason that Loid, who once treated other spies as disposable, is so concerned with her well-being. Swooning and slightly risqué sounds ensue.

But then both Fiona and Loid notice that a colorless, odorless gas is filling the locker room. They hold their breath, but some damage has already been done, just when they need all their strength, speed, and stamina.

In addition to not being 100%, Carrol and Kim Campbell have totally legal modified racquets: Carrol’s is jet-assisted, while Kim’s has an extending head that greatly extends her return radius. The Campbell kids ambitions may not extend further than wanting daddy to buy them another yacht, but they win the first set 6-3.

Loid and Fiona regroup and come up with a workable counter to their opponents superior equipment, but then another curveball is lobbed their way when bits of the very court beneath their feet start to shift, causing their shots to veer off-target.

This surely isn’t the last of the dirty tricks they’ll face, but Loid is determined to win that painting for the sake of world peace, and Fiona is just as determined to crush the Campbell kids by his side, and convince him to dump Yor and marry her, both for Strix and for real. To be continued…