Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga Episode 6 Review – Shiemi’s Struggles

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Anime Rants. We’re about at the halfway point of the Fall 2024 season. Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga has been highly enjoyable for me so far. This sixth episode focuses on Lightning and Suguro before transitioning primarily to Shiemi and her character journey. It was a solidly good episode.

Episode 6: Awakening

Episode Rating: 8/10

The first scene in the episode shows Mephisto having a chat with Shura. He states that the Illuminati have captured Hachiro. Apparently, a stealth helicopter of some sort was used to enter the area and track the serpent. Mephisto and Shura don’t know this, but according to what was shown, Yukio was in the helicopter and helped capture Hachiro. As far as everyone knows, Yukio is resting in the hospital.

(The group of young exwires goes to visit Yukio at one point. He is doing very well – suspiciously well. He’s even doing paperwork and such for the True Cross Order. He seems very cheerful, too. I think he’s already joined the Illuminati and got healed by them super quickly.)

Shura noticed that Mephisto was acting very cold and calculated about everything. She called him out on it, and the demon responded by trying to psychoanalyze her. Angrily, Shura threw her sword. It stuck into the wooden chairback behind him, going so close to his face that it left a bloody cut on his cheek. Shura then swore to beat the crap out of Mephisto if his plans ever intentionally harmed Rin and Yukio. She cares about those boys more than anything. I love her ferocity in this scene.

After that intense moment, we see Suguro and Lightning going to the underground library of the True Cross Order. Lightning is researching the connection between the Japan Branch of the True Cross Order and the Illuminati. He thinks Mephisto knows a secret about the Illuminati and possibly about the origins of the Okamura brothers. Lightning also has a theory that everything started with the Blue Night. So much is still unknown about that disastrous event.

A bit later, Lightning calls out to Shima, knowing he’s spying. Apparently, Lightning placed some sort of tracking spell on Shima, so he can see him at any time. Shima is disappointed to be caught. He’s also worried that Lightning is using Suguro to get to him. So he tells Lightning to treat Suguro well, or else. The bond between Suguro and Shima is strong, and Lightning is weirdly interested in it. He probably plans to use this information against Shima somehow.

Most of the rest of this episode was about Shiemi. She needs to decide if she wants to be an exorcist or not. In addition, she needs to properly answer Rin’s love confession from a few episodes ago. Shiemi is absolutely adorable, and I can empathize with her to some degree, so I was happy she got some character development in this episode. I loved the dream sequence where Shiemi sees herself as a little green garden spirit that slowly becomes more human as it’s exposed to Yukio and Rin.

Shiemi’s moments with Izumo were also cute to watch. I enjoyed the part where Shiemi read a popular shoujo manga for the first time and strongly empathized with the characters. Partly thanks to that manga, Shiemi realized that she wanted to wait before trying to have a romantic relationship. Right now, she needs to focus on increasing her abilities as an exorcist. Long story short, Rin gets rejected by Shiemi. Poor guy.

In a surprising turn of events, the demon boy Amaimon turns up at the exorcist school wearing one of their uniforms. He may have transferred in thanks to Mephisto. Given how violent he can be, though, it seems like a bad idea. In this episode, for instance, Amaimon tries to punch Shiemi. She was standing up to him and trying to defend Rin, who was in a state of shock from being rejected. Thankfully, Rin came back to reality quickly and stopped Amaimon from hurting anyone.

Importantly, while she was standing up to Amaimon, Shiemi declared that she wants to be an exorcist. She is now certain of her path, and feeling brave. Good for Shiemi! After that, the last scene of the episode shows Lightning and Suguro continuing their investigation. They’re going to question two people that might have a connection to the Illuminati. These two individuals live in the church where Rin and Yukio grew up. That’s suspicious, but we won’t know more until next week. For today, that completes my notes.