Quick Summary of Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6
In Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6, “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” Saburota Todo and Mamushi Hojo arrive at Goma Hall, where things take a turn for the worse — at least for Mamushi. Yukio Okumura continues reading Tatsuma Suguro’s letter to Rin Okumura and Shura Kirigakure, and that letter yields even more surprises. We finally learn the terrible secret that the Tatsuma’s father had passed down to his son. It’s not clear if any of them will survive it.
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious!
What’s In This Post
Quick Episode Summary
What Happened in this Episode
What I Liked in this Episode
What I Liked Not so Much in this Episode
Thoughts about the Episode
Related Posts
What Happened in Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6
Todo’s Subtle Deception
Mamushi was surprised to find Goma Hall’s sacred flame still burning. Todo seemed surprised, too. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Todo leads Mamushi further into the mountains, towards the Myōō (Myoda) Dharani sect’s old and abandoned settlement. Their target is Goma Hall, where Todo says the Right Eye had originally been kept. He convinces her that this place has their best chance to protect the eyes from Tatsuma. She expects to find Goma hall empty; instead, she finds the sacred flame is still burning bright. She feels her conviction wavering.
Rin and Kirigakure urge Yukio to keep reading the letter Tatsuma wrote for Rin. The letter’s story continues: Shiro Fujimoto had just arrived to take the ancient demon fighting sword, Kurikara. That sword is the Myoda sect’s main object of worship, because the sword’s flames had been used to seal the Impure King. But when the priests try to take it from him, Fujimoto collapses from the wounds incurred during his recent battle with a demon. After the sect treated him, Fujimoto woke up and immediately reaffirms that his goal to take the sword. He doesn’t win Tatsuma’s trust when he goes on to say his bosses will use the sword to kill a child. Fujimoto then goes on a rampage, bursting into buildings looking for the sword, until he finds dozens and dozens of the inhabitants in sick beds, faces covered in miasma-induced boils.
Fujimoto begins to teach the sect how to treat miasma. Though I’m not clear how Eagle’s Claw chili will help… Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Leadership Doesn’t Always Mean Smart
They protest that his entry will disturb their prayers. Their naiveté infuriated Fujimoto. He asked if their prayers had helped anyone heal. He then teaches them how to make the medicines that treat the infection. Soon, almost everyone is on the mend. Tatsuma’s angry that Fujimoto still wants the sword, and Tatsuma’s father is enraged and orders the temple’s priests to kill Fujimoto. Then he berates Tatsuma for letting Fujimoto help them. Tatsuma rejects that line of thinking and helps Fujimoto escape — after giving him the sword and telling him that it no longer contains a demon.
Mamushi finally realizes just how badly she’s been betrayed. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Todo and Mamushi find a hidden door, and they descend. Before destroying the seals and entering the chamber, Mamushi almost collapses under the strain the Right Eye inflicts on her body. Todo convinces her to give it to him. When they enter, she can’t understand what she’s seeing: what looks like a giant animal carcass is chained in the air above another flame. Todo tells her how her sect’s founder used the demon sword to attack the Impure King, but to no avail. Only after Karura, the sword’s spirit, left the sword and made a pact with the sect’s founder were they were able to pluck out the Impure King’s eyes and seal him.
Mamushi Finally Understands
That body hangs above them now. Mamushi finally understands the dept of todo’s betrayal. As Todo tries to kill her, Tatsuma appears in a flash of gold flames. The flames belong to Karura, and the final secrets fall away: the spirit served the sect’s high priests in secret so it could general lies and mistrust — its food. That was its price for helping them. Todo attacks, and during the fight, he tosses the Right and Left eye to the carcass, which takes them in and begins coming back to life. It swells, doubling, tripling its mass. Tatsuma escapes the chamber with Mamushi.
Tatsuma prepares to take on the Impure King before it can regain its strength. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Juzo Shima, who had been tailing Tatsuma but had lost track of him, arrives at Goma Hall just as the ground starts to shake. Tatsuma arrives above ground with Mamushi just moments before the Impure King’s mass blasts up and through Goma Hall. Tatsuma asks Juzo to take her back to her father, and he asks her to tell them everything she knows. The high priest intends to stay behind and keep the Impure King from advancing. As Juzo and Mamushi leave, Tatsuma unleashes his most powerful spell through Karura, and they freeze the Impure King where it is. But he didn’t see Todo come up behind him stab him through the neck. As he lies dying and paralyzed, Tatsuma can only watch as Todo consumes Karura and begins masterings its strength. Muttering that he’s not yet quite up to the task, Todo leaves Tatsuma to bleed to death.
