Ao no Exorcist – 22

“Can you not hear the bells signalling the start of the play?”

Hoshi: SOMEONE HOLD ME. EXORCIST IS ALMOST DONE AND SOME SERIOUS SHIT IS GOING ON, MAN. *clings to Hime*

Hime: gfgfgfjgifjfjfdkfdjkcdkdfsdkfdl;dfd;fld;…*gurgle*… *gurgle*… *twitch*…

Hoshi: With the Grigori gone and Mephisto arrested, things quickly start to change, starting with the Academy being temporarily closed and Yukio becoming the new Head of the Japanese branch. It’s not his only new title however, as Yukio mentions he’s also the newly appointed Paladin. Shura almost immediately tells Rin of the news, but as he protests about his brother beating him, Yukio shows up. He tells that the only reason he’s been made Paladin is to carry out the Vatican’s plan called Jacob’s ladder. As to what the details of that plan are, they have yet to be revealed.

Meanwhile, the Cram school students are given all sorts of demon slaying weapons to choose from and are instructed to follow behind their more-skilled superiors as they viciously kill all sorts of demons. Once they’re killed, a red glitter-like substance flows from the bodies and lights a special symbol on all their weapons…

Yukio makes his report on their ‘Crusade’ and as he walks away, reveals the continuation of his and his grandfather’s conversation during the train ride. Ernest says he can make Rin human again once they destroy Gehenna and rid the world of all demonic power. Yukio says it’s impossible, but from behind he sees what Ernest calls the Messiah, a weapon can be launched anytime on his command, but the Gehnna gate has to be opened first. They’ve been able to create an artificial one and to maintain it for a long time they would need an immense amount of demon blood. Not only could this plan help Rin, but also Yukio. After demon killing, Rin meets up with the rest of the students at a camp in the forest. A boar suddenly comes charging through, and is quickly shot down by Yukio. It crashes into the other side of the forest, saying that they have hurt his kin even though they’ve been protecting the forest for over 2,000 years before receiving another bullet to the head, the fatal blow. Rin, hearing everything the boar had said, stops Yukio and tries telling him. However, he only says he needs to kill all demons, even Ukobach and Kuro. He then points a gun at Kuro on Rin’s shoulders. Just as Yukio’s finger pulls the trigger, Rin grabs the gun and points it away from Kuro.

When Rin refuses to let go, Yukio suddenly whips out a clawed hand and throws him harshly, knocking him out without a single look of remorse on his face. Yukio then gets a call with an order to take Rin to the Vatican immediately. Coming out of his unconscious state, Rin wakes up to find himself in the Vatican headquarters prison alongside Mephisto, who’s been imprisoned because of his work in the study of Artificial life almost 500 years ago. Mephisto doesn’t stay long though as he turns himself into a dog and slips away to catch the show unfolding. It’s then that Ernest appears, telling Arthur he has to be on the defense to make sure no one interrupts a ceremony…

Meanwhile, the cram school students, confused about the current situation go to Professor Tsubaki and find out that Rin is to be sentenced to death! His execution will take place at the top of the Academy, where he is now being lead, handcuffed and strapped to a cross. The group of exorcists gathered around the site start praying as the special demon slaying weapons, gathered in piles, start leaking blood to form a large circle in the middle. Ernest then draws Rin’s sword and thrusts it into the ground, shocking Rin. Yukio finally appears, confused. Ernest tells him that they are going to sacrifice Rin to open the Gehnna gate!

In the last bit, the cram school students, managing to get past Angel thanks to Shura, arrive at the top of the Academy with quite the sight in front of them: dead exorcists, a large hole, Ernest crying out that the gate has opened a way for Armageddon, an unconscious, bleeding Rin, and the lone figure of Yukio drenched in blue flames~

End thoughts~

Hoshi: First of all, I apologize for the extremely late post. You know, college and all that homework jazz. Anyways, WHAT-IN-THE-WORLD-IS-GOING-ON. If it felt chaotic last episode, this episode brought that chaotic feel to a whole new level. Everything was fast-paced, war-like, and a bit crazy with all those major changes going on that no one explained, and left others to only question quietly to themselves. It definitely had that pre-end-of-the-world feel to it, like a story where they take extreme measures to prevent a small doom, but end up ruining the world and all life around them in this attempt to save the world.

