For starters let me say that this episode, I am super mixed about. I am also doing something very different from normal too. I will cover the plot, however after that I am going to talk about the anime compared to the manga, and my overall thoughts to this point in the series. Personally I would love to hear thoughts somehow from someone who has read the manga and someone who has not yet.

The Plot:

Besides the minute of recap, which now I am starting to see as a means to take up time. The episode starts off with the group of Exorcists from the previous episode talking. The Prevent Priest sends one of the members off to where Beino and Rokuro are. This is due to a rather large power difference with the Kegare there.

From there Rokuro meets with Ryogo in the hospital. They have a rather “Brother” moment. Rokuro gets home to see Beino making talismans. So he decides to join, only to be made fun of for how bad he is at it.

Then a major threat goes off. This makes everyone go to the scene. Of course Rokuro acts like he doesn’t want to go only to go. He is such a Tsundere.

They get to the scene and a terrible teacher who has no idea where his kids are at allows a few randomly dress strangers into the elementary school to find them. These are Rokuro and company. That entire scene just strike me as odd, but anime logic so whatever.

Beino hearing that a team of kids was taken rushes to the other world. They save them, more monsters show up. This is the battle half of the episode so it is rather quickly happening.

Then after taking them out, one grabs Rokuro, before anyone can do anything, the boy from earlier shows up. He is Shimon Ikaruga. He defeats all of them rather quickly.

Then one of them absorbs two, Rokuro in a rage fights and beats them. You could also see the mysterious person who I won’t spoil, watching them.

Shimon gets called back to the exorcist’s headquarters. Everyone else goes home, and the episode ends.

Overall Thoughts:

I know I covered it rather quickly for plot. I also know how I typically do weekly reviews more subjective than objective. But this time it is rather switched.

So, in the first five episodes they only covered three chapters of the manga. Episode three and this one being original, and episode one being partially as well. Personally I will say at this point in time I prefer the manga so much more.

Yet, I know they cannot follow the manga fully. Let’s start off why that is.

Why it has to be Original?

There are 30 chapters. There is a time skip around chapter 17. After that it is an ongoing arc. So I assume they do not want to go beyond the time skip, despite introducing Shimon who appears after the time skip.

At the same time in those 17 chapters, the first three are well episode 1,2, and 4. After that it hops right into one of the two main antagonists. They fight for about 5ish chapters. One is an intro to Beino’s backstory since she has a role. Then after those chapters, the other villain takes up the remainder of those 17 chapters. Of those 9ish chapters they fight him, they fight someone else, give Rokuro his major backstory, and more importantly allow for Beino and Rokuro to grow closer.

Now as much as those 17 chapters were amazing, it just would not work an anime. Filler is necessary otherwise with those two fights the show would be over in probably 7 or 8 episodes at most, in reality it probably would be 5. So filler needs to happen to make it work.

Why it is not Working?

Having read the manga, this is one major problem I am having with this series is major bias. I don’t like that. But it is the safe way to go about with reviews, up to date the only one I have not read the manga for, was the weekly review I dropped, Luck & Logic.

Anyway, the manga is not just about those battles. It is about Rokuro and Beino. The anime is not working since the last 3 episodes has not been about their relationship. The series revolves around their relationship. They were mostly apart and fought with one another in the beginning, but they grew closer. The anime has not really had those two close together, just always apart.

Episode 6 is also original, so even the title makes it feel like these two will not be together again.

The anime may be stepping away from the manga in terms of events, which much I can accept. But what I cannot accept is the fact it is not focusing on the one thing the manga always has in mind. It is not putting any focus in the main focus of the manga, Rokuro and Beino’s relationship.

This starts really happening in chapter 4 when they move in a separate house together. They have yet to do that in the anime. So until then, which I will assume might be episode 8 but will hope for episode 7, I cannot say much about this series.

I want to stay neutral, knowing that it could get better. But at the same time I don’t want to tell people that it will and how amazing it will be if it gets worse.

As for the episode itself, what do you know it did not focus on Rokuro and Beino’s relationship. Not only that but it felt rather weak compared to the other episodes. I mean although episode 3 was original. A part of me did enjoy it a lot more than I thought. So much so I changed my score. This was just not an episode that was in favor for the series. Even if it introduced a lot of key concepts later down the line.

Another thing, did it look like the animation dropped in quality this week? It really felt like it did. Music was awesome though.

Overall Enjoyment: 60 /100 at best

As always I would love to hear your thoughts on the episode and series at this point. As I said at the beginning please also mention if you have or have not read the manga.

As always I hope you enjoyed.

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Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe