Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga

Episode 4

American comics warn us that with great power comes great responsibility. They also assure us that anyone, even a hormone-drenched boy like Peter Parker, can live up to that responsibility and enrich the world. Manga and anime are glummer. Some of the most famous say that if there's a great cosmic power, don't give it to a teenage boy, for heaven's sake. Light Yagami, Eren Yeager, and Akira's Tetsuo all bear witness to that.

Blue Exorcist's new episode has Akira vibes. A boy with the powers of the universe is put in a nursery behind a massive metal door and said door lasts, oh, five minutes of screen time. Satan doesn't want to take down crooks or slay a giant who ate his mum. It's worse. He wants the girl who was his childhood playmate, who frolicked with him when he was an itsy-bitsy flame. Remember, kids! Romances based on childhood friendships rarely work out.

Childhood foes, on the other hand, are ideal for each other. The episode starts with a scene between Shiro and Yuri before a wedding. We know it can't be theirs, but the scene's playfulness is charming. The slovenly Shiro never learned to tie a tie, but Yuri, always the Trainer, is still out to civilize him. After some back-and-forth-badinage, Yuri ties the tie so tight that Shiro gasps. You needn't be Freud to know where she's holding him symbolically.

In contrast, the scenes between Yuri and a now-bodied Satan suggest a mother-child relationship out of control, as the fast-growing demon makes his desires increasingly clear. Shiro's grumpy insistence on accompanying Yuri into the nursery adds sexual rivalry to the cocktail and triggers the inevitable disaster. Satan's act of immolating a hostage when Yuri asks for mercy may be his assertion of divine power, but it shows us he's a cruel boy determined to show that he's grown a pair, like Akira's Tetsuo.

Rin, who's still watching all this with us, is almost invisible this week, only seen in one shot. Then again, his resemblance to Satan is obvious, especially in the divinity's goofy moments. How could a murderous monster produce such a good kid? It happens all the time in reality, but it's still a fascinating story.

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Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.