Ao no Exorcist 19 – 20

There are fun days, and then there are serious days…

Hoshi: FINALLY IT IS HERE. Sorry for the delay, folks! I learned this past weekend that you should definitely NOT procrastinate when it comes to college things, but, we’re not here to talk about my new college life, we’re here to catch up on Exorcist! Now let’s get this late show on the ROAD~

Hime: Everyone’s heading off or back to college! Exciting times! What I would give to go to True Cross Academy, though. And it’s got nothing to do with the myriad of hot teachers, oh no, no no, what do you take me for?

Hoshi: As a rouse to get closer to girls, Shima tries out his fortune telling on Shiemi and Izumo, which reveals the fact Izumo’s birthday is coming up soon! Shiemi decides to throw a surprise birthday party for her and with the help of Bon, they all get their jobs for the preparation settled. Shima seeks out Paku to find out what kind of present to get her, Rin and Konekomaru join together to make a cake, and Shiemi and Bon come together as well to make decorations while Izumo stumbles upon them, one by one, severely confused by their strange reactions around her.

Izumo ends up going off the deep end when deciding to stalk Paku and Shima, who she believes are dating when in actuality, they’re picking her present together! As the two share an umbrella and get a little too close for her comfort, she freaks out and ends up stumbling over, making her appearance known. She tells them she thought Shima was going to kiss Paku, and as he frantically tries to defend himself, he accidentally lets it slip about her birthday present, and party. The next day at class, Izumo is angry, but for a surprising reason: it’s unfair that they didn’t celebrate anyone else’s birthday before hers! In the end, they make the birthday party for everyone in their class.

The day of the party, Rin brings his homemade cake, but accidentally bumps onto the cart it’s on! Konekomaru, however, dives for it, managing to catch it in time and save the second attraction. While everyone huddles around the table for a present lottery, Shiemi notices Yukio just standing off the side. She goes to talk to him and he tells her that he and Rin don’t know their actual birthday, where they were born, or who even gave birth to them. Despite that, Shiemi tells him thank you for being born before the two go to get their presents. Yukio gets a call however, where he finds out that their monastery was attacked…

Continuing right into episode 20, the twins rush inside the monastery to find the church filled with strange, stringy web and their friends wrapped tightly in a cocoon of the same material. Luckily, they are still breathing from a protective layer around them, but it grows weaker and weaker with time, and they have no idea how to dissolve the hardened web. In frustration over having the priests attacked because of him, Rin takes off, searching for the masked perpetrator, who suddenly appears from above. The masked man tells him he should know how it feels to lose the ones close to him. Before Rin could even draw out his sword, a web shoots out from the masked man, sealing his sword, and then pushes him against the wall to tell him that he won’t kill him yet so he can suffer just as much as he did. Yukio comes in, but fails to shoot the masked man. Rin tries to go after him, but Shura also appears, stopping him. Yukio runs after him instead and follows him through the city to a clock tower, where he finds a familiar figure: Neshaus.

Yukio immediately assumes he was the one responsible for the attack on the monastery, but Neshaus tells him his judgment is clouded and refuses to follow him back to the academy. Suddenly the clock tower begins to fall apart, and Yukio manages to shoot a tracer onto Neshaus’s jacket. Back at the monastery where Rin struggles with his sealed sword, Yukio and Shura explore the possibility of Neshaus being involved with the portal and artificial life research. Rin tries to go out again, but Yukio stops him, saying he’ll catch Neshaus himself with help from the other teachers. When he protests, Yukio points his gun at him, shocking even Shura. Rin makes one last attempt to escape by going towards the window, but Yukio fires a tranquilizer into him and leaves him in Shura’s care.

Later, Yukio and three other teachers enter the sewer to look for Neshaus, where they do find him walking around. He doesn’t stay still for long and launches an attack on them. He manages to escape, and as Yukio goes back, he finds one of the teachers has been wrapped in the strange web. Meanwhile, Rin wakes up from the tranquilizer, ready to right. Shura stops him however, saying he’d be worthless if he went since he still can’t control his flames. She brings out three candles once again in one last attempt to make him realize that he needs to control his flames for the sake of everyone around him.

As for Yukio’s situation, one of the professors receives a call saying that the masked man has been tracked down to the Boy’s dormitory at True Cross Academy. Inside, Bon and Shima are seen trying to fight off the masked man who already has Konekomaru trapped in the web. Yukio and the other professor arrive quickly, where they are told that the masked man has asked for no one to enter to keep the hostages alive, with the exception of Satan’s son. Mephisto appears, ready to conjure an attack against the perpetrator but is quickly stopped by the Paladin. He is told there is a warrant for him because of suspicion that he might be engaged in the forbidden artificial life research. Of course, Mephisto escapes being caught and as he walks away, Yukio decides to go inside the dorm’s cafeteria by himself.

The masked man, holding Shima, Bon, and Konekomaru hostage, grabs Shima’s phone and calls Rin, trying to provoke him. Yukio makes his move by throwing a can of holy water at him, then shooting at him, but it’s ineffective, and he’s soon captured by the webs himself. Because of his sudden intrusion, the masked man decides to kill Shima, Bon, and Konekomaru, but Rin comes crashing through the window in time. Shura also appears, along with more forces, to try and finally pin down the masked man. However they too get captured by the web, except Rin, whose blue flames actually dissolve it! He unleashes his blue flames to free everyone and throw out the masked man onto the ground floor. Shura follows the masked man, watching as the mask breaks and reveals a woman. As the woman quickly runs away, Neshaus suddenly appears, stopping Shura from giving chase. She manages to grab hold of him, and he reveals that the woman is his wife…

Back at the monastery, Rin uses his flames to free the priests while Yukio sits outside alone. All of a sudden, a man appears before him, saying there’s someone who would like to meet him. Yukio is lead into a compartment in a train, where an older man named Ernest Frederick Aegin tells him that he’s glad to see him, his grandson~.

