So, I misread things last week – the smooth talker from Black Team wasn’t the big monster; he was in the scene already. In the first couple of seconds, said big oni proves itself final boss caliber, however, as it swallows the core of the defeated Shinja and one-shots Kakeru out of the fight, cracking (nearly shattering) Ibara’s power suit crystal in the process, rendering Kakeru powerless to transform again and Ibara silent, at least in a conventional sense.
Well, that happened. At least the boss Oni buggers off after that. And no, unlike you would expect of typical action beats, the rest of the episode is not actually focused on overcoming that and getting Kakeru back into action. I’m sure we’ll get that material, but this episode is slower, more melancholy, and better thought out.
On one side, Kakeru, while now powerless to transform, retains the Ibara bracelet. While he does he has dreams (and towards the end of the episode, visions) of Ibara’s history, twined as it is with the history of a previous Shrine Maiden from Oka’s family and her father. The Oni Ibara came to them, declaring his intent to devour the Shrine Maiden in order to become powerful and have nothing to fear in the world. He’s quickly reduced to a gemstone by the Shrine Maiden’s power, and her father swallows the gem, taking Ibara into his body and becoming something of a synthesis. While Ibara is implied to be powerless in this relationship, he is still allowed some agency as the father and shrine maiden teach him (in their own indirect way) what it is to be a thinking being with a heart rather than a mindless predator, introducing Ibara to the sensations of being human (starting with human food, since he was so focused on eating) and the ideas of human philosophy and a sense of time.
For instance, in one scene, we see the Shrine Maiden planting cherry blossom trees. Ibara asks why she would do something like that, relating his opinion that life has no inherent meaning and that he would choose to gain power not for any particular end but because, well, gaining power is what he does. The Shrine Maiden explains that the thought that the trees will bring joy to people even long after she (cursed with a short life) is gone makes her happy. Ibara, after a moment, joins her in tending the saplings – he protests that it’s just what her father wanted to do, but the framing makes it clear that this is a tsundere style protest.
Eventually, that Shrine Maiden performs the ritual that will seal off the netherworld for a time and also end her life, which Ibara is very distraught with. He’s unable to interfere, but chastises her father for being willing to sacrifice her to the cause.
While this story is being told, we also get the continuation of the present day story. City Hall falls under attack (during which we get a good quiet scene between Kakeru and Oka), after which it’s decided that, as the Oni are acting in an intelligent and coordinated fashion, the teams will need to be reformatted. White Team is formally canned with Ryo and, by her volunteering and in light of the use of air power, Kaede, accepted into the new final team. Haruka is dismissed despite trying to step up, though Black Team’s smooth talker offers to take her under his wing. Kakeru, of course, is left with the silent acknowledgment that his role has ended given his present inability to fight.
Oh, and the ritual? It turns out that the time is more at hand than we knew, as Oka and Benio receive the information that it will be not just some day soon but the very next day. While Benio is upset at the thought of losing her precious sister so suddenly, Oka relates that she’s made peace with her status… though perhaps that’s not so true, as she ends up finding Kakeru to go on a whirlwind bucket list date with him. At first it’s just around town, but when Oka laments being unable to see the ocean again, Kakeru decides to make it happen for her. They get there late and have to rent a room, which leads to even more fresh amusements for Oka as she gets to experience (what Kakeru can put together to immitate) things like room service that a normal person would be able to enjoy. Kakeru has apparent;y been a thrifty boy up until now, so he’ll do his best to make as many of Oka’s dreams come true as he can. Ultimately, as Kakeru’s flashbacks to Ibara’s existence warn him of what’s coming, Oka confesses that there’s no future for her, asking Kakeru to live on and forget her, as either the ritual or Shrine Maiden Mark will apparently claim her life very soon.
Kakeru, of course, says “screw that!” and vows to find a way to save her, rather than allowing her to sacrifice herself for the world – presumably without sacrificing the world for her in the process, but we’ll see how that goes. Benio, meanwhile, is on their trail, having found Oka’s abandoned cell phone and swearing to kill Kakeru, though whether for the sake of the “save the world ritual” mission or as an overprotective big sister, I don’t know. I’d believe either one out of Benio, though we’re at a place in the story where the former may be more likely.
