Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen – Episode 13 Review

「遭遇 (さいかい)」 (Saikai)
“A Renewed Encounter”

Sengoku Youko is a series that really knows how to stage the big moments. But truthfully we’re still on the undercard here – the main events are still very much to come. This series is divided into three roughly equal-sized arcs, and while I personally love the second the most there’s no denying this third act is packed with GAR and spectacle. Because there’s no fluff or filler in a Mizukami series all the elements that were laid out are starting to come together in one epic conflagration.

That includes the main players from the first arc, of course. And while we’re still not hearing much from Jinka for obvious reasons (he’s still crucial to the story, though) Tama is certainly very much a part of the picture. As is Shinsuke, who never left the narrative but has been on the sidelines for much of the third arc. Now he’s a free man, and with the news that the katawara village – and Shakugan with it – has been raided almost certainly by the Tribe of the Void, he’s totally committed to making his last stand.

Really, though, the main focus here is on the power trio. In fairness you have to call them a quartet though, as Nau is very much integral to Senya’s success. Senya, Douren, and Mudou could hardly be more different. But they’re all bros and badasses, and now that he knows this a fight he can’t avoid Senya is determined to do what must be done. Each of the three wants to be the one to deal with Jinun for their own reasons, but that’s a bridge that can crossed when one of them reaches it.

For now, there’s the matter of the Dangaisyuu, at whose headquarters all this is going down after all. Inga is now the head priest of course. He’s a monk we’ve met before a few times, and he always came across as among the more measured and thoughtful of that bunch. The quartet meets them in the woods as they’re preparing a counterattack. Inga remembers Senya but the favor isn’t returned (Senya was a tot and a very different person then). He asks a favor of Inga few in his position would grant – no more killing of the katawara, who are victims in the control of the TotV. It’s a big ask – eliminating katawara is their raison d’etre and they’re fighting for their own temple. But Douren persuades them to retreat and let him and the boys (and the Water God) handle it.

The Tribe is more than ready. This is exactly what they want after all – the whole venture is expressly meant to lure Senya to them. Surprisingly, they detach the likes of a yuki onna (Okumoto Saya) and a nekomata (Hieda Nene) as a first line of defense. A yuki onna being a bad matchup for Nau Senya orders him to retreat and sets about setting her free from the Tribe’s control. One Yuukai Kanshou later Yuki Onna is thoroughly in love with Senya, and that’s seeing him in his chibisuke form. Once she wakes up in the ikemen’s arms, all bets are off.

Meanwhile Nekomata has Douren to reckon with. That seems like a mismatch on paper, but she has the power of fanservice and shamelessness backing her up and takes Douren down for the count. This is enough to trigger Tama. who’s arrived on the scene and snaps some sense into him. But she catches a glimpse of a certain red-haired warrior about the Tribe’s army, and has quite a shock. Why not ask Senya to save Shakugan – he literally gets almost everything dumped on him anyway, so what’s one more impossible task? Nevertheless it is a good thing Tama has arrived – it’s not as though any of this group are especially brilliant when it comes to tactics.

Any that of tactics goes on the window, though, when the Tribe’s leader calls out Senya with a warning. Unless he shows himself in ten seconds, he’ll kill one of the shoujou. Then a rock katawara, then another monkey, and so on. This is Senya serious pissed off, resigned to doing whatever he has to do – and can you blame him? The Tribe has shown no restraint and no remorse in using the innocent to further their own mysterious ends. In going full revenge mode and coming straight at them Senya is giving the Tribe exactly what they want – but as usual, does he have any choice? This seems to be Senya’s lot in life – to do what no one else can do, with no regard to his own feelings.