Impression
Aladdin himself sensed it numerous times this episode, but it was a very hasty decision to promise Ren Kouen information on Alma Toran in return for his help in destroying the Medium – as powerful as he may be. I’m sure all the djinn there (or at least the three he has control over) would have been able to convince him of exactly how dangerous the Medium is, and the implications that has on their current world. After all, they themselves were present during the ruin of Alma Toran – when that scary tentacled incarnation of evil actually managed to descend from the Black Spot and consume every last bit of white Rukh they had. Though maybe we should just take solace in the fact that the Kou Empire has actually agreed to join forces with Aladdin and Alibaba (and I suppose, by extension Magnostadt) and put aside their differences for now, in order to confront a common enemy. It’s definitely a shift in the balance of things – while our protagonists have had friends in Kou (like Hakuei or Kougyoku) they’re more exceptions than the norm. Kou’s expansionism is still a threat, as is Kouen, whom all the Kou siblings will listen to unconditionally.
Alongside his insane strength (as expected of someone who owns multiple metal vessels) it’s Kouen’s nature which makes him so scary. Even though he may appear calm on the outside, he’s definitely more aggressive (even crazed) than he initially seems – boosted by the fact that he’s so close to the wealth of information he’s been after for so long. Much like Sinbad, I don’t think Kouen’s the type of person you’d want to divulge important secrets to at all, especially considering what the Kou Empire’s been up to lately. Kouen’s getting himself hurt not to protect the world, but instead to satisfy his own ambitions – which is a scary prospect. He’s already got all that power – and if he’s the type of person who’d go to great lengths to achieve what he wants to achieve, then if he’s pitted against Aladdin and Alibaba in the future things could get nasty. But hey, at least we got to see Kougyoku again.
Those freaky black giants seem to be much more of a problem than I’d originally thought – I suppose they’re technically djinn after all, even if they look rather strange. With a potential 10,000 of them in the way, no-one’s going to be able to get anywhere close to the Medium, which in itself is a problem with its vast amount of crystallized black Rukh and magoi. Although Alibaba’s managed to seemingly break it with his Extreme Magic (which admittedly could have been unveiled more dramatically) I have a feeling that the Medium and Gyokuen still have something up their sleeves. The fact that the Medium is a living, sentient thing is already rather ominous, and suggests that it can do more than just deploy a Bolg and create black djinn. And of course, the tentacle thing (a fine example of a technical term) could still be descending towards the surface for all we know. I can’t imagine it just leaving after having been summoned so far down.