Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen – Episode 19 Review

「夜明け」 (Yoake)
“Dawn”

We’re in the home stretch now of course. Just a few episodes left of what is Mizukami Satoshi’s first legit manga adaptation (no, that one doesn’t count as legit). More and more as Sengoku Youko has progressed it’s become clear that in spite of a clearly limited budget there’s a lot of love and care behind this series. Evan Call’s soundtrack is lights out for one, and it really soared this week. And a lot of legendary names have pitched in, eager to lend their talents to the effort of adapting a truly great manga in the fashion it deserves.

That includes Yamauchi Shigeyasu, who’s been a fixture on big-time anime since the 80’s. This was third episode of Sengoku Youko he’s directed – the others being Episodes 6 and 16 of this season. All of them – certainly including this one – have been emotional powerhouses and works of art. Yamauchi has been doing this for long enough and has enough of a distinctive sensibility to produce arresting episodes without copious amounts of sakuga. It’s always rough to send off characters in a Mizukami series because he pretty much only writes great ones, but I’m glad Yamauchi was in charge when it was time to say goodbye to the likes of Yoshiteru, Douren, and Jinun.

Yamato Takeru – himself a prisoner of the Tribe of the Void in the spirit realm – has taken it on himself to try and broker a solution to the impasse between the Tribe and Senya. They’re hardly in a position to ask for anything, given the trouble they’ve caused both for Senya and in general. But they keep hammering home the same argument – Senya’s life weighed against the lives of an entire nation. And because Senya is who he is, he can’t simply dismiss that even with his current appreciation for the gift of life.

The problem is, there are holes in the Tribe’s story that clever Takeru can’t dismiss. Their demise, they say, is the result of a meteor destroying their country. They have the technology to use fate effectively as a power source – one that can even bend space and time. Senya’s Thousandfold Wonder and Jinka’s Thousand-tailed Youko are the strongest fate-bending power sources around. The plan is to use Jinka’s power to send Senya to the past, and Senya’s to alrer the course of the meteor. But as Takeru says, that basically sounds like “acquiring a good luck charm and hoping for the best”.

In search of better ideas, Jaki – who along with Nadare and 1000 katawara elected representative Harigane are backing Senya up in material form – suggests an egghead like Yazen or Kokugetsusai might be able to help. ***-kun refuses to allow Senya to go fetch then, so Jaki calls out to an even more all-seeing type – Hakke Neko. He shows up, sits on the lap of one of the Tribe to do a reading, and soon has gotten to the heart of the matter. The fate of the Tribe was not random – it was karma. They messed with fate too much in order to prosper, and fate demanded payment in full. Even if they used Senya and Jinka’s power to bend the course of the meteor, they can’t bend the course of destiny. It would just find another way to cut them to ribbons.

The only recourse the Tribe has, Hakke Nekko says, is to destroy their own wealth and power and effectively throw themselves on the mercy of fate, scattering the survivors to the winds. That’s not an answer ***-kun is prepared to accept, but the other two have seen enough – or more likely, had confirmed what they already suspected. Their battle is over, they declare – and both Yamato siblings will be freed (although it’s not that straightforward, especially with Jinka). There is hope for them, Senya says – the proof being that their blood clearly courses through his veins.

With that, the field is cleared for a truly breathtaking final sequence of events in the aftermath of this great battle. Between them Mudou and Tsukiko subdue Banshuou, though Tama is horrified that Tsukiko has drained all that spirit power she needed to save Jinka (though Nau may just have salvaged the situation). That spirit power she diverts into the ground, where a vast field of flowers springs up in the desolated battlefield. Through Shinsuke’s heroism almost everyone has been saved, but there are two notable exceptions to that.

Mudou’s grief over his master’s death is raw and visceral – Senya’s for both of the fallen is quiet and bereft. Yazen and Kuzunoha escape and as ever the old monk betrays little emotion, but Kuzunoha knows he simply needs to be in a place where he can mourn unseen by others. Senya attempts to flee too, as ever in dark moments determined to suffer alone, but Shinsuke entreats Hanatora to put a stop to that. Weariness and grief hangs thick in the air, carried on the wings of Call’s music. The time to end all this is surely close, but Senya now has many in his life who refuse to let him face it alone.