Ao no Exorcist – 18

And fear rises within a certain student…

Hoshi: They really like to spam commercials on Exorcist, don’t they? Though I’m not complaining; they’re pretty interesting and hilarious sometimes. BUT THAT MOE COMMERCIAL WITH THE CARDS…I’M DYING

Hime: Every time I see the lyrics for “Wired Life” it becomes a more and more fitting ED to this series. The OP as well has some great little hints at what’s to come.

Hoshi: Continuing from last week, the mysterious bird demon attacks Rin head on, but Rin manages to defend himself with his unsheathed sword. Then the bird shoots a slew of sharp feathers towards him, one managing to cut to his cheek. Izumo steps in using her familiars, but with a gust of strong wing, it shreds the papers and knocks Rin into a classroom. Before he can bring out his sword, the bird grips the handle with its talons, preventing him from doing so. Luckily, Yukio comes in, shooting at the bird until it swiftly escapes through a window.

Mephisto and Yukio enter as the rest of the gang gathers, telling that a demon named Gale has infiltrated the Academy despite Mephisto’s strong barriers. Either there’s a weak point in the barriers or someone has invited it into the academy. The esquires are ordered to check for any possible weak points, except Rin, who still has to concentrate on his personal training. Meanwhile, Konekomaru suddenly appears on top of a roof, talking to Gale, who keeps trying to get him to accept him so they can kill Rin. For the mean time, he refuses.

Back in the classroom, Rin tries to coax Yukio into hunting for Gale together, but a sudden look of pain from Yukio has him cutting his argument early to step out for a minute. Rin decides to go out on his own when Konekomaru enters in the doorway, Gale hovering right behind him. While Bon and Shima meet up with Yukio in the washroom, they suddenly hear someone cry out. Following the sound, they see Konekomaru running away from Rin, who has his sword out and flames ablazed. Rin tries to tell them Konekomaru is dangerous as he keeps seeing Gale hovering around him, and even attempts to kill it, but Bon quickly stops him using Shima’s staff. Just as everything seems to be settled down, Rin spots Gale one last time and sends flames toward Konekomaru! Bon manages to protect him in time however as Yuko pushes Rin away. Then suddnely, Bon comes up and punches Rin the face, reminding him that he’ll kill him without mercy if he hurts anyone around him.

Meanwhile, Shura and another professor go in search of Gale, and find a lone van glowing green inside. Upon entering it, they are transported to a snowy, moutainous landscape. Shura decides to look around more and finds a strange, destroyed laboratory admist the forest. As for Konekomaru, he wakes up in the hospital with Bon by his side. He admits he’s scared of Rin, and Bon tries to make him feel better by telling him that he’s just an idiot with a fearsome power, but nothing special on the inside. As Bon leaves, showing the burnt backside of his shirt from saving him from Rin’s flames, Konekomaru’s fear goes into overdrive and Gale appears to coax him into accepting him, which he finally does as he loses mental control. The two become one and fly out of the room, Bon watching the entire thing.

Rin is lying on top of his dorm roof when Gale and Konekomaru appear to him. They immediatly go after him, throwing sharped feathers as Yukio, Bon, and Shima appear to try and stop him. However he don’t listen and sets up a barrier of wind so strong not even Yukio’s bullets can get through. Konekomaru picks up a beaten-down Rin, ready to kill him, but Bon tries to get him back to normal by making him realize he’s turning into a demon himself. Rin on the other hand lets his flames out, asking him why he’s giving in to Gale instead of asking for help from his friends. Just as Konekomaru finally realizes what he’s done and decides against killing Rin, Gale refuses to let him go. Rin unseathes his sword, asking him to jump. He does, and Rin grabs him, slaying Gale at the same time. They both collapse to the ground, Konekomaru apoligzing to Rin…

The next day, Konekomaru is missing from his hospital room and waiting outside with a suitcase in hand. Rin comes by, asking what he’s doing. He explains that the priest took care of him, and he wanted to pay back a little of their kindness by going with Bon to the academy, but he feels he’s just a scaredy-cat and has decided to quit. Rin tells him that he sees him as a friend, even though he tried to kill him, because he trusted him. It’s then that the rest of the class comes over, wondering where he had been all that time when they didn’t see him at his hospital room~.

