Plot: Setsuna leaves Towa behind without telling her when she and her fellow demon slayers go on a mission.
Annoyed, Towa decides to just set off on her own to find the Dream Butterfly at the base of Mount Musubi. Along the way, she meets a mysterious pirate named Riku who has become separated from his ship and crewmates. After sharing her food with Riku, he gifts her the real kikujumonji, with Towa unaware that he had stolen it from its owner, Deputy Lord of the Kanto region, Ogigayatsu Hiiragi Danjo. As terrible luck would have it, Hiiragi’s men find her and arrest her for the theft, somehow knowing that she’s from another world.
The lord and his aide interrogate Towa on the future of their clan since she’s from the future and even has a history book of Japan with her. As this goes down, Setsuna convenes with Moroha back near Kaede’s village. They’re now tasked by Junbei to fight another Peril, Kyuki, but Setsuna has to retrieve Towa. Takechiyo reveals that Towa appears to be near Kyuki, so they make a beeline for her location. However, they’re intercepted by Kyuki’s polar bear apparition, Fubuki.
They’re unable to fell the massive ice-wielding bear because the form before them is not its main body.
While listening to the lord’s aide go on about the story of Inuyasha and Kagome defeating Root Head, Towa sensed the real body of Fubuki, which was a small bear cub in the rafters behind her. Channeling her energy through her hands, she shot at Fubuki, causing it to lose concentration while simultaneously alerting Setsuna to her location. Moroha was able to pinpoint Fubuki’s real body and shot at it with a sacred arrow, finally defeating the beast.
The two headed off towards the mansion to save Towa, freeing her and ousting the lord’s aide as the owl demon, Yotsume. They decide to let him live, believing they can get valuable information from him. As Moroha and Setsuna take chase, Towa retrieves her modern day items, including the Japanese history book and Kagome’s old bike seat, and sets off to join the pursuit.
Breakdown: Ah, so now we’ve come full circle. We’ve finally reached the scene that we saw in the first episode.
Also, Towa’s an idiot.
Oh, sorry, I must’ve had something in my throat.
Anyway, Towa’s an idiot—oh darn, there I go again.
I mentioned in the first episode review that I was blown away that Towa was seemingly scared to death of changing the past and that was in direct contradiction to how Kagome basically played it, which was ‘lol who cares? Nothing I do here changes the future. Look, I got married and had kids in the past and nothing changed in the future. It’s all good.’
I also mentioned before how her mannerisms now don’t match how she was acting in the first episode. Let me tell you what Towa did in this episode before we reached the scene that we saw in the first episode.
First of all, this is unrelated to the time thing, but she smelled water from a ways away, yet apparently couldn’t tell freshwater from saltwater (She thought she was leading Riku to the ocean – she found a river instead.) which is something even people without a super sense of smell can do…
Second, still unrelated to the time thing, but she saw Riku basically do waterbending and asked “Is that a magic trick?” Towa, you’re well aware supernatural powers exist. You should be asking if he’s a demon right now.
Third, finally related to the time thing, she invites him to picnic with her, showing him a full spread of modern foods, including potato chips, pocky, ramen, gum (Why does she have gum out at a picnic?) bullshit-that-those-aren’t-brown-by-now bananas and maybe-I’ll-accept-the-apple’s-okay apple.
Fourth, as if giving him these foods wasn’t bad enough, when he comments on the apple being really good she says “Selective breeding has come a long way, and things taste better now.” TOWA! Come on!
But the final nail in the stupid coffin? She tells him to give the core back to her once he’s done with the apple because she doesn’t want the seeds to sprout in the past and change things for the future…..The contradictions occurring right now are insane.
Good on you for realizing that it’s dangerous to allow a foreign apple tree to possibly grow in the feudal era, but if you don’t want to change the timeline so badly, Towa, maybe don’t prattle on about future stuff and put a big neon sign on your forehead that says “YO I’M FROM THE FUTURE!”
Even Kagome didn’t advertise that she was from the future this much. She actually tended to have some discretion when she was using modern day things around the average person, like saying her medicine was special herbs and stuff. Most of the time, she simply wouldn’t give an explanation as to what the item was. I think there were one or two occasions where she’d give someone something from the modern era and actually say what it was, but she’d never say anything like ‘Oh, when you’re done with it, destroy it because it might mess up the timeline. I’m from the future – that would suck.’ She’d be more open around the main group, of course, because they knew who she was and they trusted each other, but that was about it.
I had to double-take when Towa said that last line. I thought maybe she said it in inner monologue because surely she’s not that stupid, right?….Wrong.
This just makes the part about Towa being pissed that Moroha brought that history book to the feudal era all the more confusing. I thought, when I watched the first episode, that Moroha was with her and packed it. But no. Moroha was off to meet Junbei. Towa had to have packed that herself. So she’s mad at Moroha for bringing it to the past but not at herself for putting it back in her backpack?
Obviously, some of the stuff Moroha initially packed is being left behind in Kaede’s village because the backpack is very normal-sized when Towa is traveling with it even though it was massive when it first came through the portal. Why wouldn’t you leave the book behind, too? All it is is excess weight. That book has no relevance to your pursuit of the Dream Butterfly. Hell, it’s so dangerous, considering Kirinmaru’s intentions, that you should have locked it up or burned it or something.
Speaking of Towa, though, she, at least, is getting better at sensing demon energy….and she has another new ability. Granted, this one is rather minor, but she now possesses the ability to concentrate her energy into her hand and shoot off energy spikes from it. It’s good that she’s getting more skillful, but, like I said, she’s kinda growing a bit too fast. Are they keeping her sensory abilities down to balance that?
The shot of her attack did made me realize that Towa doesn’t have ‘claws’ so to speak, nor does Setsuna. How does the quarter-demon have claws, but Towa and Setsuna don’t? It’s just very weird that Moroha consistently has more dog traits than either of them and acts more dog-like on top of that.
As for the episode as a whole, it was fine. Riku was okay. He’s pretty mysterious, but that’s understandable considering he wasn’t here for long and he’ll be back later. I find it very intriguing that he’s actually a pirate – if he’s not lying, that is.
Is it weird that I absolutely loved Fubuki? That little bear was adorable, and I want a plushie of it right now.
It was confirmed that there are indeed more than three rainbow pearls as Kyuki has one that is purple. So…are there seven? That still doesn’t make much sense considering silver and gold aren’t rainbow colors. Also, dun dun dunnn, Kyuki wants to overthrow Kirinmaru once she has the girls’ three rainbow pearls. I’m sure that’ll work out for you, sweetie.
It’s also possible Riku’s earring is another pearl considering it obviously has powers and looks very similar to the pearls, but I guess we’ll have to see on that one.
Uhm…not much else to say about the episode besides that. We’re back to the beginning, if that makes any sense, so now we’re officially making headway in the plot.
Speaking of that….
Next episode, holy crap, do I see Inuyasha, Kagome and Rin in that next episode preview? I do believe I do! They’re not actually going to appear, it seems, because I think they’re just in a bunch of induced dreams, but still I’m very excited to see what’s up with them, especially in regards to the pasts of the girls.
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The Anime Madhouse 