#hakushurin

Shurin knows that Sanu’s actions are because of her and it makes me wonder if he was in love with her in the past. I get that Sanu hates that people important to him are taken away and that he feels powerless when it happens, but the fact that his thoughts always stem from Shurin in some way can’t help but to make me wonder if he liked her that way. I feel bad for her, regardless. She stopped aging at sixteen and has to serve as the Queen Mother because it was her fate to do so. She can’t really do anything she wants anymore—she can’t even go see Sanu.

The fact that forbidden magic on a person’s body leaves them emaciated is terrifying. Sanu looks horrifying in that state! He was called out for his actions in this episode, saying that he always tries to shift the blame onto others and never himself, which does make sense in a way. He blames other people for his mishaps and never himself. His actions were all his doing, even if it seemed as if he was being hypnotized by Souryu to work for Konton. Also, I want to praise Ryota Suzuki’s voice acting in the Sanu segment because he made him sound so weary and tired and he nailed it perfectly.

However, in order to find Konton, Ichiyo needs to find the mystery behind the Moon Egg—that has been Konton’s goal the entire time. He goes to Shiro who tells him to go to a place called the Sacred Grove. Shiro took care of Ichiyo because he had to in a way. Shiro doesn’t care about humans. This does hint that Ichiyo might not be a person as he has wings on his neck, meaning that he only takes on a human appearance.

I honestly can’t wait to see what Ichiyo’s origins are. Also, what’s with Souryu? Since there are nine of him, all of his appearances are missing something. There could be a chance that Tenko isn’t Souryu, but I doubt it. He got Tenko’s face and voice. Either Tenko is one of the parts of Souryu, or he is something else entirely…maybe he’s a part of Souryu that isn’t missing anything… Anyways, I can’t wait to find out! Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

I do like that the intro gives a little snippet of the world building. This episode talks about the Eight Immortals who serves the Queen Mother of the West. What they do isn’t fully specified. It’s just to let viewers know they exist. The episode do have the eight immortals show up, but they’re not fully introduced. I do recognize Tekkai in the background but I don’t know who the rest are. Shouri is one of them too. The immortals serve the Queen Mother of the West, but what that person does isn’t specified either as the previous one died and Hakushurin is apparently chosen as her successor. How and why are never told.

While Hakushurin’s life has turned upside down because of these sudden turn of events, that’s how she was able to meet Ichiyo. Remember that this is the memory of how Hakushurin met Ichiyo as told from the previous episode’s post-credit scene. Ichiyo gave her candy and always kept her company. It makes me wonder if Hakushurin’s role is to be his love interest. What I found interesting was that Ichiyo was already a Kashi and had Tenko with him. I honestly can’t wait for next week to see how they met. Tenko from the past, with his long white hair and stoic visage, looked gorgeous. I bet Shungei had been abruptly enamored with him.

Because of the nature of this episode, so many characters are introduced. We have the episode’s star Hakushurin, a playful tomboyish girl who sucks at martial arts, but still does her best. She’s best friends with Sanu, Shouri’s son, who is a filial son looking after his ill mother and despises his father for not visiting her when she needed it most. There’s Shungei who refused Sanu’s request—what a jerk. There’s Koumei who’s like Hakushurin’s tutor? Then we have Saiwa, who’s Ichiyo’s mentor. Then there’s Hiki, who’s one of the Four Perils and has a bad leg. I like his character design, but he gives sus vibes. There’s also Hakugo who’s Ichiyo’s cat daddy, and a Divine Beast. I hope we learn how Ichiyo met Hakugo.

The voice cast is superb. The entire cast is just big names. There’s Lynn who plays Hakushurin, Ryota Suzuki who plays Sanu and Hiro Shimono who plays Saiwa to name a few. I was most surprised with Daisuke Hirakawa as Koumei because I didn’t recognize it was him until I saw his name in the credits. Dang, he should use that effeminate voice more often. Ryohei Kimura voices Hiki. Most of all, young Ichiyo is played by none other than Junko Takeuchi. Ichiyo has the voices of Aquamarine Hoshino and Naruto Uzumaki within him. Crazy.

Overall, this was a nice episode that focuses more on characters that aren’t Ichiyo and Tenko, but the fact that the anime jumps around does get a little confusing. Still, I’m not going to drop it. What are your thoughts on this episode?