Episode 25

We begin the episode with the traveling pseudofamily watching clips of a baseball pitcher.  If you have an ominous feeling tingling down your spine, it’s the realization that this is a filler episode of the quality one might see in Pokemon or Power Rangers.  As you might guess, the pitcher they’re looking at turns out to be a focal character  for this episode as another Dragon Spot appears at the stadium his team is playing at.

Leading the invasion is yet another Basara… The Once-ler?

The new Basara is named Yamato, and to help take him down are two of the Twelve Guardians: Ioroi Narumi, a boastful tough guy with a hammer, and Kasukami Cordelia, a shameless combination of Vocaloid aesthetics and Yuki Nagato’s gimmick.

One of the refugees is the pitcher Kawase.  Because, y’know… he’s important for some reason.

So, there’s a giant Kegare wrecking shit up, and the Guardians take it on while the Twin Stars YET AGAIN just stand around doing jack shit instead of immediately closing the Dragon Spot.  When they finally decide to take action, it inspires Kegare to act as well because… something about feeling washed up near the end of his career.  Kawase leads the Twin Stars to a shortcut to the dome where the Dragon Spot is located, and it involves driving through a subway line?

They reach the unguarded Dragon Spot but fail to notice the Kegare surrounding them, so Kawase throws a pitch to get their attention… resulting in the Twin Stars NOT doing something about their attackers but rather hurrying up with their incantation to seal the Dragon Spot.  Huh.  To think they were just fucking around at a time like this.

Closing up the Dragon Spot weakens the giant Kegare enough for Cordelia to defeat it, and Yamato escapes, presumably for some Basara battle royale at the end of this arc.

Hopefully, the Twin Stars learned a lesson from this and now know to not fuck around and head straight to the Dragon Spots to seal them since that’s their job.

Yeah, like that’ll happen.

Episode 26

Today’s Basara are brothers Chijiwa and Momochi.

They are approached by Kuranashi, the one creating the Dragon Spots, meaning we finally have a face for this arc’s big bad.

Betting everything on this guy’s unmasking being no bit deal.

So, the deal is that the ultimate Onmyouji pair is going to fight the ultimate Basara pair.

Also, we’re introduced to three Onmyouji who are powerful enough to seal Dragon Spots on their own, which, again, is kind of stupid when the Twin Stars are supposed to be the only ones who can seal them.

Anyway, the Twin Stars are somehow brought into Magano where the brothers are lying in wait.  They easily overpower the Twin Stars and mock their teamwork.  Welp, we found the main theme of the episode.

Just as they’re about to be finished off, Sae intercedes and stops the brothers’ attack with her unexplained power.

The three exorcists from earlier arrive to bail the Twin Stars out, as usual, bringing everyone into the real world. Rather than curbstomp the Basara now with a 5-on-2 advantage, the Twin Stars say “this i sour fight” and proceed to kinda brute force through, not really displaying any improved tactics.

They manage to deliver a seemingly fatal blow to Momochi, but the brothers are taken back into Magano by Kuranashi.  We learn that the three Onmyouji brothers have been after Kuranashi… and they leave abruptly.  Kuranashi finishes off Momochi and gives his power to Chijiwa, telling him that the finishing blow was given by the Twin Stars.  So now we have a powered-up Chijiwa going after them for revenge.  I guess you’re the new Suboshi now, Chijiwa.

Episode 27

Um… new opening!  It looks and sounds like a terrible music video, and it just… ends abruptly.  It’s… really, really bad.

So uh… this is a Mayura episode.  ‘Kay.

Ikaruga of the Twelve Guardians is staying over, and we have confirmation that the Twelve Guardians are closing Dragon Spots all over the country.  Which… makes sense considering what we’ve seen, but now I wonder just why the Twin Stars were being treated as something special.  CLEARLY, they don’t need the Twin Stars to close the Dragon Spots – they’re just extra help.

At the same time, Mayura doesn’t want to be left behind, and she trains her hardest.

Ikaruga helps train Mayura and teaches her how to use Air Fissure Bullet, the low-level spell Rokuro likes to use and is probably the equivalent of a Magic Missile.  As Ikaruga trains Mayura, we see flashbacks of Seigen training Ikaruga when he was younger.  Naturally, the lessons of the episode coincide with a Kegare attack when a Dragon Spot appears in Narukami.  No Basara this time though.

The episode ends about as abruptly as the opening, and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Episode 28

We start things off in some kind of magical spirit tree.  It seems that damage to one of its roots has created some kind of vulnerability that allows Kuranashi to create the Dragon Spots – it’s something that is otherwise impossible.  There’s a ritual that can heal the damage, or… something cryptic!  Wonderful.

Seigen calls and warns them of a massive Dragon Spot in Kumano.  When the Twin Stars arrive, they’re attacked by a Basara, Kinasa.

As expected, the battle doesn’t go well for our heroes.  Just as Kinasa is about to kill Benio, Sae runs in and protects her with a strange power reminiscent of the tree from earlier.

