Ao no Exorcist – 04

You will now be afraid to go near or into gardens…

Hoshi: My couple bias is definitely not noticeable; I mean, the thumbnails chose themselves, you know? Er, anyway, it’s that moment once again for another Kana Hanazawa character to shine! With all these boys and bromance going on, it’s about time they added a female character (and she won’t be the last). So let’s see just who this new, adorable character is~.

Hime: TIME FOR MORE EXORCIST. YESSSS. MY BODY IS READY.

Hoshi: The day starts with Yukio nagging Rin about studying hard to be an exorcist, then announcing that he’s going out to do an exorcism request, as well as shop for supplies. Rin gets excited and asks to come, making the excuse that it’ll be more educational for him. Hesitantly, Yukio agrees and leads the way using a special key to the supply store, which, like Rin’s cram school key, can access a way to the store with any door. So why special keys? The academy is actually very important to the True Cross order, so Mephisto has set up a maze of amulets and barriers to ward off demons. The keys serve to avoid those traps and visit the world outside the academy.

They head to the supply store at which Rin has to wait outside since only exorcists are allowed in. He has a look around and finds a gate surrounding a beautiful garden. Staring at the blond haired girl inside, Rin accidentally touches the gate which shocks him, then suddenly makes one of the gate doors fall off its hinges. It turns out the gate is a warding gate that reacted to his demon blood. The girl tries to crawl away from him, fearing that he’s a demon (hurrhurr), but keeps falling over for some reason.

Meanwhile, inside the store as Yukio is purchasing his items, the owner tells him that the girl’s, Shiemi’s legs are getting worse and worse without a known cause. The reason she call him over was to help find out why. Back to the garden, Shiemi has Rin help her out and after formally introducing themselves, tells him about the garden and her grandmother, who died that winter. Suddenly Yukio and the owner, Shiemi’s mother, come out, where Yukio finally takes a look at her legs and explains that they are roots, a spirit wound from a demon. The demon has possessed a plant in the garden and reached a crack in Shiemi’s heart through her legs, and the only way it could have come to her is if a plant had talked to her.  She tells him no, yet her mother still butts in, telling her to leave the garden despite how much she wants to take care of it for her grandmother. Shiemi argues back, but suddenly faints…

As Shiemi rests, she dreams of her grandmother and the day she died. Shiemi was excited to go out and look for the Garden of Amahara, a place her grandmother told of often, that she left before helping her grandmother cover the grapes, who told her not to worry about. Yet, the next thing seen is her grandmother’s funeral portrait. Shiemi stands in front of where the grapes used to be, scared for her grandmother’s garden. A voice suddenly comes from a flower, telling her that it’s the fairy of the garden, and if Shiemi lends it her strength, that it will protect the garden. Not knowing what to expect, she agrees.

Shiemi wakes up, remembering her promise and goes out to water the garden. Rin finds her however and starts smashing down potted plants much to her dismay. She yells at him to stop, but he asks her why she ties herself down to the garden. Shiemi confesses if only had she returned sooner and stayed to help her grandmother, she wouldn’t have tried it herself and been crushed. She feels that it’s her fault, which strikes a chord in Rin, reminding him about Father Fujimoto’s death.

Yukio interrupts their tender moment together to tell Shiemi that the demon is not a serious threat and will deal with it quickly. However, the demon-possessed plant finally shows itself at the breaking of Shiemi’s promise, using her body as a shield.

Yukio asks Rin to help him out, and he excitedly takes out his sword. Yet since Shiemi is part of the flower-demon, he is unable to cut it. Yukio decides to use his gun, shooting at Shiemi (with nutrient caplets), much to Rin’s and the flower’s surprise. It frees Shiemi, then gets slayed by Rin finally. Her legs return to normal, and in the end, both her and her mother resolve their fighting.

But that isn’t the last they see of Shiemi when the next day she ends up joining Rin in class! She tells him that he was the reason, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she only came to see him…~.