End thoughts~

Hoshi: Amaimon’s a hamster….AMAIMON’S A HAMSTER YOU GUYS. Oh A-1, you are so silly~ First you break Amaimon fangirls’ hearts that send some of us into rage, and then you return him, but as a hamster. I FEEL TROLLED; but it’s a troll I can’t help but enjoy.  Anyways, KONEKOMARU YOU FRUSTRATE ME SO MUCH! I just couldn’t stand that he was starting to act so weak. He had been doing so well in the bravery category, but I can understand finding out about Rin, the child of the evil being that killed his parents, could cause that incessant fear. So, I still love you, Konekomaru Come get a hug from Mama Hoshi. Gale was one nasty demon to pry off his fear like that. Not to mention, his voice seriously freaked me out. As for the reappearance of Neshaus, I’m actually quite happy he’s back. I sense some more evil plans from Mephisto involving him, and it excites me so~

The fact Yukio’s mark on his shoulder appeared again has me seriously biting my nails. With this, plus the melancholic images from the OD and ED sequences, has me speculating even more that they might have some sort of story planned for the twins. I remember Hime first mentioned something about it when the new sequences appeared, and now I’m starting to wonder. I’M SCARED NOW TOO HIME! I can only imagine they’ll pit them against each other like in Episode 3, OR WORSE AGHHH. E-Either way, we’ll just have to see. To be honest, I’m pretty pleased with this original route so far. They’ve managed to keep it interesting, and, not to mention, hella intense with the battle scenes and Mephisto’s evil plans. Though, I can’t say I’m looking forward to next episode. I hope it’s some sort of calm-before-the-storm type of episode so we can get right back into the action and relieve this anxiety of mine~.

Hime: I HAVE NO WORDS.

But I need to so….Okay, I’ve heard a lot of people bashing Konekomaru. He’s cute and vulnerable, but it’s not like he’s useless so I don’t get all the frustration. Plus it helped resolve Rin’s position within the group a little better. Hearing Rin denounce Satan is really what the guys needed to hear to be able to ever begin to trust him again. The way the demon took over Konekomaru was a nice little call back to when Shimei was possessed, too; these demons look like they are wearing our heroes to the prom like that. Dayum, it’s hilarious.

I was just thinking how I missed Neuhaus and wished he would come back. I thought he had good villain potential, and lo and behold! He is back and up to his old tricks again. He’s the only one guilty of summoning akuma inside school grounds at least. Just how many does this guy have at his beck and call? He’s also probably responsible for snitching on Rin to the Vatican, not to mention he’s always trying to get Yukio out the way to get his sexy sexy revenge.

Okay, I need to unleash my inner fangirl a bit here and rant about that scene between Yukio and Rin in the classroom. Just the way Rin put his hand on Yukio’s shoulder, then in a really deep voice went “Well, then…” – it looked so much like the start of a yaoi doujin! I CAN’T BE THE ONLY ONE. YOU KNOW YOU THOUGHT IT. YOU DID. DEN THE MARK BIT. HOMG. First of all, can you say DAT BACK? But yeah, fuck, the thing looks like it’s spreading and it’s also totally hurting him. NOT ALLOWED. UH-UH. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO NOTICE AND GIVE HIM A HUG (and by hug I mean sex). I don’t know if it was triggered by the fact he was shouting at Rin (you know some kind of thing that feeds off hate/anger/fear like Ashitaka’s curse from Mononoke, maybe?) or if it was just random, but either way…at least we got some more fanservice :3 It was great to see Shura’s snakes again, too. They are so cool!

The Anime VS Manga shit storm is still going strong, I see, as well. The bile from “purists” of the manga writing off Ao No Ex’s anime is just ridiculous. With a few exceptions, the original filler episodes have been very good, so what’s wrong with an original story arc? Is it because it’s the ending that everyone is getting so pissed? Because y’all know the manga has no ending either yet, right? So however the anime choses to end it won’t be canon anyway? The feel of the series remains the same, and it all seems to fit in the same universe so stop with the constant FMA comparisons, please. It is NOT the same thing. So despite the potential filler/waste of time next episode, I’m fairly confident they’ll wrap up Exorcist nicely (or at least this new angle with Neuhaus and Yukio’s strange marks) before the end. An arc can be told in 4 or 5 or even 3 episodes so I’m not going to start panicking. I am impatient only because I’m so excited for the prospects. I do have this horrific idea of how they could end it, ah-la Code Geass season 1, but no I don’t think it’ll go that “unresolved face-off” route. Even Pandora Hearts wasn’t evil enough to do that.

Also, Amaimon is a hamster now… lol, whut?

Preview:

It looks like a normal day for the esquires as Shima does some fortune telling to snag some girls, and the others do their own thing for the day. A perfect fitting title, no? 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.