I’m four weeks behind on Blue Exorcist‘s third season, but after this post, three of the four newest episodes will have been covered. Sorry, but I don’t have time for a thought-provoking introduction. Please enjoy my notes for episodes 6, 7, and 8.
Episode 6: I Can’t Rely on Anyone
This episode was a dark and intense one for sure. It told the story of how Izumo’s family fell apart amid intense trauma and violence. I’m not going to recap every event because I’m trying to be brief, but I do have a few things to comment on. First of all, it’s interesting that before there was any major trauma or violence, the Kamiki family was already very dysfunctional and under a lot of stress.
The two children were “illegitimate” or birthed outside of marriage. Their mother, Tamamo, was heavily censured for having the children and for being Soji’s lover but not his wife. (Not that he would have had her.) It’s not hard to imagine that the children were not always treated well by the community surrounding the shrine. On top of that, Tamamo wasn’t mature or reliable enough to be a mother at all. She was whiny, irresponsible, and heavily dependent on Izumo and the foxes.
In a strained environment like this, it makes sense why Tamamo’s spirit became unstable, and why Izumo would have grown up with the idea that she needs to be strong, smart, and capable at all times. Izumo is definitely a victim, but I also have a lot of sympathy for Tamamo. It’s clear she was far too immature to handle a family and was probably some flavor of mentally ill on the best of days. When faced with the realization that her lover wanted nothing to do with them, Tamamo started to resent her children.
After Tamamo’s possession, everything turned to chaos, and Izumo and Tsukumo were taken by the Illuminati. I was interested in the character of Maria Yoshida, since she seemed to be the only good/humanistic Illuminati member we’ve seen so far. She was voiced by Aya Endo, a mature-sounding VA whose voice I adore. Maria’s attempt to save Tsukumo was resourceful and very noble. By putting her into an adoption facility, she ensured the little girl’s safety for at least a while.
The death of Maria was fairly disturbing for an anime that’s usually more light-hearted and PG-ish. However, I was relieved that she died quickly. Maria’s death was, of course, enacted by Gedoin. This show really succeeds in making Gedoin disgusting in every way. It’s a bit cheap, in my opinion, to always make the most vile characters physically repulsive. But in this case, I think it works. Gedoin was designed to be this off-putting to communicate the point that a human can be as monstrous as any demon.
Now we know the full story of the Kamiki family and Izumo’s trauma. I like Izumo a lot, so watching her suffer was tough. But it does explain a lot about her behavior at True Cross Academy. It blows my mind to think that all this time, she’s been “training” for the sole purpose of taking her mother’s place as the Illuminati’s guinea pig. I’m really glad this arc was made into an anime, because I never would have read the manga. That means I never would have truly understood Izumo.
On a final note, the music for this episode was great. I especially liked the creepy, disjointed piano track that played during the time when Tamamo was becoming mentally unstable. Also, the visuals may not be excellent all the time, but certain shots are beautiful, like when Tamamo was doing the ritual dancing at the shrine. That concludes my notes for episode 6.
Episode 7: Hesitation
Episode 7 was action-heavy and attention-grabbing. Izumo was brought in for her physical exam, immediately after which she would be used as a test subject in place of her mother. She took a last stand, attacked one of the guards, and managed to run away while summoning Mike and Uke to her side. While we’re on this topic, I have always loved these Inari fox gods. Let me say a bit about them.
Though there are many little fox spirits that hang around the Kamiki family, Mike and Uke are the two most powerful. Mike seems to be older and more experienced, while Uke is younger and follows his lead. Both of the fox gods are like brothers to Izumo, as she herself admits in this episode. Despite not always obeying her, Mike and Uke want nothing more than to protect the “fledgling.”
In this episode, the fox spirits appear to die defending Izumo from Shima. Assuming they are truly dead or can no longer be summoned, I’m shocked by this turn of events. First of all, it sucks to see the noble foxes I love get overwhelmingly defeated. Secondly, this suggests Shima may be completely evil after all. If he indeed killed Izumo’s spiritual brothers, he is irredeemable. I was hoping he would turn out to be a double-agent, and that might still be the case. But for me, he is now a fully-fledged “bad-guy.”
Now let’s talk about why this episode was severely disappointing. After finding the way into the Illuminati’s underground “mall,” Yukio and the Exwires discover they are surrounded by enemy zombies. Unlike most zombies, these regenerate even after you destroy their heads or brainstems. Unfortunately, these zombies are animated using extremely cheap 3D animation that would have looked bad two decades ago. It’s completely unacceptable, and it broke my immersion completely. My overall opinion on the visual quality of the season has been significantly negatively shifted.
I don’t have much more to say on episode 7 other than it’s interesting as always watching Rin and Yukio. Their personalities are starkly different. In this episode, Yukio takes a practical approach to fighting zombies, while Rin’s thoughts are more idealistic. Yukio knows there’s no way to restore a zombie’s humanity, but Rin is keenly aware that these creatures were once human. He is extremely averse to the idea of killing humans, even if it’s to save himself or his friends. To be continued.
Episode 8: Determination
Episode 8 continued the action and mixed in some good and meaningful moments for several different characters. With the team of Exwires separated into individual rooms occupied by immense monsters, each must face the danger in their own way. Before we get to that, however, I’ll comment on Lucifer. We saw him briefly and I got the impression – like just in episode 5 – that he is a wise, measured, and thoughtful leader. He’s also very attractive, and his sexy voice is done by Kouki Uchiyama.
Lucifer may be a good leader, and his goals may be noble in theory. But his methods are destructive and often cruel. The Illuminati believes the ends always justify the means. For example, take the the elixir extracted from Kyuubi/Tamamo. It results occasionally in strong, immortal soldiers like Todo who keep their sanity. In all other cases, the elixir causes people to become undead monsters with little to no human mind. And the process of extracting the elixir also causes “pain worth than death” to Tamamo’s body.
There’s a lot we don’t know about the Illumati and Lucifer, but it’s safe to say they’re evil. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the character development in this episode. Konekomaru’s courage and ingenuity were extremely admirable. He considered giving up as he was about to be devoured by a monster. But after thinking about his friends, the fierce young man fought the monster and managed to get out of its hold. Konekomaru was unable to defeat the monster, but it’s enough that he escaped the closed chamber.
There was also an interesting moment with Suguro. The hideous monster he fought was capable of simple speech and it knew it used to be human. It kept saying it wanted to go home or “go back.” This prompts Suguro to reflect on the fact that he also wishes he could “go back.” Lately, he feels like he’s lost his sense of purpose. Konekomaru is now strong enough to not constantly need him, and Shima turned to the bad side. Suguro’s purpose of holding everyone together and being their leader is falling apart.
When Suguro was a kid, everything felt right. He was the leader. He was also more naive, driven by his ambition to kill Satan one day. But now that long-term goal has been clouded by doubt. As Izumo pointed out, it’s laughable for one mediocre exorcist to aspire to defeat Satan. As Suguro puts the monster into a sleeping state with an exorcism spell, he realizes he can’t go back to how things were.
Shiemi was one of the only Exwires who actually destroyed the monster she fought. Even Yukio was only able to tie his to the floor, unable to defeat the regenerating creature. But Shiemi, using Nee the nature spirit, was able to make the monster turn to dust. She was exhausted and shaking afterward, but she still smiled when she saw Rin. This was the inspiration Rin needed to become fully committed to fighting the once-human monsters. That’s all for episode 8.
~Thanks for reading~
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