The past comes to haunt the present as Yukio intends to take a strong stand to protect Rin.
What They Say:
Southern Cross Monastery, where Rin and Yukio grew up, has come under attack by a mysterious assailant! Leaving behind these cryptic words: “I will never forgive anyone related to Satan,” the masked assailant escapes…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the last couple of episodes focusing mostly on character interaction and getting things settled between everyone now that the truth about Rin’s heritage has been revealed, it’s time to start getting down to business. With the seriousness of what’s working through the background, especially with Mephisto working up his own plans, it all turned much more serious for Yukio as he has a glimmer of an idea of just how bad things can get. And with Rin walking a bit of a tightrope when it comes to the True Cross Academy and his standing there since going out of control will wind up putting him in a really bad position, Yukio is even more concerned in general.
With this episode, some of what’s been going on in the background is surfacing as those that know of what Rin and Yukio are start to make their move. What’s cruel about is how they do it, working their way with some icky spider-web style attacks on those that were at the monastery where the two young men grew up. The whole situation is one that’s really getting to both of them, but they’re acting over the top. Rin is just super intense in wanting to go after Noihaus and stop him from doing more harm and to avenge those that were caught up in the webbing. Yukio is concerned about the whole incident as well, but he’s far more concerned by Rin’s reactions – to the point where he actually takes out his gun to try and calm him down so he doesn’t run off after Noihaus.
The show does make a good move towards the bigger here with what’s going on and it even brings Mephisto out to play, though it throws a curveball into things here as he’s told that he’s on the outside now and the Vatican isn’t supporting him anymore. With the setup here, Blue Exorcist begins to feel more like it wants to get things darker, quickly and to provide some confusion into the mix as well. There’s a bit of mystery brought into it as well as the action picks up, but something about all of this simply feels forced. While the show has had some good execution even if I didn’t care for the story at times, here it feels like it’s being forced into this direction and hard. It does not feel like a natural progression.
In Summary:
Things are getting serious for the cast of blue Exorcist as events are starting to come together when it comes to Rin and Yukio. The general vibe you get here, with Yukio really acting as the lead character for the most part, is that he knows something very serious is now happening and is determined to stop it and keep Rin as far from it as possible. It’s not a bad way to roll, but the execution is hazy here as it jumps right into it and takes odd turns along the way with the pacing. It’s trying to obscure a few things at the same time which can work if done well, but mostly it just leaves you watching the episode and wondering what the real point of it is. It has some good ideas, but each new revelation just lets the series feel even more of in a way and harder to suspend disbelief over.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.