What They Say:
Yura and Ryuji are forced to fight Akifusa.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sometimes what kills me is the way that Viz Media can give such a short premise for the episode and yet be absolutely correct in that it’s what it’s about. We’ve had some lengthy ones before for past episodes where it’s a bit padded, but with this episode, the eight word episode summary covers the vast majority of the episode. It’s just a matter of what kind of fight it is that ensues as Ryuji goes against Akifusa at first and does his best to take him down, only to be stymied by events, and then to have Yura arrive on the scene to do her part as well as she’s getting pretty upset by things. While they’re struggling, it’s not an easy run for Akifusa either as the body he’s using is getting weaker and can handle only so much action before it’ll be useless.
There’s some minor flashback material involved in all of it as well, but largely the first half and a bit more of the episode is devoted to the fight that has some big powers at play yet little sense of tension to it. There’s some threat that comes from the larger elements that are watching it as She Who Is In Control sets her plans in motion to allow all the ayakashi to have their way with the world. Of course, everything gets to a point where the battle is basically halted since one side can’t win and they opt for a strategic retreat over everything else. There’s only so much that the onmyouji are going to be able to do here, which is why…
… it’s a good thing that Rikuo and his group are on their fancy ship coming to Kyoto in order to help out now that he’s much more powerful than he used to be. The trip there is fairly amusing with all the little yokai around commenting on things and getting into trouble as well as the bigger members of the main family working through their issues about who’s in charge during what’s going to happen as they need to set commanders and the like. It’s all posturing for the most part, and without any investment in the cast as has happened since the start of this season in particular, it’s all just fluff for the most part. It has some cute moments, but it’s easy to feel just as disinterested and bored as Rikuo is as all the sides jockey for position.
In Summary:
While Nura works up to its mid-season boss fight here, things are pretty much mostly action and then boredom. And unfortunately, not even good action because they’ve worked the first half of this season so badly with side stories and flashbacks that it’s hard to give a damn about any of it. What the episode comes down to is that there are some pretty moments, some mildly nice action moments and some dull as dishwater talking moments as Rikuo’s entourage works out who will be in charge of what with all sorts of petty moments. The moment that Rikuo looks bored, that’s when the viewer will likely feel it too. And it’s unfortunate because even as I have a lot of problems with the show, it’s easy to see how if things were tightened up it could have been a lot better.