Katana Maidens ~ Toji No Miko (Episode 11 - REVIEW)

By: ThunderheavyarmThis week, the show finally returns to it’s old pacing after a two long episode side trek. The girls land and assemble outside of the Origami estate, the same place that the series all started from. The story starts to play out very reminiscent of any shonen anime. Kaoru and Ellen face off against Yume, after she ambushes them and starts a fight with Kanami. The group continues on, before they’re attacked by Yomi. Mai gives the instruction for the rest to continue on, but Sayaka remains behind to help her. Hiyori and Kanami don’t get far before they run into the last two elite guard Suzuka and Maki.The story goes back and forth between the three active battles, and going into them in depth would be difficult and lengthy, so we’ll be focusing on the key points of the fight. In the Yume fight, Kaoru and Ellen perform incredibly well, able to handle and get a minor victory in their fight. Right until Yume losses it and the Noro in her blood fires up. In a strange twist, she forcefully suppresses it and then proceeds to wipe the floor with the two. She wanders in pursuit of the rest of the group, but after a flashback to her earlier life revealing she has a life threatening condition, she leans against a tree and dies.Meanwhile, the Yume fight is interrupted by President Takatsu. She verbally berates Yume in front of Mai and Sayaka, saying that she could be better than the failure that Yume is. Sayaka rejects the offer and Yume is injected with a vial of Noro. We don’t get to see how the rest of the fight plays out. Even though it’s clear that Yume crossed through the area they were fighting, there are sword slashes in the floor and other fighting damage.The final fight between Kanami and Hiyori plays out very reminiscent of their last fight back in the fifth episode. Kanami is still able to hold off Suzuka, even though both her and Mika have revealed they’ve injected themselves with Noro. Hiyori does somewhat better than their last fight a couple of days ago. After a few more trades, both manage to individually defeat both of their opponents. Kanami through sword play and Hiyori by using some ejection from her suit to give her a momentary edge. They descend into the depths of the shrine in time to catch the Origami aradama coming out, armed with her swords ready to fight the other two.So while I’m glad that the series has gotten back to the sword fights from before, it’s a little lackluster. All three of those fights could have been their own episodes to really help to flesh out the elite guard characters. Instead all that we got were a few minutes for each of them to give their life stories and motivations. Which come off as after thoughts and an insult to the characters that are supposed to be a second major threat to the group before the end boss. They’re not dead, at least two of them aren’t, and the series is only half done at this point. But unless the last fight goes Dragonball Z level of 20 minute fights then I’m unsure why they didn’t let the other enemies have a little more of the spotlight. GG, everyone!