End thoughts~

Hoshi: You do not know how bad I wanted to get through my classes this week JUST to talk about these past two episodes. Episode 19 was totally generic, as I suspected, but I surprisingly laughed quite a bit. KONEKOMARU WAS SUCH A BOSS SAVING THAT CAKE. His reaction was HILARIOUS; I think I laughed the most in just that little tidbit. The Christmas cake bit with Rin and Yukio was so adorable. I miss those adorable moments…EVERYTHING IS SO SERIOUS NOW –SOB-. Anyways, goodness, Izumo has such a woman crush on Paku. I mean, who goes following their friend in such a dramatic getup to see if they’re really dating a guy or not? It’s okay Izumo; I have woman crushes too.

As for episode 20, WHAT.IN THE HELL.IS.GOING.ON. I had so many mixed feelings going on after watching this episode; I actually wanted to cry a little from being so distraught. It all felt so…rushed! And when they rush things like that, they make it look so silly! For example, Rin turns corner, BAM, there’s the masked guy (woman I guess). He turns another corner, BAM, there’s Shura; turn another corner, BAM, there’s Neshaus; Bring out the candles Rin has been struggling with for 3 episodes, BAM, gets it on one go. Yukio looks away from officer, BAM, there’s Mephisto; stare at magical fire thing of Mephisto’s, BAM, Paladin appears with a freaking fire truck, A FIRE TRUCK. Then the ending with the reveal of the ‘Grandfather’ to Yukio on the dim-lit train reminds me of some cheesy novella (Spanish soap opera) season finale. I will admit, this has some interesting possibilities, I mean, I don’t know about you but I would love to see who their mother was, but that execution was so…cheesy. To me, everything just felt over-exaggerated, especially Yukio’s (can I say obsessive?) need to protect Rin. Maybe this is just the fangirl in me, but seeing him so intense like that really urked me. I like Yukio because he’s calm, cool, and collected, and then suddenly he’s bat-shit crazy over protecting Rin. I can guess he’s just extremely stressed over something *cough* his mark *cough cough* but this episode just abused that excuse.

Overall, if you couldn’t tell, I really did not like these past two episodes. Episode 19 was bearable, I’ll admit, got a few decent laughs over its silliness, but episode 20 just…just take a few steps away from me, thanks. This fangirl-infested brain of mine does tend to overreact, so in my heart, there is hope that they’ll make this a bit less ridiculous than from what I’m imagining, especially after watching that preview, which looks quite exciting. There is potential for a good ending, and I trust A-1, who’s original material I do admire from time to time, that they will make a good ending. On a totally semi-unrelated note, that commercial for the Exorcist manga was BRILLIANT<3 I spazzed so hard, you don’t even know, man~

Hime: Well 19 did turn out to be a fairly “nothing” episode, with the exception of maybe more exposure of Yukio’s dirty little secret and seeing domestic-Rin (and Konekomaru) again. That being said it remained as entertaining as the senario could be. This is probably a terrible thing to say, but it reminded me of MM!’s last episode. Which I liked and thought was very sweet. The birthday thing gave Izumo another maturity boost, and while I’m still not her biggest fan she does have her comendable moments. Like when she said they should celebrate everyone’s birthdays that have passed at once because it was only fair.

 NEUHAUS! *shake fist* I just love this crooked teacher. He has scary ass Ghouls and if you put him in a dark place with flashlights it’s definitely going to up the creep-factor. (he’s also pretty sexy in that psychotic kind of way) kekekekeke….Also, was that Shura’s voice I heard? We need her back for more ass kicking. Definitely.

Whoa, I think Yukio needs to take a chill pill. So yeah, episode 20 was kind of silly. Neuhaus has a wife and the Okamura bros. have a Grandfather? Something doesn’t mesh here. Pulling family members out of nowhere is a no-no in my book. I really hate it, if only because foreshadowing makes me squee. Another reason it angers me is cause it’s pushing back Yukio’s arc which they keep tantalizing us with. Yukio was really borderline crazy this episode, too. It was pretty hard to watch him royally suck at everything he set out to do. I mean, Rin was out of line too but no more than usual. Though, when he shoved him I did shout“NOBODY PUTS YUKIO IN THE CORNER!”at my laptop screen. (He wasn’t even in a corner…BUT THE REFERENCE STILL STANDS!)

Anyway, it’s episodes like these were Rin’s character really grates. His reckless and STFU-everybody, I’m right! attitude is nigh insufferable. Shura’s firm talking to seems to drill it into his thick skull that he’s doing more harm than good by rushing in all the time, but we shouldn’t have NEEDED her to say it, it slows things down, makes Rin look like an idiot and generally just serves to show the one-dimentionalness of his character. The animation was very herp-derp, too. Which sucks cause there was lots of Yukio, and I wish we could have seen the style at it’s best. Spider guy, or girl…I should say, was reasonably creepy but felt slightly out of place. I dunno what it was but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I was just too thrown by the fact Neuhaus has a WIFE. A freakin’ wife! I just can’t get my head around it…

Preview:

Yukio stays to talk with his supposed grandfather, the Paladin visits a graveyard, but for what reason? And what will become of Neshaus, and how has wife gained this spider-like power? SO MANY QUESTIONS, SO LITTLE ANSWERS, IT’LL RACK YOUR BRAIN FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! 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.