“We’re gonna work hard until the sun rises, but we can only provide the faintest of moonlight.”
Impression
We’ve all felt regret in our lives over things that have happened in the past. Sometimes we’d even like to change it – but unlike Sasami, we don’t have the power to do so and usually just try to make do with the situation. In other cases, it can be hard to move on and not dwell over it – and with Sasami, this is where the entire issue started. Sasami’s regret over letting down her mother’s expectations as well as running away from the Tsukuyomi Shrine awakened Tamamo-no-Mae, who decided to leech onto Sasami and wait for Amaterasu’s powers to kick in when Sasami herself felt deep regret in her life. It didn’t turn out to be Tamamo offering Sasami a chance to redo things – instead it was Tamamo trying to manipulate the past in whatever way she wanted in order to bring glory to Arahabaki, her evil occult society which also probably goes by the name of the Student Council. Because the golem was never there in Sasami’s original timeline, things have already begun to change, and would have become irreversible with Juju’s premature death becoming even more premature.
That’s where Tsurugi steps in with her magical time travelling powers, and decides to take Sasami and Juju along – Juju having somehow anchored herself to the living world with the “totem” she put in Sasami’s body along with those drugs from a few episodes ago. Anyway, we saw a quite a lot of both of their lives, from happier times like everyone playing strip poker together to bits from Sasami’s childhood, like the one time Juju ripped up a Mother’s Day present from Sasami only to secretly put it back together afterwards. It confirms that she’s a good mother at heart, just an unfortunate product of her Tsukuyomi indoctrination as the next priestess to hold Amaterasu’s power. Even her constant pressing for Sasami to return to being a priestess is a result of the responsibility Juju feels. Sasami’s answer ended up being surprisingly wise – that instead of her trying to protect the world and keeping everything in check, the Myriad Gods themselves should try to get stronger by themselves, learning from their own failures. With Sasami returning Amaterasu’s power to Juju until she grows up a bit, she’s managed to reconcile with her mother as well as leave Amaterasu’s power in the hands of someone better equipped to use it. Tsurugi herself has her own regrets over not putting enough effort forward and taking too long of a rest – but as nice as it was to see her full form I do prefer her casual loli look xD There’s something off about seeing someone like Tsurugi look so heavenly like that.
It was pretty much assumed that Tamamo would end up defeated once all their regrets and familial issues had been solved, but there’s no way they’d let go of characters that easily in this show, no matter how random they are. Even so, Tamamo did seem a bit more reserved in her fox girl form compared to when she took control of that rock golem – probably due to the fact that her master, Edogawa Jou was around. Even before they revealed she was the leader of Arahabaki, something already screamed “not normal” about this girl – to the extent that Kamiomi, who is usually a complete dope can sense that she’s a danger. Though she’s not looking for Sasami in particular, she’s likely to be the antagonist for the rest of the show’s length as she’s after Amaterasu’s power, which is now back in Juju. Given that Sasami’s just made up with her, she won’t be happy with that at all.
Also, pink twintails sings even worse than Tama. That takes…impressive skill.