On the side, we do also get one follow-up scene with Haruka and the smooth-talker. He takes her to the museum, which has been held by his family for some time, doing Oni research. He walks her through how Oni work – they’re attracted to the world by human wishes and greed, but those who have their wishes granted are devoured and become Shinja. But what happens if an Oni possesses someone whose wish can’t be granted? He suggests that he and Haruka should intimately know the answer to that, and that they could never be ‘heroes’, giving us reason to suspect something sinister from that quarter other than just the guy’s suspiciously slimy demeanor. Exactly what comes of it, we’ll wait and see.
And that’s the episode’s material and… it’s actually quite good. I mentioned before that Shikizakura’s writing has been curiously good at delivering some quiet moments, mostly in previous scenes between Oka and Kakeru that built their chemistry in a natural and subtle way rather than addressing the matter in a ham-fisted way. This episode is full of that. Kakeru and Oka’s interactions, at least until her confession of what’s going to happen to her, are full of layers that come out in the animation and the voice acting. I know I said that 3d CGI animation is not usually good at conveying subtle facial expressions and emotions, but at least when supported with good writing, good direction, and decent voice acting, it can pull that off despite the handicap. The flashback material with Ibara is similarly dynamite. I love how it approaches and even addresses big issues without bludgeoning the audience over the head with those issues. We don’t need these things to be said more directly, and in fact they’d be weaker if said more directly. Ibara helping plant some trees while declaring in a grumpy tone that he’s not the one doing it? That’s great. It says volumes without using many words. The lost tone of voice and precise hesitations he has when questioned on what he wanted to gain power for? Also excellent at conveying a complex character without spelling it out.
It’s easy to see some of the loud moments of Shikizakura, especially as went on full display early in the show, and say “Well, this is just going to be a stupid action show with lackluster cgi”. Kakeru’s voice can be annoying, expecially when he’s having to shout about being a hero – you think the last thing that Daisuke needed in Revisions was to have a whiny, nasal sort of sound to his voice as well as having nothing good to say. But Kakeru’s voice acting is actually amazingly on point when it comes to softer scenes and conveying nuance. It’s still probably not an acoustically pleasing voice to western ears, but you can tell instantly, even across the language barrier, when he’s nervous, doubting, or putting on a brave face.
I complained, early on, that Shikizakura didn’t have enough emotional play, being largely stuck punching out copy-paste goombas like some sort of beat-em-up video game, and that it needed to live up to the pitch about the Oni that recalled such greats as Madoka Magica. It turns out that, rather fittingly, I was looking in the wrong place – Shikizakura didn’t have us deeply explore particular normal Oni possessions because that’s not where it wanted the drama to be; rather, it put its drama in the team, and the characters we would actually spend more than a single episode with.
I said back in my episode 2 write-up that the show had trouble establishing voices for its characters. Well, it’s episode 9 now, and that problem has been well and fully corrected. Haruka, Kaede, Ryo, Oka, Kakeru, Ibara, Benio, and even Benio’s teammates who don’t get all that much screen time all have distinctive voices. The first couple of episodes were just focused on doing Kakeru’s initiation, and decided to not distract from his experience by trying to have these characters be loud right out of the gate. What seemed like a fault was actually a fairly smart decision.
And as for those replicated minor enemies? We mostly stopped caring about them. If an Oni looks like a generic chompy monster now, it’s probably just there to die in one hit. Instead, we’ve been concerned with a number of unique and intelligent boss monsters, all with their own styles and powers. Mooks are fine as mook; far better respected shows have had faceless legions of disposable evil all more or less look alike, so when we’re not expected to take that seriously as our core nemesis? All’s well.
In general, it seems that most if not all of the complaints and worries I had about this show were the result of not knowing what angle they were approaching their material at. I stand by what I said at the point where I said it, but Shikizakura has done an excellent job of powering forward, either in the ways I identified that it would have to or in new and different ways that I didn’t anticipate. It still has the climax yet to come, and of course could burn a lot of good will there, but right now? I find myself trusting this show, and wanting to see where it goes with its ideas, themes, and characters. That’s a far cry from the fact that I had once thought I’d be writing haiku-style intros for these episode selections like I do for most shows that displease me.