End thoughts~

Hime: I could talk about the fun relationship between the brothers now that they’ve sorted out their angst, how delicate and real the emotions of Hanazawa’s character were or even how Ghibli esque the garden was; which is one of the biggest compliments an anime can get. But, no. You want to know what I’m focusing on? RIN’S DAMN TAIL. It’s frigging hypnotizing. I want one. In fact, no, I don’t. I want a demon boy of my very own, who is willing to amuse me to no end by just letting me pull on it. It’s so SPIKEY and AWESOME. So, after a second viewing I somehow managed to tear my mind away from my long standing tail fetish and concentrate on the episode. Shiemi’s relationship with her Mother was pretty cool to watch, quite intense. I did roll my eyes when she randomly fainted though, if I passed out everytime I told my mum I hated her I’d never be concious. Shiemi herself is super cute, but I thought Rin was a bit harsh on her. I mean, he was all in her face with his fangs and had a fist in her shirt. She’s DINKY. Lay off, man. ಠ_ಠ

As much as I’ve been enjoying both the OP and ED, I haven’t really noticed much music in the actual show. Music isn’t my area at all but I’m not totally oblivious to it’s importance. The OST definately feels lacking compared to some of the other shows this season *cough* Deadman *cough*, but I’ll try to pay more attention just incase I’m missing the glaringly obvious, as I have a habit of doing. I was also kind of sad to notice they re-used Rin’s…transformation scene? – well, his demon power-up, anyway – and just xeroxed it onto another background. And honestly, when the little demon showed itself and turned Shiemi into a giant floating pansy I laughed. It just looked so silly, all the tension of “Oh no! Will Yukio shoot her?” was totally sucked away into oblivion as soon as I saw those evil eyes pop open on the petals. Hiiiilarous~ The whole thing was resolved a little too easily, with the whole reconciliaction between Mother and Daughter being a bit to brisk for my liking, but I enjoyed them up to that point. Bickering and malicious! That’s always more fun.

Oh but speaking of Yukio… (Yuki-Kun!~) I haven’t had a chance to do my usual fangirl rant about him yet, have I? Well, holyshlamoliescheeseonataco! His badass streak continues. That evil look he got in his eye, and that smile when he was testing the demon was so fucking hot. Unf. I love it when Jun does evil. I think it’s because he so rarely plays characters like that. He’s always so happy-go-lucky and adorably naive and vulnerable. When he’s got an attitude or acts smug and caniving it just DOES THINGS TO ME. Anyway, I’m looking forward to next episode. We get back to the classroom and hopefully get introduced to more of the colourful cast. Though I think I have competition for fangirling over Yukio as Shimei seems to like him too…¬¬ Back off bitch, I OWN THAT VOICE. You’re only just now able to walk, lets keep it that way, shall we? Those wee chibi’s at the end were so adorable, I hope they use that more to comedic effect. I lol’d just seeing them.

Hoshi: Manga Trivia Time from the self-proclaimed manga queen~! Did you know that the manga Rin is reading in the beginning scene is actually a one-shot named ‘Hoshi Ota’ by the mangaka of Ao no Exorcist, Katou Kazue? Unfortunately, it hasn’t been translated, so I have yet to tell you how it is.

While last week we got our heavy dose of pure twin sexiness and kick-ass gunfire (Haters gonna hate), this episode was really toned down with the introduction Shiemi. I have to say, Shiemi is probably the one character in a shounen series that I don’t find annoying in the least bit. So far, she’s not extremely whiny, and I doubt she’ll become one of those weak, crying-all-the-time girl characters. Plus, she’s so adorable! The one thing that bothers me though is how they animated Shiemi. For some reason her face and hair looked really weird, like her hair would seem to float out at times. Maybe it’s just me and the fact that I’m actually re-reading the manga (I HAVE NO PATIENCE).

Speaking of the manga, there is actually quite a lot of differences in the first, second, and third episodes I hadn’t realized. While I won’t name them out so you can actually go and read it yourself, the anime did change it quite a bit, and added scenes to span it a good first two episodes, because the whole thing is just smushed into one chapter. I have to say, A-1 does great story changes. ANYWAYS, back to the actual episode, it was pretty ‘meh’ for me overall. I don’t like the story in the manga, and it being animated doesn’t make it all the much better. But hey, every show needs to have a mellow episode, especially when introducing a new character. Next week though I have my hopes my high, and my fangirl heart ready for more new characters, especially the one talking to Mephisto, heheheheh~.

Preview:

Looks like we finally get to see who the rest of these mysterious students are in Rin and Shiemi’s class, but not without some problems arising. Yet I think the main question is, who is this mysterious looking character that’s talking to Mephisto? Will we find out more about the equally mysterious Mephisto as well? Until next week then~!

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.