Good things come to those who wait, so they say.  And that was certainly the case with this week’s Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi.  It was delayed by about 5 days, as far as I know without explanation.  Occam’s Razor would suggest that it was just the MAPPA effect – a production in chaos.  But boy, if that’s the case you sure couldn’t tell from watching this episode.  It looked and generally was great – it was pretty much wall to wall action and there were absolutely no signs of cracks in the foundation, production-wise.

Idaten is just a really weird show in so many ways.  For it to be on NoitaminA is weird enough to begin with.  But you’ve got an adaptation of an ongoing manga that’s frankly not super-popular delivering some of the best-looking fights in anime this year.  True, it’s got Cool-kyou Shinja’s name attached to it – to the best of my memory the first mangaka to have three manga get adapted in one season.  It’s not like the budget is huge here, and a lot of the visual flair comes from the Gainax-infused stylistic dexterity of the staff.  But it sure doesn’t look cheap either.

As for this episode itself, it continued a trend of the demons becoming more sympathetic and the Idaten less so.  Both Takeshita and Brandy go into their fights (with Hayato and Rin respectively) fully expecting to die (and they will).  But I have to say considering the circumstances the both of them showed a lot of steel.  It might even be fair to say that if Hayato had not gotten his recent power-up courtesy of Prontea, he might have lost – the Emperor certainly took his pound of flesh and then some.  What’s more Takeshita went out of his way to minimize civilian casualties from the fight, and even warned Gill to flee the country if she wishes to live out her life (and declined to self-destruct the country with nukes).

Most of Brandy’s power seems to come from her hair, which she uses to control marionettes (whether they’re dead humans, live humans or something else I’m not sure).  She correctly deduces that for all her power Rin is prone to blunder into traps and can’t be bothered with tactics.  The problem is that Rin is so OP that she can do everything wrong in a fight against a pretty strong opponent like Brandy and win anyway, in the end.  But before she kills Brandy she has some questions about the demon lord – who as it turns out has some questions for her, too.

I’m now thinking that rather than “Obami” the maou is actually called “Over-M” – and that’s important because his naming conventions are a clue to his identity.  To wit, Over-M remembers things about the past that only Rin’s grandfather should, and he has mannerisms (like the naming) that remind her of said grandfather.  I’m still not how that would have happened, especially given what we later learn about how Idaten come into being – why would a new Idaten (if that’s what he is) take the form of Rin’s grandfather?  But if indeed he’s directly connected, that certainly changes the dynamic.

As to that Idaten genesis thing, that would be Gill.  She’s born when her strong desire to save people (power, not prayer – some commentary in that) fulfills the third condition for the birth of an Idaten.  Neither version seems to have any knowledge or memories from the other – though their personalities certainly overlap – but again, her circumstances don’t answer any questions about who Over-M really is.  There’s a very interesting interaction between Gill Mark I and an initially-puzzled Prontea, where she rails at him for so easily taking the life of the demon who would have killed her.  “If I’d been weaker and had to fight hard to kill him, would that make it OK?” he asks her – before knocking her out to “spare her” having to see the finale of the war play out.

With the emperor and empress gone and the prime minister and Barcode in custody, that is indeed the end of the war.  Riku and her party escape, as do (presumably) Brandy’s three children.  But what now?  What happens and, more interestingly, what are we supposed to be rooting for to happen?  The Idaten are, if anything, amoral – if we’re talking alignment I’d probably go true neutral, which as we know is the scariest alignment of them all.  But they are theoretically on the human side, and the demons would eventually wage war on humans – theoretically.  It’s an interesting puzzle but with the manga ongoing, I’m not sure it’s one the anime is going to be in any position to shed much light on.