Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen – Episode 14 Review

「開眼」 (Kaigan)
“Awakening”

To be able to do something this sprawling and epic while still being smart and emotionally intimate – all I can say is if it were easy, everyone would do it. But it’s not, so they don’t. Only Mizumaki and a few select others can. This episode was overstuffed with moments anyone might reasonably claim as its climax (I’ll focus especially on one of them). But I think it should also be noted that even if White Fox hasn’t been able to throw a huge budget at this adaptation, their work has gotten increasingly effective. This episode was a marvel of comprehensive impact – sound design, music, and even some sakuga too.

What we have here is a conflagration featuring pretty much every major combatant (even Tago, ROFL) we’ve met since Sengoku Youko started (the living ones at least). In lesser hands that might seem contrived. Or confusing in a “can’t tell the players without a scorecard” kind of way. But somehow it’s crystal clear but who everyone is and why they’re here. Everyone’s stake is well-defined and easy to understand. Among the second-tier players are the Dangaisyuu monks, who show up late to the party in a sort of Buddhist giant mecha.

That poses its own set of problems, unfortunately for Senya. Inga – ever the wisest of his troupe – ordered his men to stand down for the very reason that we see here. With Senya striving to save the blameless katawara, all the monks are doing is getting in his way. And, as Tama points out, giving the Tribe of the Void an excuse to kill the shoujou hostages which, as Dangaisyuu, they don’t care about. Senya is indeed forced to defend the katawara who are his nominal enemies from his nominal allies. But the monk-bot does give Tama a chance to conjure replicas of herself, Mudou, and Setsu (that’s the yuki-onna’s name) so the three of them can launch a rescue attempt of the monkeys and Shakugan.

Another front is the battle between Douren and Jinun-Nadare, which sees the latter shrug off the Tribe leader’s orders to take on Senya instead. It’s clear where the heart lies on this, even if Jinun never says so like Douren does – these two have a lot of history between them. With those two preoccupied with each other the Tribe is forced to sic the full extent of their katawara army on Senya in a mass attack, something that seems like a big ask even for him. Nau, ever-loyal, grows increasingly worried at what this demand for ever-greater spirit power seems to be doing to Senya.

Ultimately, Sengoku Youko is a chronicle of virtues – kindness, loyalty, bravery, humor – and those who possess them. Mizukami always comes down on the side of decency, without exception. Senya has been dealt a brutal hand in life but he’s also been blessed with wonderful friends who love him, Nau not least among them. Their last encounter with Yazen was not an encouraging one – Yazen slipped into gloating about how Senya was his greatest creation (for which Nau justifiably bitch-slapped him) as he predicted that Senya would lose himself and evolve into a monster like Jinka did. And now it seems to be happening right before Nau’s eyes.

Here, though, Mizukami achieves one of his greatest apotheoses as a writer – and White Fox totally does it justice. Senya’s transformation into a thousand-armed Kannon is beautiful on so many levels. It’s poetry, but it works so well as prose that for the vast majority of readers/viewers that don’t get all the layers it’s still powerful. That’s the genius of Mizukami. So much goes into this moment – it’s the natural evolution of everything Senya is as a character, even his name. We’ve had “thousand this” and “thousand that” all through the narrative – it runs through the entire storyline. But Senya elevates it to a new level in choosing to become a Sahasrabhuja (thousand-armed Kannon).

The powerful and elemental role of the thousand-armed Kannon is Buddhist belief underpins all this, but even if one doesn’t get that context, this is still a profound and impactful moment. In Buddhist terms it represents a desire to help those in need so profound that a thousand arms are grown to aid in doing so. For Senya, it’s that and more. This is Senya at last seizing control of his own destiny – wresting that control away from Yazen or his father or the Tribe of the Void. Or indeed, from fate. He chooses to ultimately express himself as someone who aids the helpless and the wronged, and that fits the sort of young man Senya is. The whole sequence is perfect in literary terms and with the way it’s drawn and animated and with the music accompanying it, the anime could hardly have done a better job.

That Shinsuke should appear at this moment is perfectly fitting, since it was his example that helped Senya – who was almost like a newborn when he awoke with no memories – find the path to decency and kindness. Team Tama has failed to rescue either the monkeys or Shakugan, the TotV seeing through her illusions. But Shinsuke breaks through their control of Shakugan, not through an attack but merely by his presence. As with Senya, for Shinsuke this moment is what his entire journey has been building towards. In a series full of great characters, their two arcs are the most complex and fully-realized, and that’s on full display in this episode.