I was surprised this week in Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi that we more or less are now just dealing with the aftermath of the war. I kind of thought they were going to prolong Rin’s battle from episode 8, but instead, it is all over. Still, unlike so many other anime and movies, this one knows that just because the fighting has stopped the work hasn’t. In fact, most of our characters are working harder than ever.
Weird that a surreal anime like Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi has a fairly realistic portrayal of the aftermath of war.
Instead of celebrations or parades, Rin’s left kind of shell-shocked after realising a potential connection between the demon-lord and her sealed away grandfather, Hayato, Paula and the newly made Idaten Gil are in training mode, meanwhile Ysley, Prontea and the Zoble military are all hard at work rebuilding the destroyed city, healing the injured, and tracking down the missing demons.
It’s almost like Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi is acknowledging that problems can’t actually be solved by punching them in the face.
However, because this episode of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi is trying to show us where everyone has ended up it is very piecemeal. We get some of Ysley and Prontea going through the information held by the Zoble empire. We also get Piscalat firmly putting the nun in her place by pointing out the best thing she could do was shut up so others could rest and get back to doing work. It was blunt but given the circumstances necessary.
It also makes very clear what kind of Idaten Gil may end up being given how sick of feeling helpless and useless the nun is actually feeling right now.
These would have been enough in terms of plot threads for an episode, but we also cut between Miku’s group of escaped demons as well as the three children Brandy sent off prior to the war beginning.
Each of these groups are encountering some hardships having lost their place of power within an empire and needing to stay off the grid. And each group is dealing with that in a different way.
While Miku is having her team assume the identity of a shut-in so they can hide away for a few years another pair have apparently taken up residence on a deserted island and after a time-skip we see the result of their union without intervention. A new demon loosed upon the world, and a poor unsuspecting whale. Solid way to end the episode though and kind of traumatic for the two characters. Their child just tried to eat them but they also don’t actually want to hurt it.
There’s two more groups we follow during this episode of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi with one pair using connections with the underworld to secure a new location and the other relying on their ability to dig underground tunnels. I suspect that all of these characters and their plots will eventually converge when we get to the final episode in two week’s time.
Meanwhile, I just have to wonder how much damage that baby demon is going to do before the Idaten realise and stop it.
I’m going to be honest, this episode wasn’t as fun as some of the others, but it definitely took the plot in an interesting direction and the time-skip this week seems to be helpful in terms of setting up the next steps for the story so I’m looking forward to where it is going.
Though, I remember earlier this season I wondered whether Ysley would turn out to be the real villain of Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi and I’m not actually ready to give that idea away. Right now Ysley is calling all the shots for the other Idaten and essentially the entire Zoble Empire. And he’s being pretty merciless in hunting down the escaped demons which on the one hand makes sense because of the potential threat they are likely to be but on the other-hand if they were left alone would they just quietly live on their deserted island?
Anyway, it doesn’t seem like it would take much for Ysley to slip from being pretty cold and calculating in his decision making to genuinely crossing lines (though given he’s already manipulated various people’s brains to control their actions maybe that line was crossed a long time ago).
Images from: Heion Sedai no Idaten-Tachi. Dir. S Kidokoro. MAPPA. 2021
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James