It starts with what we didn’t see last episode, behind the scenes of how Penguin was severely wounded and left on the roadside. Turns out he and Houou encounters Emonzaemon, where as the two of them have a standoff without wepons. Penguin panics and throws Dokutō Mekki which was a huge mistake. As result, Houou gets possessed by Dokutō Mekki and ends up wounding both Emonzaemon and Penguin. Cut back to the present, Shichika and Togame takes Penguin in to tend his wounds. After a few days, they decide to leave without killing him. They go to hunt down Houou at the old Maniwa base. Togame takes some time to talk about what they should do when they finish this journey. She asks Shichika to remain her side where he agrees to do so. In the mean time, Penguin finally awakens only to be confronted by Emonzaemon only to receive a horrific death.
Shikizaki Kiki explains that Dokutō Mekki possesses a body by psychology, therefore Shikizaki’s memories and personality are active. They also learn that Shikizaki Kiki comes from a fortune teller family, where as they can see into the future. This is his reason why he was able to create such advanced and ominous katanas. Shikizaki declares that he wanted to falsify history, which was what Togame’s father was trying to correct. Of course, eventually he and Shichika fights, where as it really didn’t take Shichika long to defeat him. Finally with the eventh deviant blade in hand, they head to their destination where they are to confront Princess Hitei as their final showdown. Only instead, something that they never expected had happened. The truth revealed about Togame’s true identity and how before anyone could react, Emonzaemon shoots her. Shichika is left standing horrified, speechless at what just happened, he then lets out a powerful cry of rage and despair, triggering his evolution to become a perfected Deviant Blade.
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/end of crappy summary of 50 minutes
Impression:
I am absolutely speechless. This episode was unbelievably dark (though I was expecting it to be). You can really sense the plot thickening and building up to the point where everything crashes down by the end of the episode. Togame said all these wonderful things about their future, only in the end to be shot. It’s unconfirmed whether she is alive or not, but Shichika, without a doubt is going into insanity of rage and despair. As the narrator told us, he will be perfected and complete as one deviant blade.  This episode had me in tears, horror and gasping. I was horrifed and devestated by Peguin’s death. He, by far did not deserve such a brutal death – moreover have his head blown up. His last words, we all understood, we all knew it was true – of course Emonzaemon had no mercy for the poor child. It’s sad to know that the next episode will be the last. I fear this plot to end as a tragedy.  By far I would hate to see Hitei succeed killing both of them, and not getting the chance to know Togame’s – no, Princess Yousha’s true motive and reason by collecting the blades. (I don’t recall knowing the reason).
For the backstory, I have to say, this couldn’t have been a better timing to do so. I found it helped set the tension high right off the bat. Moreover we were able to understand the reason why people said this man was crazy. I thought he sounded crazy, but without a doubt thanks to the firefighting the future – he is a genius blacksmith. As for Princess Hitei, she has me on my toes since she denies that she has the the powers her ancestors had. As we know, she absolutely loves being in denial. Thanks to Shikizaki Kiki we learned more about the reason of her personality, why she always rejects the truth, and the reason why she was always one step ahead. Without a doubt, I’m certain she possesses their gift.
The only thing that I found threw me off a bit was the timing. This scene below had me double check how far I was into the episode. It startled me because I thought it was about to end since the way the narrator spoke. I found  this line, “However, they had no way of knowing that historically, the end of any journey, is the end of everything” was the most important factor of this episode. That alone created tension, foreshadowing, and sends chills down your spine. (I don’t know about you but it certainly happened to me!)

Finally, I found myself slightly, just slightly confused when both Emonzaemon and Houou were saying to each other, “I am you, you are me“. Although what I get at most part is thanks to Penguin’s thoughts, that they were once comrades who trained and did missions together. At first I was like, “Wait? They are related – like…twins?” and~ then I got the bigger picture.

Eva

Blogging Anime since Summer 2009, & Founder of AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog ...I may or may not be addicted to writing

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Autumn

    i don’t know if you know this and i hope you don’t mind me telling you this spoiler, although you might have already worked it out. But they explained this in the novel. but in regard to Houou and Emonzaemon, what happened is that Houou actually stole Emonzaemon’s face and therefore acquired his knowledge/his common sense.

    1. Eva

      O_O Wait…. stole his face? Seriously? Well that makes now how he says, “I am you, you are me”. XD Thanks for sharing. Very much appreciated! 😀
      Damn I wish I could read the novel, do you know if there’s an english version out there? I don’t believe there is though, which is such a shame knowing that this is such a brilliant story. ^_^

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