What I Liked about Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6
I’d Watch a Series about Fujimoto
What does Fujimoto do as soon as he awakens from treatment? He tries to light a cigarette. And then he jumps up, still in a bathrobe, to begin rummaging through their buildings in search of the sword. Not much slows him down, and even fewer things deter him!
Because Tatsuma recognized that Fujimoto’s techniques could heal them, everyone, including his wife and unborn son, survived. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Whatever else Tatsuma may be, he’s an intelligent man. He knows that everyone is getting more and more sick, and that all of their prayers yielded no results. He immediately recognizes the value of Fujimoto’s offer to help. I thought Tatsuma’s reaction to seeing his pregnant wife Torako sitting up, clearly on the mend, was heart-warming. For a moment, she tried to be brave. Then she broke down sobbing and said she was afraid she would die.
This means that Fujimoto saved Torako, who was pregnant with Ryuji Suguro. Which means Rin’s foster father saved Ryuji’s life. That an interesting turn of events!
Glad Tatsuma’s Father Isn’t Mine!
Last week, I awarded Tatsuma’s father the “Harsh Quote of the Season (So Far)” award for saying that if Torako dies, Tatsuma should find a more “hardy” woman. Building on that theme, Tatsuma’s father demanded Fujimoto’s because he intended to steal the sword. Tatsuma rejected the argument that the sect’s preservation required these things — letting his wife die, killing Fujimoto. So, I got to see plot development, thematic development, and character development in a single scene! How cool’s that?
Tatsuma entrusted to Mamushi the mission to tell everyone at the field office what had happened. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Tatsuma recognized right away that Juzo was only there because his father, Yaozo Shima, had sent him to tail Tatsuma. However much he tried to act like a clueless old man, Tatsuma was well aware of what was going on all around him. I particularly liked how he told Mamushi that he was counting on her to tell her father everything that was happening. She had to feel devastated by that point, and his vote of confidence (giving her an important mission) would both sharpen the guilt she felt and rally her remaining strength.
Did I say that Tatsuma knew what was going on around him? Well, that sense seemed to fail at the end. He let Todo get behind him, though I can certainly understand how the Impure King would be distracting! Todo’s knife protruding from Tatsuma’s Adam’s apple was quite a shock.
Looks like Yukio was right: Todo’s up to something much bigger than it appears.
What I Liked Less about Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6
Monologuing villains. I should hate this scene, but I didn’t. Plans within plans… Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I’m conflicted. I hate monologuing villains. They’re cliche and annoying. When Todo describes how he freed the Impure King simply to draw Tatsuma out of hiding, I should not have enjoyed it! But I can’t think of a better way to get those facts out, and I had to admit Todo’s plan was pretty effective.
Thoughts about Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6
I complained in last week’s review that the episode felt a little slow. Looks like I was just impatient. Things really kicked into high gear in this episode!
I’ve been wondering why Tatsuma had been so secretive. I wondered why it wasn’t better for him to tell Ryuji what was going on; or bring others like Yaozo into the fold. I shouldn’t’ve been surprised that the writers here had a perfect explanation: as condition for the spirit’s help, Karura demanded the secrecy so it could feed off the mistrust that secrecy generated. That’s a great explanation!
Juzo’s barely able to avoid the Impure King’s droplets. What are they going to do when it regains its strength? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I am enjoying the way the plot’s playing out. Todo’s real goal was, obtaining Karura’s power, took me by surprise, and I didn’t anticipate that freeing the Impure King was simply a technique to make Tatsuma show himself. I have a feeling our heroes are going to have their hands full with the Impure King, whatever Todo’s plans are.
The one thing (well, one thing I know of) that remains unclear: How did Tatsuma intend to finally destroy the Impure King? I think that his going off alone was to practice the techniques he’d need to finally achieve that goal. At the end, he seemed to have enough power to at least temporarily hold the Impure King in place; so maybe he still needed more practice or better technique to actually kill it?
What do you think? Am I close? Do you have an another explanation? Let me know in the comments below!
Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 6 Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: [Spoilers] Ao no Exorcist: Kyoto Fujouou-hen – Episode 6 discussion
- Random Curiosity: Ao no Exorcist: Kyoto Fujouou-Hen – 06
- RABUJOI: Ao no Exorcist: Kyoto Fujouou-hen – 06
Reviews of Other Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episodes
- The 2016 Holidays Are Gone – Must Be the Winter 2017 Anime Season! Preview Part I
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 1: Small Beginnings
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 2: Strange Bedfellows
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 3: Suspicion Will Raise Bogies
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 4: Act of Treachery
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 5: Mysterious Connections
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 7: Like a Fire Burning Bright
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 8: From Father to Son
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 9: Through Thick and Thin
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 10: Unbowed and Unbroken
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 11: Shine Bright as the Sun
- Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga Episode 12: Candid and Open
