Greetings! Sorry that this post is a little later than usual. We are covering the latest episodes of Black Butler: Emerald Witch, Kowloon Generic Romance, Lazarus, and Your Forma. It was an exciting set of installments. Please enjoy my brief thoughts on these episodes.

1. Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc Episode 11
2. Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 11
3. Lazarus Episode 11
4. Your forma Episode 11

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Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc Episode 11

Episode Rating: 9/10

This episode was intense, action-packed, and highly emotional. Black Butler knows how to tell a compelling story. It was awesome seeing the servants protect Miss Sullivan in various ways. Mey-rin, Tanaka, and Finny were so cool! Diedrich and Baldroy were both bad-ass, too. When Wolfram shot Grete as the train pulled away, it was epic. Later, when Hilde came back covered in burns and blood, it was metal as fuck. She was objectively a bad person though, so I’m glad Sebastian killed her for good this time.

Wolfram’s backstory, though brief and vague, was deeply touching. He learned to see the colors of the world from a little child. It made me teary-eyed, especially when I thought Wolfram was going to die. However, Sebastian picked him up off the tracks and Ciel quickly ordered for his gunshot wound to be cauterized with a red-hot knife. Impressively, it was Sieglinde herself who used the knife on Wolfram, stopping the bleeding and saving his life.

So yeah, damn, this episode was intense! I have some thoughts about Ciel and his character development in this season, but I don’t have the time or presence of mind to go into detail right now. Basically, I’m noticing subtle changes in him and the way he interacts with Sebastian. It makes sense. It would be weird for Ciel to go through the physical and mental trauma of “the curse” in this season and not have any changes to his outlook. Anyway, that’s all for this installment.

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Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 11

Episode Rating: 9/10

This was a serious episode that taught us some important facts. We learned that the second Kowloon was created from Kudo’s memory, and that Kudo seems to be the unconscious maker of the “illusion.” The proof is that when Kudo heard Xiaohei was male, the generic Xiaohei disappeared. Why does Kudo have this power? Also, what about the generic Reiko? She was not created from Kudo’s memories, making her more mysterious than ever.

We also learned exactly why Miyuki craves revenge against his father. First of all, Hebinuma is not his biological father. Miyuki got himself adopted by Hebinuma in order for the company to treat his sick mother. To prove his loyalty, Miyuki got the snake tattoos and split his own tongue. Despite this, his mother still died. Miyuki blamed Hebinuma and asked Yulong to help him with his revenge. Sad story.

Xiaohei played a huge role in this episode. It’s unclear whether Xiaohei is a trans woman or a cross-dresser/femboy. He seems to have body dysphoria, but also doesn’t seem to care if people know he is AMAB. In China, I’m not sure how socially acceptable it is to be visibly trans, so even if Xiaohei was trans, she might not be able to come out. At any rate, I’m very happy that Xiaohei found accepting people who don’t judge. Reiko, Yaomay, and the generic Xiaohei all made Xiaohei feel welcome and told them it was ok to like cute girls’ clothes.

In the last scene, Yaomay and Xiaohei left Kowloon. Xiaohei was carrying a bunch of cute dresses, but the clothes disappeared as the two left the city. However, the pink frills on Xiaohei’s inner vest remained. Yaomay was very happy about that for a moment before realizing that she could no longer see the second Kowloon. Neither could Xiaohei. Regrets are necessary to see the phantom city, and Xiaohei and Yaomay both made peace with their regrets. Now, they can no longer return to Reiko. 😦

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Lazarus Episode 11

Episode Rating: 8/10

This episode was highly entertaining, with a lot of action and an interesting mythology reference. Eleina and Doug headed to Pakistan to track down Popcorn Wizard. They were followed by men from the US military. Doug stopped and distracted the pursuers while Eliena escaped on a scooter. She tracked down Popcorn Wizard’s van and then passed out from a high fever, probably caused by Hapna. Elsewhere, Hersche was detained by the US Military INSCOM after trying to make them stop tailing Lazarus.

The main event of the episode was the fight between Axel and Soryu in the city. It was an awesome fight. I’m quite impressed by the action sequences in this anime. After falling into a river, Axel brought the fight onto the deck of a boat. He and Soryu continued battling, trading blows until Soryu suddenly got distracted by Axel’s wing pendant. It reminded him of the wings on a Hundun, a Chinese mythical beast with no face.

During Soryu’s time training as an assassin, he went through psychological and physical hell. He was told to become a faceless monster just like Hundun. Soryu also remembered a story he was told about the Hundun, in which well-meaning people bored a hole in Hundun’s face to give him an expression. But Hundun was angry and went crazy. Soryu couldn’t remember the rest of the story after that.

The fight resumed and Axel hit Soryu in the leg with a cleaver. Soryu managed to impale Axel with a harpoon. Chris arrived with an assault rifle to help, so the assassin fled. But Axel was already bleeding heavily and looked unconscious. To be continued.

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Your forma Episode 11

Episode Rating:

Overall, Your Forma has not been a thrilling series, though I find it interesting. This last arc, on the other hand, is quite exciting. The hunt for the Nightmare of St. Petersburg began again. To start things off, Chief Totoki put Harold on the copycat killer case with Echika to supervise. Echika brain-dived into Elena and proved she was not involved with the recent copycat murder. Interestingly, Elena seems like a realistic depiction of mental illness in an elderly person.

It turned out the copycat killer was Abaev, whose motive I still don’t understand. But he was murdered by the real Nightmare of St. Petersburg overnight. The killer wrote “Genuine” in blood. Echika and Harold then had a fight over whether it was good for Harold to participate in the investigation. Harold pushed Echika away by requesting that she be taken off the case. But when Nikolai (Sozon’s brother) went missing, Harold and Echika put aside their fighting and Harold apologized.

As everyone searched for Nikolai, Echika accompanied Harold just to support him emotionally. At one point, unwisely, they split up. While driving alone and looking for Nikolai, Echika received a call from Bigga, who told her to come to a certain location for a clue about the Nightmare. Echika then went missing. Harold and Napolov started searching for her frantically. She was probably slated to be the next victim of the Nightmare. To be continued.

~Thanks for reading~

Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants

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