Some quick thoughts about Sousei no Onmyouji, episode by episode as I watch them, as usual …
Ignoring episode 14’s catching up, we move to one that doesn’t really do much. It features Ryogo, for once, the nice girl who’s sudden liking to him made me suspect her of being an enemy in disguise, and Fushihara, whom I don’t think we’ve met before and as it turns out it doesn’t really matter. We also get Rokuro making grunting noises, and a useless bit in the middle where he and Benio both declare that they really don’t like her brother. One question about the ending: did Seigen berate and humiliate them at the end because he really thinks they’re worthless, or did he just want to get them out of the way before they learned who the Kegare used to be?
And episode 16 is sort of a relief. With the preview I thought it was possible for Mayura to die this time, that the show was going to start to kill off regular characters in an effort to ramp up the angst. But if Mayura was gone who would give us all those lovely, strange turns of phrase. So our kids manage to cleanse Mayura of her kegare infection, thanks to powers only the Twin Stars can use. It’s satisfying because Mayura’s a good kid, because it gives Rokuro and Benio some confidence after the tongue-lashing they got last week (and Seigen witnessed it), and because it gives us some insight into Seigen’s attitude toward his daughter. Apparently he feels guilty about leaving his family, and when it looks like he’s going to have to kill Mayura he … sighs with regret. I still don’t like him very much, though frankly I’m also a little tired of Rokuro’s shouting angst about his past. Maybe that’s another reason to like Mayura: she doesn’t seem to wallow in stuff, even if she’s the losing corner of the love triangle.
And finally for now episode 17, that ends with one of those “I know I’m going to die but I have to go anyway” speeches from Rokuro. Actually it was a pretty good speech considering, and I AM wondering how he’s going to beat Yuto, or rather, how he and Benio are going to do it. Otherwise I found the episode rather annoying. They spent too much time with the Seigen-is-going-to-his-death business, though thinking about it, maybe it was deliberate, since he wasn’t going to die, but it was too long anyway. And there was way too much Rokuro screaming and choking and other emotional noises, and there was WAY too much of Yuto smirking and needling, so much that I skipped ahead a few times. I expect the big battle, which may or may not happen this week, will have a lot more of this. Looking forward to the battle, but not the shouting and needling.
Too Old for Anime 