Let’s be honest here, folks. The second season of Blue Exorcist isn’t going as swimmingly as people would’ve hoped for. Considering the last episode accomplished absolutely nothing, in terms of story progression, and the episodes before it have been moving at a slug’s pace, this is leaving me wanting a LOT more out of this show. Just give me something worthwhile, show, that’s all I want. Not too much to ask for… right?
Well, evidently, it is, as the show’s A-part centers around a flashback with Bon’s father and Rin’s father, their first meeting, secrets being passed, the clergymen chasing Rin’s father off, et cetera… this went on until the 11-minute mark. What good is there to pad out a flashback sequence? It doesn’t benefit anyone or anything, it just keeps the narrative paused and without progress. This is time that could be better spent showcasing the characters having some engagement or interactivity within the main narrative, not padded-out flashback fluff. Beyond that, this is time that could be better spent watching something else, something like… like the new Gintama dub, which is REALLY good and pretty hilarious, not to mention well worth checking out and watching. They’re going up in batches on Crunchyroll every week, so go out of your way to… wait, I’m getting sidetracked, back to Blue Exorcist. Anyway, Todo brought his traitorous accomplice to the home of the Impure King… alright… with a startling revelation: if both Eyes are brought to “him,” then the Impure King can be restored. With that, Todo’s use for Mamushi seems to be over, but in comes Bon’s dad for the big save… wait, could it be? Is something actually happening in this show, finally???
I guess it’ll have to wait a moment, because the show cuts to another flashback, during the Blue Night, or as I call it, “The Incident,” when Bon’s father’s father was dying, when an eagle… valkyrie… phoenix… uh, woman person… showed up before him, and I just have to say this here and now, her character design is awful. There’s nothing overly notable about it, nothing too memorable, and the face is as flat as flat can get, it’s just… lifeless. In fact, that’s this season as a whole, it’s so bereft of life and presence, from the animation to the narrative flow to the character development, it just feels like everything is operating on autopilot, completely mechanical with next to no expression. Anyway, Bon’s dad traded some secrets or whatever to the eagle valkyrie phoenix woman, and in returned, she became his frigging Stand. I swear, EVERYONE has a Stand nowadays; it’s not overly impressive when any Joe Schmo can get one, (#MakeHamonGreatAgain) But what came out of this was a pretty impressive fight between Todo and Bon’s dad, if a short one; sadly, not a lot of it could be seen, as per Japanese television regulations, flashing lights have to be turned down so that viewers won’t have seizure attacks. It seems to be all for naught, though, as the Impure King is slowly awakening into what I can only call a badly-rendered 3DCG blob of deep-fried Coca-Cola foam. So now it’s up to Bon’s dad to slay the beast, right? Well, no, as Todo appears from out of nowhere and… stabs him in the throat… and then devours his phoenix Stand, flames and all, like he’s Natsu… and with his increased power, flees the scene with more evil intent… wait, finally something happened that has consequence, importance, and significance to the story?
THANK GOD ABOVE!!!
It took this long, but FINALLY something awesome and important happened in this show! So now it looks like Rin’s going to have to slay the Impure King and restore balance and order and civility and all that crap. But when is he going to beat the s**t out of Satan, like he always says he would? He hasn’t even said that line ONCE in this season so far, but I’ll still be holding out for it. Well, there was about 5 minutes’ worth of story in this episode, but you know what? It was an awesome 5 minutes’ worth, things happened that had consequence and moved the story progression forward, that’s all I wanted to see this show do. Now just keep that up for the rest of the episodes, please.
Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga is available on Crunchyroll, with new episodes every Friday at 1:30pm Eastern, and is also available on Daisuki.net, Hulu, and Amazon Video’s Anime Strike channel.