As pleased as I am that this reboot is avoiding the surefire debacle of trying to adapt the “Kyoto Arc” in two cours, there is a downside. That is, we’re going to have to wait a while to see it concluded, whereas with the first anime it aired contiguously. How long is anybody’s guess. Obviously the material has existed for decades so that’s not an issue. But there’s NoitaminA to be dealt with, and the in-house production schedules at Lidenfilms. It’s a tradeoff I’ll gladly take any day of the week, don’t get me wrong. But there is a bit of lost momentum with a six-month (or longer) wait, which is a shame when we’re talking about one of shounen’s greatest stories ever told.
Every episode at this point is a memory bomb for me, because these events made such an impact on me the first time I saw them. Details long forgotten come rushing back as if they’d never left, which is a bit of a bewildering experience. I do distinctly remember being quite shocked at Hiko’s wound – that deep furrow carved into him by Kenshin’s sakabatou. Somehow it seemed more gruesome than all that blood and dismemberments we’d already witnessed, and I wonder if that’s partly because of what all this means to Kenshin. This is the paradox of the ultimate technique storyline. He needs to learn it in order to take on Shishio, but doing so means breaking his vow not to kill – and killing his master and surrogate father to boot.
As Kenshin desperately tries to save Seijuurou’s life (using the medicine Seijuurou made when Kenshin ingested too many laughing mushrooms) big events are happening in Shishio’s lair. Sojiro has returned bearing gifts for the assembled Juppongatana – yatsuhashi, a Kyoto wagashi made from rice flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Usui doesn’t believe for a second that Sojiro has been gone three days buying omiyage, and of course he’s right. But he’s content to bide his time and wait for his moment to turn whatever the truth is to his advantage.
Indeed, thee Ten Swords have been assembled – with one obvious exception. Among them are Saizuchi (Shimada Bin), a tiny old man with a massive head. He seems to be in control of a giant called Fuji, of whom we see very little. Saizuchi almost has it out with Kariwa Henya (Ohsaka Ryouta – there’s casting I can get behind), a shadowy figure, before Anji steps in to break up the fight before it starts. There’s also Iwanbou (Takumi Yamazaki), who projects big and dumb but doesn’t give us much to go on yet.
Then we have Honjou Kamatari (Murase Ayumu, anther very solid choice). Kamatari is fascinating for any number of reasons, most overtly that he’s a cross-dressing man who expresses interest in Shishio and treats Yumi as a rival. There’s are several other interesting tidbits about Kamatari, starting with the fact that legend says he was created for Watsuki by Oda Eiichirou (Watsuki created a One Piece character too, though he was only used in promos). There’s also a triple-threat pun here – in Japanese an okama is a cross-dressing male, and Kamatari carries a scythe (kama). And his name even has “kama” in it. Kamatari is sneakily one of the best characters in the Juppongatana.
As for Sojiro and his three-day absence, he and Shishio play the charade out to full effect. But his mission is clear – arranging for a ship, connected to Shishio’s plan to torch Kyoto (which he plans to put into effect the next night at 11:59). He confirms this in a written message to Shishio under the lid of the yatsuhashi box, though Usui is bemusedly aware that shenanigans are underway. The plan to burn the old capital to the ground doesn’t seem to be universally popular among Shishio’s ground troops, but their opinion clearly doesn’t carry a whole lot of weight in this organization.
Back on the mountain, Hiko has indeed survived. But it’s apparently no thanks to his potion, which he tells Kenshin was a made-up placebo all along. Indeed, his survival seems to be due to the sakabatou – and its creator, Sakkuu. A rivet has come loose from the force of Kenshin’s Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki, dispersing just enough of the blow for Hiko (built like a naval fort with enormous musculature) to survive. A lucky coincidence? Foresight from the swordsmith, who knew a sakabatou would be used by someone with a desire not to take lives?
This is another beautiful moment between Kenshin and Hiko, who in the end is basically a giant (in every way) tsundere. When Kenshin rejects his cloak (admittedly it would fit like a circus tent) and with it the stewardship of the Hiten Mitsurugi school, he’s effectively rejecting Hiko himself. But this is the only thing Kenshin can do to remain true to himself. How he reconciles that self with his current mission is another matter, but he can’t act to propagate the use of Kenjutsu – which ultimately exists to take lives. In effect, he’s condemning Hiten Mitsurugi to extinction – when Seijuurou dies, it will die with him.
Nevertheless, I think this is the most genuinely emotional moment between master and student of the entire arc so far. When Hiko reminds Kenshin that he didn’t teach him Hiten Mitsurugi to “make him suffer”, that cuts me to pieces. It says so much about both of them, about good men who wield the sword, and the paradox of their existence. Kenshin, to whom Hiko owes nothing now, asks an enormous favor – for Hiko to look after the Aoiya’s inhabitants. And Hiko’s agreement – acerbic as it is – is testament to both Hiko’s essential character and the feelings he holds for Kenshin. In an arc full of nuanced emotional moments, this is one of the most powerful.
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