Last week I wondered how Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi intended to conclude for the season given how many loose ends there still seemed to be. I had some confidence that it would do a decent enough job even if it didn’t wrap up everything.
This week, with episode 11 of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi airing, I know that was a foolish hope.
Like so many anime this season, Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi didn’t even try to resolve.
With no announcement of a follow-up series, episode 11 progresses the story with the demons now fighting back against the Idaten and leaves us with no resolution. Neither the demons nor Idaten are winning with the demons having reclaimed some of their brainwashed breathren and two of the Idaten being tortured by the demons.
While it is a nice and dramatic episode (certainly one that doesn’t mind showing a lot of blood and gore) there’s nothing even close to a resolution or climax for any of the plot-points.
If we take away the fact that this was a season final, it was great to see Rin finally back in action. Back from brooding after spying a pure demon in the ocean she then gets caught up to date with the current situation. her reaction to the two younger Idaten going missing was awesomely over-the-top and exactly what was needed from this character.
However, Hayato really didn’t deliver in this final episode of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi. While early in this series he was a dynamic and interesting character, even if standard shounen stock, here he’s just kind of flat and boring.
I’m also more than a little disappointed with Prontea given his introduction made him seem like he was going to be far more interesting than he’s ended up being. By and large he just does what Ysley tells him to and he’s demonstrated very little real independence as a character.
That said, it’s more than made up for by the demons. Miku and Oobami make for a pretty lethal combination and very quickly turn the tables against Ysley. With no one else in the Idaten camp really big on thinking things through they may very well be outclassed.
Though, the real star of this final episode of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi ends up surprisingly being Cory (the younger demon who was brainwashed early on). Though a fairly background character, he’s been consistently in the series ever since his capture and his role in this episode really brought him to the foreground. I kind of hope, should we get a season two, that he isn’t more or less instantly snuffed out because he has some definite potential to be an interesting character.
About the only real concession this episode seemed to make for being a final episode was it firmly reminded us that this is a series not afraid of gore, torture, or sex and there’s more than one scene that feels a little gratuitous rather than purposeful as we speed along our path to the incomplete ending.
But I will highlight the best scene in the episode. And that weirdly goes to Gil. After realising things weren’t going well she digs up a box with a phone in it to try to contact Ysley and then ends up contacting Prontea. This is a fairly practical way to deal with the situation given such technology exists. However, what sells the moment is the over the top reactions from both Hayato and Rin as they wonder if she’s some kind of genius for mastering the technology.
Honestly, it was a refreshing and fun moment from a fairly dark episode.
Hopefully this isn’t the end of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi and we do get a second season because as it is, without an ending, I won’t be able to recommend this when I get to reviewing the whole season and honestly there were a lot of fun moments along the way.
Images from: Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi. Dir. S Kidokoro. MAPPA. 2021
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Karandi James
Idaten was on the shortlist of summer anime I didn’t watch week to week but planned to check out because despite some of the content it seemed interesting enough and I saw enough people talk about it…then I found out the web manga for this went on hiatus, and the version that’s serialized in a magazine has only five volumes out.
I.e., that really killed my interest in watching it, since I dunno when they’ll be able to do another season.
Or even if they will bother doing another season.
That too haha