I sighed a breath of relief upon watching this episode as it turned out different from what I worried. I had suspected the episode would be a silly filler like the ones in Season 1 and didn’t hope much of it, so I raised my hands in joy by the time I finished watching this episode for going beyond my expectation. It wasn’t the best, but it still scored enough to pass. The highlight of the episode was both Towa and Setsuna’s character development and relationship as sisters. I couldn’t say much about Moroha because it’s leaning more to her usual bounty hunting business with little information about her parents.
Setsuna was aware of and accepted what she was lacking, and trained hard to master her weapon. Her awareness also made her realized that as Riku had told him before, the way she’s now, she lacked the power and strength to protect Towa alone. She’s frustrated, but acknowledged the safest way to protect Towa with her current skill and power was by sending her back to the modern time. She didn’t say this because she underestimate Towa or not having any faith in her, Setsuna was simply concerned for her safety. However, while Setsuna has acknowledged Towa as her twin sister, their relationship didn’t progress much like they did when they were children, mainly because, like her father Sesshomaru, Setsuna wasn’t expressive in showing her concern the way Towa did to her.
I’m very happy to see that Kohaku and Hisui returned, playing a major role in this episode to help Towa and Setsuna. In previous episode I was hoping for Hisui to appear again with more prominent role, and thank goodness it came true with how he gave Setsuna advise to bond with her weapon, an advise which he learned from his mother, Sango. It’s understandable that Setsuna was in a hurry because Rin’s curse has a time limit. Consequently, she didn’t take time to understand the proper way to use her naginata.
On Towa’s part, Setsuna’s way of speaking resulted with Towa misunderstanding Setsuna’s advise for her to return to modern world as her disliking her company and further lamented that Setsuna has yet to regain their childhood memories. Towa was too concerned with Setsuna that she failed to realize how reckless she has been. In all her fights, never once Towa ran away. If anything, she didn’t hesitate much to go into danger herself. Furthermore, being Sesshomaru’s daughter, many demons would come after her to make name for themselves because of Sesshomaru’s status as a great demon and the sisters themselves also gained quite reputation for defeating many demons.
To many people, running away from a fight is considered cowardice and shameful act. I agreed with Kohaku, however, that there are times when running away is something that must be done, if not for your sake, then for the sake of ones you wishes to protect. Running away doesn’t always mean you’re a coward. It depends on the context and situation. Also, there’s difference between being bravery and reckless. What Towa did was the latter. She didn’t realize until now that she has been using her desire to help Setsuna as an excuse to look away from her own weakness. By insisting on facing the danger head-on without knowing her own weakness, she not only endangered herself, but also the people she wished to protect. It’s necessary for Towa to distance herself from Setsuna until she’s able to sort out her feelings.
Last but not the least, was the conversation between Rion and Zero. Even though Rion was clearly on Towa’s side, it was quite surprising to see Zero was still lenient to her niece and even gave into her consideration in helping taking down Kirinmaru. Unfortunately, Zero still refused to let go of the past until she killed Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha. Rion and Riku knew well what was the source of Zero’s deep-seethed hatred, and as the people who cared for her, resolved to save Zero from the chains of the past that binds her. They better showed more of Zero’s past that caused her to be this obsessive in killing our half-demon princesses. The flashbacks so far was still subtle clues.
