Darkness falls across the land as the enemy moves to carry out its evil plans. Can Muneakira and friends stop the destruction of the peaceful Japan of the Tokugawa?
What They Say:
Episode 11: “The Showdown”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While the chances of failure (and death) are high, the group goes ahead with preparations to create a Samurai Bride. In the meantime, the Dark Samurai have splintered. Musashi alone is going to fight the Yagyu Dojo. Mataemon and Kojiro have gone off to destroy the Chingo Stone. Inshun gives Musashi a letter (which will remove the seal on Muneakira after the fight) and then disappears. So, the fight is on, but Musashi alone is going to show up.
Don’t expect a conclusion to this episode, as it’s clearly the first of a two-part ending arc. The experiments to create a Samurai Bride do not progress well because the seal on Muneakira’s powers cause him pain when trying to channel ki. As expected, Mataemon and Kojiro get into the Chingo Stone chamber and cause some damage to the stone, though not enough to shatter it and destroy the flow of ki in all of Japan. They are temporarily stopped by Inshun, whose friendship with Jubei seems to have turned her against the plans of the evil ghosts in the cemetery. Nia, Yoshihiko’s Master Samurai, also comes to the chamber to try to stop Mataemon and Kojiro, but in the end the stone is actually saved by Gisen, who has regained all of her Master Samurai powers and for some reason wants to help (not entirely unexpected, as Gisen this season has shown she’s not all that interested in seeing Japan destroyed; though perhaps we need to say “just yet,” as the story would be different if her master, Amakusa, were resurrected).
This episode is merely the opening act of the ending, so we get largely what you expect: a series of battles, some sympathy shown for some of the enemy (Inshun and Musashi much more than Mataemon and Kojiro, though even they have their moments), and an introduction to the Big Bad. For the Dark Samurai were never really the true enemy. When the Chingo Stone was damaged, it altered the ki flow just enough to allow the evil ghosts to escape from their grave and carry out their real attack: Inshun, as we had already been told, was just an empty vessel, and now the evil ghosts are filling it, to form a massive monster. All is not lost for our heroes, however. As is also necessary in the opening act for the ending, the heroes need to get back to complete strength, and Kenji Maeda shows up to provide advice and help to Muneakira. It seems that his ki training was not meaningless, as he now has the ability to dispel the curse placed upon his arms by himself, and can even temporarily remove the power of the ghosts from Musashi during her fight with Jubei.
The opening act ends with all of the Dark Samurai being absorbed by the ghost monster, as the ghosts had planned from the start. But it also ends with Muneakira and his team at full strength, and even with a little help at hand (Nia, Gisen, and Maeda). It’s pretty obvious how this ending arc finishes, especially from the title of the next episode. While all of this is entirely predictable with no surprises of any sort (even Gisen’s intervention was easy to spot from several episodes back), the execution is quite good. The pacing of the episode was just right, keeping a running tension throughout without exhausting the viewer. The fights were swift and the exposition was kept fairly under control this time compared to the last episode. We see the payoff for all of the boring info-dumping before: the two-part ending will be free of slow moments and all about rushing towards the conclusion. In a marathon-style rewatch in the future, it will probably work even better, as one will not have to wait a week for the conclusion.
In Summary:
It’s the beginning of the end of the season as the true form of the enemy is revealed and Muneakira is able to break the curse placed upon his arms. Both sides are now ready for the final conflict, even if this episode was titled “The Showdown.” The battles are important, but this episode is just the stage setting, not the main action itself. The scenery is now in place and all that remains is for the title character, the Samurai Bride, the being that this season’s “hundreds of flowers, blooming in profusion” has been intending to see from the start, take the stage.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard