Well, it’s the final episode of Nokemono-tachi no Yoru. I’ll really miss these furry demons. Here’s my recap of the episode, followed by my thoughts.
Recap
Luther is somehow alive thanks to being saved by Dantalian’s power. For some reason, Dantalian doesn’t suffer for breaking the rules and failing to exact a price. Perhaps it’s a delayed punishment? I don’t know. But Dantalian tells Luther they will fight a final battle together against Marbas and Wisteria. The latter two arrive shortly and the battle begins. Snow is also there to protect Wisteria from Luther’s attacks.
The battle takes up about three-fourths of the final episode. The strain on Wisteria is intense. Luther, willing to die in glorious battle, allows Dantalian to turn into his giant beast form instead of doing the usual partial power release. Marbas can’t fight such a calamity alone. Luckily, Dianna and Naberius show up to help. The order of the cross knights, with their immortal armored commander, also arrive and join the battle. Even Astaroth aids in the defeat of the monster, although she says she’s only doing it because her contractor made her.
Eventually, Marbas fires the full force of his Hell Lance power and burns Dantalian to death. Before fading away, Dantalian appears in Luther’s mind to say goodbye. He calls Luther his friend, and leaves behind his golden tail ring to remember him by. As for Luther, he once again survived, but was arrested by the cross knights.
Sometime after the battle, we see Wisteria and Marbas on a picnic with Naberius and Diana. The two demons childishly quarrel as usual, but the girls are happy to be together. Their journeys now have a specific purpose. Marbas wants to find the other demon calamities to speak to them, and Naberius wants to find the three-eyed demon for unspecified reasons. Snow and Takenami also join the travelers, ordered by the cross knights to keep an eye on the demons. It’s quite an odd group that has formed.
Wisteria and Marbas share some moments bonding as they sit by a lake at night. The demon says he is considering finding a way to die before Wisteria does, so that he won’t need to see her death. This point isn’t really discussed further. Wisteria muses that although they are all strange outcasts in this group, they can still be happy because they’re not alone. They may be metaphorically unable to walk in the daylight, but the night is theirs. And it’s a beautiful night indeed.
Thoughts
I have a few notes to make on this final installment of The Tale of Outcasts. To start with, there’s the quality of the episode. Unfortunately, it wasn’t great. The visuals lack the pizazz and smoothness needed for good fantasy fights. The sound effect choices are sometimes weird. The battle in this episode was supposed to be epic, but it was basic as hell and awkward at times to boot. The music is fine, yet easily forgettable. This episode wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t very good, either. The same can be said of the entire series, at least speaking in terms of quality and more objective criteria. (Subjectively, however, I still like this anime.)
In this episode, There are several points I don’t understand, meaning the clarity of this episode is poor. First of all, I don’t know why Dantalian wasn’t punished for breaking demon rules. He should have died after saving Luther without a payment in return. Secondly, I’m not exactly clear on what happened with Takenami. I guess the cross knights exorcised him? He’s apparently fully human again. Finally, I don’t understand the quick scene that shows Marbas and Sol discussing a deal. What deal did they make? The narrative was unclear on all these points.
Another thought that occurred to me had to do with Luther and Dantalian. Although they are clearly antagonists, they are not treated as objectively evil by the narrative. They were just trying to make their own way in life in the way that felt right. Of course, they were harming others, so they had to meet the consequences of their actions. I don’t blame the sword cross knights or Wisteria for going out of their way to fight Luther and his demon.
This series did a decent job with the themes of friendship, companionship, and existentialism. It presented a group of characters who are not normal or socially accepted and had them connect with each other in interesting ways. For that reason, “The Tale of Outcasts” seems like a decent series title. However, I’m a bit peeved at this title since the meaning is different from the original Japanese. Nokemono-tachi no Yoru actually means “Night of The Outcasts” not “Tale of Outcasts.” Personally, I think the original title was better. Anyway, that wraps up my thoughts. You can expect a brief series review of this anime at some point in the future.
Thank you for reading
Anime Rants 