#ane 164

(Late to the party but) I have so much to say about the end of Shima's mini arc. It definitely did not entirely go the way I thought it would (which is great because it means Kato-sensei is not done here).

First of all, it's interesting that this mini arc started with Bon in ch159 who's shown a lot of development about friendship and betrayal, enough to try reasoning Lightning about killing Angel, his friend (and also Lucifer's next vessel, I'm still dying on this hill).

The story then moves on to Shima who has to face Homare and we discover that they have very similar paths, family-wise : being entrusted with the family's main curse, one because she's the only woman left of her family and the other because his older brother happen to die. Does this mean Homare truly hates Shima or admires him, given their similar circumstances and Lucifer boldly asking Homare to train Shima as her replacement ?

What an asshole !

Eventually, as she loses, Homare says she hates him as she also admits being a liar, so from my point of view, we don't really know. Either way, it doesn't matter because this arc gave us plenty of Homare's thoughts, whereas Shima still hasn't faced his own issues. Like he said at the end, "he's no better [than liars]", because what's eating him is still in there.

Compared to most characters in the story, Homare and Shima have always known they're pawns in a bigger game but, unlike Homare who gave up on trying to save herself, Shima still tries to move pieces on both sides of the chess game, so that he won't be swallowed by both sides.

I saw people in the tags said "it's hard to trust Shima, still, after this arc", and I agree completely. He doesn't let anybody, friend or foe, pick into his doubts, he trusts mostly himself and the only genuine feelings we can rely on, as far as he's concerned, are 1) his kindness to girls and 2) his friendship with Bon and Koneko :

So we still can't be sure of where his character is headed, because confronting Homare who's so similar to him, did not allow us to read more into the main issues he has (which are still, in my opinion, family oriented and which fit the series' main theme).

Lastly, his popularity rose a lot after that fight which was broadcast on TV and...

...I do find it worrying that we seem to be heading right into The Terrible Future we got a glimpse of, with Paku's predicament.

In this Future that Mephy saw, idol!Shima along with Angel possessed by Lucifer (look at the damage on his body) are on the Exorcists' dictatorship side, while Rin became known as the Demon King by fighting against them...

In other words, Shima being an idol is a hint that we could be heading towards That Future and, in that case, Shima being on the Exorcists' side in That Future is bad news, as far as his character is concerned.

TL;DR despite the intro with Bon's inspiring confidence in his friends, confronting Homare did not allow Shima to open up about his troubles. Sensei really gave us a red herring here and I love that she did.

Shima still believes he's on nobody's side but his own, which is worrying, especially with him now becoming an idol, which hints at The Very Bad Future of ch139-140, in which he seems to be on the Very Wrong Side of the story.

IGOR ??????????