Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga

Episode 10

Well, Shiro is finally revealed as a softy, and I suppose I am too. Last week, I wasn't convinced Shiro had changed on the deepest level, enough to protect two bawling brats who were, after all, Satan's offspring. Turns out all it took to my change my mind was that most hackneyed device, a flashback montage. It highlights Yuri's kindness to Shiro all through the series, and Shiro's utter lack of reciprocation… and it's all implied to flash through Shiro's head just after she dies. And then, just when he's at his lowest, he has a vision of their very first meeting as kids, when Yuri told him he was a “warm” person after all.

Yes, that'll do. It's not as if the complications are just shrugged off. “They're Satan's sons, for goodness' sake!” Shiro reflects, picking up the infants he's saved from a monster's maw. “Can I do this?” His next words indicate he finally sees value in his own life – a clone, created for the sole purpose of being Lucifer's vessel. Therefore he can finally see value in Satan's children… and all that's thanks to Yuri slowly bringing out the best in Shiro over many years. That's romantic.

It also ties up with Part 7 of the series, where present-day Rin was saved by Shiemi in a comparable manner. We learn rather more about Shiemi's future granny this week. In the previous episode, the Sacred Sage of the Grigori seemed pitiless, calling for the deaths of Yuri and her children. Now we see her in a far more heroic light, putting the kibosh on Lucifer, who's just devised his plan for ending the world. She survives the encounter, but Mephisto suggests she go and do gardening – not flippantly, but showing sincere respect.

Granted, viewers may complain about shoehorned exposition. During the tussle, Lucifer helpfully muses on the Nephilim's nature, which will presumably become very relevant to Shiemi going forward. After the fight, the Sage must also paper over the plot with a hasty “I could beat Lucifer but I'm not Captain Marvel, this was a one-time only deal” explanation. And while Mephisto praises the Sage on her timing, we're all just thinking that if only she'd been a few seconds faster, she could have saved poor Rick from a heroic death. We were at his wedding, remember!

So many characters are glimpsed that it's worth clarifying the boy Rick saved – the sole surviving Lucifer clone, barring the one in a tank – will become Arthur A. Angel, Paladin in the current time frame. We also glimpse the shell-shocked Igor Neuhaus, who burned his family when Satan tried possessing him in Part 8. Honestly, for a moment I thought it was Rick again, despite him exploding seconds before. Elsewhere, there's a glimpse of Saburota Todo, the future Kyoto Saga heavy, gleefully torching his family home in front of his daughter Homura. There's always a silver lining for someone.

One character not glimpsed this episode is the present-day Rin, unless I missed him somewhere. And there I was thinking he'd make a “forbidden” intervention and save Shiro! On the other hand, there's an unexpected return for Yuri at the end, meeting Satan in the realm of Gehenna. Satan, still enraged, seems to destroy what's left of her, and perhaps that's truly it for Yuri. But there are (probably) two episodes still to go this season…

A word on the music. When Shiro took on the Yeti, I honestly couldn't distinguish it from Attack on Titan, which shared composers Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto. But then the action was so utterly Titan-ish that it felt like fitting fanservice, like Shiro Sagisu recycling his music between Nádia's Nautilus and Eva's Wunder. And some of the later music this episode is splendid, underpinning the fight between Lucifer and the Sacred Sage, then heralding the passing of the Blue Night. Bells chime, sun rises over the snowy slopes and Shiro struggles on below, still bearing his family, a sinner called to the light.

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