Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga

Episode 11

“Pink Spider” is a transition episode. Now that Izumo has been rescued and the incident in Inari is behind everyone, Blue Exorcist needs to begin setting up the next phase of the Shimane Illuminati Saga. To do that, the story has to address the one dangling plot thread that I found myself unsatisfied with last week: What the hell is going on with Renzo Shima?

I haven't yet decided on how I feel about what the answer is. In short, he's a double agent who is ostensibly still working on behalf of the Knights of the True Cross by defecting to the Illuminati. Of course, as this episode makes clear, the danger of dealing with a double agent who is open about their willingness to lie to and betray their comrades is that neither team that the agent is playing for can ever truly trust what their agent has to tell them. It's been well established that the Illuminati has been playing the long game in setting up Lucifer's war. Who is to say that Renzo isn't just serving as a triple agent who lives to carry out the orders of his Commander Lucifer? Unfortunately for the rest of our heroes, it is in Renzo's best interests that nobody knows for sure.

The reveal of Renzo's duplicity felt a bit rushed and I can't help but wonder if the show skipped more manga material to get to this point. If not, then it just feels like Blue Exorcist doesn't trust the audience to go this long without some kind of break for shenanigans, along with reassurances that everything is just fine. There's the inherent distrust that comes along with Renzo's permission that I mentioned up top, but keeping the character's motives obfuscated while breezing the story along to its next point makes Renzo less of a compelling character and more of a mostly compelling plot device, at least for now. I get that the show is being very intentional in how much Renzo is still keeping to himself. Given how he treated Izumo in Inari, it feels odd that the gang would accept Renzo's return, no matter how begrudging it might be.

Then again, the shenanigans on display were pretty funny. The kids have developed enough chemistry over the years that I am happy to watch them kick Renzo's ass and berate him for his lies, even if I still feel like the punishment hasn't matched the crime. Rin's attempt to “bring Renzo back” by impersonating him was the highlight of the episode for me.

Less of a highlight is the table setting and back-and-forth that the episode gets into once Mephisto arrives and commences with the mind games. I can see why the show is having the kids call their leader's motivations into question, and maybe it's because so many of the past events they refer to happened years ago from our point of view. I couldn't help but glance at my watch during this entire sequence. It's fine, and probably necessary for what's to come, but it doesn't make for an especially entertaining half-hour of television.

At least we get a decent cliffhanger to close out on. The camera work and cheap jittering effect sell the moment short, but Blue Exorcist knows that the audience will sit up and pay attention to any hints that Yukio might be working for the Illuminati. We'll just have to wait as to whether or not these teases amount to anything satisfying.

Rating:

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.