For some reason it felt cruel to see how they dealt with the demons so violently. I know they are supposed to exorcise demons, defeat them and what not, but the way they had went about animating how they killed them made it seem quite horrific. Their weapons I think also added to that feel since it was just guns and the occasional blade weapon. Before the weapon change, it was small guns, chanters, and the like, which seemed less menacing, but then here they are this time around equipped with big guns that steal the dead demon’s blood. And there really was no mercy, no hesitation or questioning if maybe this demon was possibly a familiar or protector of a certain area, as Yukio showed when shooting that boar. I actually sympathized with Shiemi and Izumo this time around.

I also  really, really, really couldn’t stand just how…naïve Rin was in the beginning of the episode. I honestly wanted to slap him for acting so normal. YOUR TWIN BROTHER DOESN’T SHOW UP FOR DAYS, BECOMIS PALADIN, AND BECOMES HEAD OF THE BRANCH MAGICALLY IN THOSE FEW DAYS; why are you so CALM about it? It was a small scene but I got so irritated, I couldn’t let it go .This entire episode was literally a Gasp-fest for me with Yukio becoming Paladin AND Head of the Japanese branch, and that ending with Yukio seemingly possessed by Satan, and Rin possibly dead (though I doubt they’d really kill the main character. This is Shounen). I thought it was over once the ending song started playing, but NOPE. What a surprise I had with that last bit…

Mephisto’s monologue in the preview was killer…I don’t think I’ve ever been so anxious or scared for an upcoming Exorcist episode before…SUNDAY WHERE ARE YOU~

Hime: I take back what I said about Yukio being smart; he’s a dumbass. I was sort of half right about his motives, though. He was in it for Rin’s benefit, but turning him human? Didn’t see that coming. And when he called Grandpa a liar, as if it was outrageous, oh how I laughed. I was like DUH, YUKIO. He might as well be called Shady McEvilDude and you trusted him with THE LIFE OF YOUR BROTHER. Another thing I found really funny was the execution of Grandpa’s plan; if he was going to use Rin to open the gate all along and have Satan possess Yukio…surely he should have made sure Yukio was actually THERE. Hell, he just sort of wandered in at random not knowing what was going on. I just kept thinking…What if he’d gone to lunch? Like, “God, all this scheming and lying is making me hungry. It’s not like the gates of Hell will open if I take a break for 5 minutes is it? Ohohoho~” The end of the episode was one of the most incredible things ever, though I’ll get to that later.

Using the students as unwitting blood gatherers was pretty dark and disturbing, I liked it. Something I hated though, and they do this in a lot of movies (like Godzilla, for example), is they make the characters feel bad for the things they are killing when it turns one-sided, forgetting of course the REASON they were hunting whatever monster it is in the first place. Like Shiemi asking “is this what exorcists do?” YES! YES! IT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEY DO! I’m sorry, do you want to just toss the demons some of your men to om nom nom on just to even up the sides a bit? Fuck off. Just do you’re fucking job, leave the morals at the back door, please. Obviously Yukio was the opposite extreme wanting to kill Kuro and the boar God on loan from Princess Mononoke, but at least he was doing his JOB, and not letting some hypocritical view-point get in his way. I support your slaughter of the innocent, Yukio. *salutes* Yukio was such an asshole this time around that I doubt many will sympathise with him, but I still do. The Possessed Ending in games is always the hardest one…

I enjoyed the combining of the manga and the anime plotline again, even if it was done thinly. There was some definate parallels and it is kind of fun because it throws you off, I had my mind in knots anticipating how they were going to do things, and what scenes they were going to keep and what ones they were going to toss. That being said, despite all my musing about what they would do with Yukio, I was still reduced to incoherent jabbering and drooling when the end of the episode hit. When I could finally speak all I could think to say was: “They did it! They did it! They actually fucking did it!” I’d hoped for this kind of ending, mostly because demon!Yukio is so hot I just don’t even. But that image of him burning brimstone blue and with the fangs and ears and shit… I just haven’t been able to shake it from my brain since Sunday! BEST (and most evil) WAY TO END AN EPISODE, EVAR!!!!111!!!!!!! I can’t wait to hear what Jun does with this, oxygen mask on standby…. bring on episode 23!

It looks to be predominately a flashback showing just how we got from Yukio’s shocked face to Armageddon. Hnnng…need it now…..

Preview:

Is it really Armageddon for the Exorcist world? What happened in those few minutes before the students arrived? And has the unthinkable happened to Yukio? Will are questions FINALLY BE ANSWERED?! Looks like it’s another agonizing wait, folks. 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.