This saves Benio from, well, dying… but it’s not a turning point in the fight.  Naturally, our heroes have to look like total scrubs and get saved by one of the 12 Guardians to show just how wide the gap is between them even after a 2-year time skip.  As it turns out, this episode’s Guardian is Unomiya Tenma, the strongest of the 12.

In a display of absurd OP-ness, Tenma basically oneshots Kinasa, then proceeds to close the Dragon Spot just by shouting.  No incantation needed.  Er… I’m okay with the guy just having the sheer spell power to close the Dragon Spot easily, but without a proper incantation?  I call fucking bullshit.

Anyway, our heroes are invited to continue going to Kyoto with Sae in tow, and maybe… just maybe… the mystery of Sae will finally be put to a close.

Episode 29

It’s always a bad sign when we cold open with an Ohagi Man joke.

However, the horrible Ohagi Man schtick may just have been justified with a single solitary payoff joke.

At this point I want to say that the OP is so fucking terrible that I skip it every time.  If I overshoot, I just accept that fact and move on rather than risk exposing myself to even one second of it.

So, the group finally arrives in Kyoto, the destination they were supposed to go to because the plot demanded it.  Anyway, Arima gives them a call and lures them into coming inside the HQ, apparently intending something with Sae while being fully cognizant of the bond formed between her and the Twin Stars.

Suddenly, the best thing ever happens.

I should be pissed, but I can’t help but respect that he’s a shikigami user.

The Basara, Kuranashi, appears to assassinate Arima, but Arima finally shows us just how powerful he is, and… not gonna lie… I actually kinda like him in battle mode.

Arima rather easily manages to fend off and weaken Kuranashi, but falls into his trap and has his spell power drained.

Meanwhile, we learn the horrible-yet-obvious truth about Sae: she’s a broken-off piece of the spiritual tree that separates the real world and Magano.  If she returns to being a branch, the Dragon Spots will never return.  Dun dun dun… what a non-shock.

Episode 30

So it turns out that it’s possible to repair the tree without turning Sae back into a piece of wood.  This is through a ritual that requires powerful exorcists to channel energy at six spots.  This ritual will be performed by six of the Twelve Guardians, while the other six protect them.  With Seigen down, it’s up to Benio and Rokuro to defend their Guardian.  So looks like there’s a happy ending resolution after all.

Problem: this seems to be part of Kuranashi’s plan.  The ritual succeeds in closing the Dragon Spot, but the miasma hasn’t dispersed… because illusions.  The spell power was absorbed and shot back at the Twelve Guardians to seal them.  The Twin Stars use Resonance to attempt to seal the Dragon Spot themselves, but it isn’t enough.  In the end, Sae decides to return to protect them, because OF COURSE.

So yeah… because of the selfish wishes of a couple of teenagers, what could have been a quick and painless fix was needlessly delayed and could have ended humanity.

In a sappy but effectively moving ending, Rokuro and Benio read a book of drawings Sae left behind for them.

Such a bittersweet resolu- wait, no final battle with Kuranashi?  And is Arima just… dead?

Huh.

That can’t seriously be the end of the arc.  I mean, having it end sooner makes me happy, but if there are still loose ends, that doesn’t really mean it’s the end…  FUCK!

Episode 31

The next episode is focused on Kinako.

…

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!

Alright, let’s do this.

So, Kinako wakes up at Seika Dorm and doesn’t see anyone around.  He jumps out at someone thinking it’s Benio, but instead he nearly gets suffocated by Mayura.

Unfortunately, that’s NOT the end of Kinako.  Anyway, Kinako talking with Mayura is used as a vehicle to explain the aftermath of the finale.  Basically, everyone is recovering from the miasma.  Yeah, that didn’t really need to be explained.

Later, we get flashbacks from Kinako regarding his connection to Benio.  This is where the bulk of the episode lies.

So basically, Kinako was a rogue shikigami that was given to Benio as a child to help her out through her depression.  Kinako had no desire to be tamed by such a child, but his pride turned to annoyance when she wouldn’t say anything, and I guess he just sort of started doing everything in his power to help her so she could recognize him.

The rest of the episode is basically Kinako trying his best to cheer Benio up.  I tuned out a lot of the details because everything sort of blurred together.  In the end, I guess Benio is okay with Sae leaving because life going on peacefully is due to Sae’s sacrifice, so in a way, Sae is always with them.

That’s right: Sae is Jesus.

And I guess no one really cares about what happened to Arima.

Oh wait, after-credits scene.  They’re still looking for Arima.  In his absence, Mikage takes up his spot as the head of the Exorcist Union.

…

So, uh… we were introduced to all of those Basara earlier in the arc, presumably so they would show up for one huge climactic finale, but then it turns out that the most appropriate time for that finale to occur ends without them making an appearance.  There’s… just going to be no resolution to that?  They’re all in Magano right now, so it’s not like they’re currently a threat.

I really wanted this post to be all the episodes up to the end of the arc, but I suppose Sae’s end will have to be good enough.  There’s still 19 episodes left in this series, huh?  So there’s still a chance for a full-length arc with a decent story to it.