Subculture Anime Blog

Irony.

Summary:

In the past, a girl had left Raiko and the Shimizu in belief that they could not help her. Raiko declared that he would find the strength to help the girl, but this did not stop her from running away from him. In the present time, Raiko apologizes to Gau for causing him the recent trouble. Gau is in tears, but more so because of his worries for Raiko. At the hospital, Raimei struggles against Saraba to quickly leave in search of Raiko. Raimei finds that most of her friends are against her actions, and Miharu is in his usual spaced out state. As a change of subject, Kouichi mentions the rare instance that Kumohira had actually let Miharu go out alone. Miharu does not give a clear answer to this, though he is obviously troubled by their last conversation. The group is distracted by Gau not too far away from them, as he questions two individuals about Raimei. Gau soon realizes that Raimei is actually quite close to her, but the group begins to run when they see him running towards them. As Gau mentions the Shinrabanshou, the group quickly guesses that he may be a member of the Kairoshu. Wanting to confirm this, Miharu uses his skills so that Kouichi and Raimei can capture him.

Now with Saraba and Juji, the group confirms that Gau is part of the Kairoshu when he mentions his connection with Raiko. Gau attempts to convince Raimei to stop going after Raiko, claiming that she does not understand anything. Gau claims that Raiko had killed everyone in the Shimizu clan in order to protect Raimei, though he cannot present any proof when he is asked for it. When Gau goes as far as putting his life on the line to tell his story, however, Miharu suggests that they listen to him. Raiko had finally spoken with Gau about his past after the previous events. Raiko had approached his mother Kourin in the past, wishing to save the girl he had met with previously. An organization had threatened her family already, but Kourin refused to offer assistance to someone who had nothing to do with them. Their group only had certain duties towards the Nabari no Ou. Before Raiko could leave the room in frustration, Kourin reminded him that the katana was only a tool for killing. Awhile after that, the girl did not show up at school. When Raiko realized that he could not save someone he had the ability to, he began to hate his mother.

When Raiko had spoken with a man named Shimizu Iroku later, he realized that he had the same beliefs that he did. Though Raiko believed in his mother, Iroku made him realize that the power he had to protect people had gone unused. When Iroku confronted Kourin with a group of Shimizu ninja, however, she only laughed at his actions. Kourin revealed that, in reality, Iroku only wanted to get back at her for a failure he had in the past. Then angry, Iroku had some of his followers bring in Raiko’s father Soumen as a hostage. When even Soumen made Iroku realizes how foolish his actions were, however, he was cut down. Falling into a rage, Iroku finally admitted that he actually wanted to obtain position in order to lead the Shimizu in the direction that he believed was right. When Kourin was cut down as well, she used her dying words to leave Raimei in Raiko’s hands. Raimei had waken in the chaos of the flames now surrounding the village, but the only thing she was able to see was Raiko’s murdering of the desperate Iroku. Realizing how much Raimei had loved the Shimizu, Raiko did not allow her to discover the truth of what had happened. The only words Raiko had left with Raimei were that he was going to enter the Kairoshu.

Of course, this had made it so that Raimei would only hate Raiko more and more. Gau was saddened at this fact, but despite the pain he would feel, Raiko made Gau promise not to tell this story to anyone else. Now with the truth in hand, Raimei again confronts Raiko in the flower field. Regaining her black sword, she fights against Raiko in tears. Raimei wonders why Raiko had fought alone all this time, wishing that he would come home. Raiko declares that it is too late, however, confirming to Raimei that he would stay with the Kairoshu. Raiko then questions Raimei about her own actions, but she replies by saying that it is up to Miharu to decide what to do with the Shirabanshou. This brings back memories of Kourin, leading to Raiko slashing at Raimei. Taking the blow, however, is Gau. In a pool of blood, Gau only states his wish that Raiko would be happy with Raimei as a sibling. Gau is saved in the hospital later, but it is unsure when he would return to normal. Alone with Raimei, Raiko describes the time he had saved the hopeless Gau from pursuers. Gau was the same as the girl Raiko could not save in the past. When Raimei makes Raiko realize how much Gau believed in Raiko, and that he would not have been saved if things were the same as they were in the past, Raiko is brought to tears. Raiko states that he will still work with the Kairoshu and fulfill Gau’s wishes, but he now leaves the white katana in the field of red flowers.

Preview: More Miharu x Yoite?

Impression:

If I were to describe this episode in one word, that would probably cover it. I wasn’t actually expecting for everything about Raiko and Raimei to be resolved so quickly, but this episode turned out to be full of all kinds of awesome because of it. It could probably be said that Raiko’s story was cliched, but the way it all came together was just great. I wouldn’t say that the girl who was introduced was thrown away, especially with the way Gau played into it. The plot that was introduced with Iroku may have seemed a bit forced, but it did serve its purpose in showing what Raimei was really seeing as Raiko seemingly slaughtered most of the Shimizu clan. I mentioned how much I liked seeing the sibling connection from last week, and that theme was played on extremely well in this episode. Watching Raimei fight her brother with her new realization had my eyes wide open, and when Gau got cut, I had a “OSHI-” moment.

Other than that, the beginning of this episode had a lot of comic relief as usual, especially with Miharu’s silly “techniques”. I will also have to mention that the broadcast had a ridiculous amount of censoring, which totally reminded me of an episode of Shigofumi. I like that Raimei and Raiko’s katana are black and white respectively too, thought I’m not sure how much the writers really thought into that symbolism. With everything coming together the way it is, I can only expect a huge ending with Miharu’s use of the Shinrabanshou. It looks like Miharu will be interacting with Yoite again in the next episode, further supporting that guess.