At this point, to me it seems pretty clear that there is no thousand year old “Omniyoji”, that somehow, she’s behind everything from the very beginning. I don’t know and I’m not saying that is the truth. In fact, when other people often guess the plot or the ending to a movie (back in college, one of my friends figured out the ending of “Seven” about 30 minutes before the ending), I have to see the end.
I was surprised that the Noh play wasn’t like some sort of introduction device, but was actually taking place in the story itself! All the Japanese references were foreign to me and so I didn’t know what the masks meant. But I was stunned by the outcome of the episode anyway.
It was satisfying to see Hasegawa down the hatch and it was good to hear the chime when the job was done.
A big part of the element of this show hinges on Kuro’s memories, but few episodes ago there didn’t seem to be any hints that if they were true or false; although I did get suspicious about his recollections, but more and more, little hints here and there started to point out that his perfect eternal lover wasn’t so great after all.
To me, clue one wasn’t the part where she cut his head off; it was in the village where the painter guy painted a grotesque picture of her.
Now, there are some things that I’m not satisfied with:
1. Kuro’s protector when he was Minamoto (anyone still remembers that) – what happened to him? Why did he betray Kuro? If the Omniyoji isn’t real, then that subplot doesn’t hold up. Unless the reality is that Kuromitsu seduced him as well.
2. The many flashbacks – some of the stories never panned out and never seemed to have any importance, they’re there to confuse people.
3. The lack of any explanation at all as to how the “Omniyoji’s organization” survived and became the Red Emperor’s organization, especially if the Omniyoji wasn’t real.
It was implied that Kuro slept with Rai…But damn, with her severe bodily damage, how could they do it? Just thought I’d point that out for thoughts.
Let’s see what happens in episode 12.