Introduction
A battle of two brothers who fight against their father in order to protect the world they love. It's the Okumura brothers versus Satan. Who will win? All I can say is, work that swag, Mephistopheles.
Plot Summary
Centuries ago, Mephistopheles and an old man make some wager for eternal life. Mephistopheles tells the old man that when he wants it all to end, he will come to claim his soul.
After finally getting back to his senses, Yukio joins Rin to take down Satan. Shura tells them that Satan is using the gate to absorb all of the human world into the demon world. Shura and Shiemi are attacked by a giant ball of fire which Arthur cuts down with relative ease.
Arthur launches an attack on the gate which fails, followed by Rin who also fails. Yukio tells them that they should time their attacks. Shura says they need to work together as a team. Rin, Yukio, Shura, and Arthur attack the gate together but despite all of that, they get struck by a red pillar of energy.
Suguro learns from the other Esquires that they cannot find Shiemi anywhere. The barrier becomes compromised as the demons invade the Japan Branch. Suguro orders all exorcists to hold them off while the evacuees move to a safer place.
Rin and Yukio see that the gate has moved on to to attack the city. After Yukio has a moment of feeling sorry for himself, he and Rin get together again to take down Satan, riding on the super-sized Kuro.
In the Japan Branch, the exorcists learn they need only to hold off until morning just after the sun sets. Just when they had found their lives forfeit, Konekomaru suggests that they use the Magic Key to get to the Vatican where the sun should still be up. He says that they should lure the demons through into the Vatican but Suguro proposes a better idea.
His plan is to use the mirrors in the Vatican to direct all the sunlight into the the portal to the Japan Branch and then let the demons come in and be wiped out. They put this plan into action as the sunlight is reflected into all of the mirrors which reflect into the Japan Branch where Suguro and Shima open the door to let the demons be hit by the light, disintegrating them.
Rin and Yukio see the light erupting from below the academy as the demons recoil from it. They use it as their chance to attack the gate. The two defeat Satan with a combination of their flames and teamwork, stabbing at the gate. Satan asks why they would stop his and Yuri’s dream as the two brothers give him the most obvious reason why.
It's tough being a parent.
The gate is destroyed as Satan apologizes to Yuri who tells him their sons will find a better way to make things work. The Esquires return to the academy to see it in ruins. There is a happy reunion between them and the brothers.
Mephistopheles stands by his ruined garden and remembers the wager he had with the old man many centuries ago. He won the bet but remembers what the old man said before his soul was claimed. Mephistopheles says he finally understands how the old man felt.
A month passes. The school is repaired, classes have started again, and Mephistopheles has gained his post back. Yukio is stripped of his Paladin title and demoted back to Intermediate Exorcist First Class. Mephistopheles gives him and Rin a Magic Key which leads them to the birth of their origin. They find the cave where their mother bore them and where she now rests. The two realize one great thing about their parents.
My Opinion
When I first learned about Blue Exorcist, what I had in mind was much different from the twenty-five episodes that have aired. I enjoyed all of the episodes up until episode seventeen. I'm not a fan of filler in general but when its done right, I just sit back and enjoy it. But my one gripe has to be with the humanizing of Satan. I don't know how the animators think but they must have thought that if they just threw him out as some evil dude (which is how EVERY mythos of him portrays him as) then the viewers would yawn and watch something else. I see that their humanizing of Satan was something they wanted to gamble with, to see if it worked. Plus, who doesn't like a little romance?
This episode was handled rather nicely. It could have been a lot better (flying with blue flames is a bit much) and it felt like the series just pushed everyone back and stuck to only Rin, Yukio, and Shura. Shiemi, Suguro, Shima, Konekomaru, and Izumo have done their own thing. I have no idea why the ventriloquist is there or what he does. In the end, he was useless.
I feel that the episode could have just ended with the two brothers looking at their mother's grave and it fading to black for the epilogue but why the animators felt the need to add action after all of the action had gone, is beyond me. Because that made me want to see the result of their fight against the vehicle possessing demon rather than leave me with a, "That was a sweet ending." I'm thinking the director wanted to end it the way Rin would end it: charging right at the enemy.
How do I feel about the entire series in general? It's actually worth it. The characters are well-developed, they feel real, like you could just talk to them if you could. The story is paced nicely and while there are things that just, don't work (episode eleven), it's not a series to skip. I would be grateful if there was a season two around the corner but the manga series it is based off of has yet to get far from episode sixteen's scenario. But until then, look for me again in one of my future reviews.
Cover me while I run.
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