I could think of a lot of things to say about Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi, but what probably stands out most is that it was pretty damn weird.  I still have no idea how this thing ever got made, but the really strange thing is that it seems to have been pretty well-received by fans.  Go figure – I have a definite appreciation for it myself but my tastes are usually anathema to mainstream opinion where anime (and most things) are concerned.

Cool-kyou Shinja is the big name attached to this thing – and presumably the reason it got greenlit, since he basically owns this season and everyone else is just living in it – but Amahara is actually the key figure.  He’s the author of the original web manga and the print version which Cool-kyou Shinja illustrates.  And it’s his twisted sensibility which most permeates proceedings.  I haven’t read any of his other manga and I couldn’t get through two episodes of Ishozoku Reviewers, but I’m told this amoral outlook is common to all of them.  I’m also told he’s never finished a series, which is highly relevant to this week’s proceedings…

This episode may as well have been titled “the demons strike back”, as that’s pretty much the meat of it.  In a nutshell, Miku outsmarted Ysley, and the Idaten don’t really have a backup plan where strategy is concerned.  Prontea is fairly bright, but seems easily led around by the nose.  Ysley got complacent, Miku showed infinite patience (she had her shotas for company), and when the moment to strike came, she was the one pulling the strings.  Over-M (confirmed to be an Idaten, by the way) going about in borrowed faces fooled Ysley long enough for Miku to turn everything in her favor.

I was quite unsure about who I wanted to “win” here, basically because neither side is all that sympathetic but they’re both kind of likeable.  But when push came to shove I did sort of feel bad about what was happening to the Idaten, who are the closest thing this show has to protagonists.  There were even a few earnest moments, like Paula-chan protecting Corey when Rin is about to end him, having zoned out for the last seven years of plot.  But once Miku and the demon lord fully engaged, it was pretty much blood on the tracks.

In point of fact there is some talk of peace here.  Human Gil-san is an advocate of it, and so is her Idaten counterpart, but Ysley points out the reasons why it probably won’t work.  And even after Over-M has undone his brainwashing, Corey has flashes of conscience – he’s truly horrified when he sees what Kuraishi and Ferlandia are doing to the captured Ysley and Paula.  Corey always seemed like the most human among the demons – maybe he can be some sort of conduit for a peaceful resolution, though that frankly seems like it would be pretty out of character for Amahara.

I suppose that’s something we’ll never know, at least in anime form.  That ending wasn’t a cliffhanger so much as a brick wall we smacked into, a real downer even for an adaptation of an ongoing manga.  Yet another reason why it’s weird that this series ever got produced it that the source apparently only has enough material for one cour (which is weird in itself as the web manga started in 2008), and the anime used basically all of it.  Even if there was production committee appetite for a second season – and I have no idea if there would be – there’s no chance of there being enough material for at least a couple of years.

There were definitely times when this series grossed me out, not so much with the violence and gore but its abjectly amoral outlook.  These is quite a bleak story about some dark characters, though I do think in an offhand way it muses on some big social and even philosophical questions.  Yet I can’t deny one simple fact – I was always entertained.  I found myself looking forward to new episodes of Idaten more than almost anything on the schedule.  I enjoyed the ride it took me on – it’s a series overflowing with style, and it executes its nihilistic storyline with total abandon. Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi was all-in, all the time, in a way anime used to be a lot more often than it has been lately.  And that has a definite appeal to it.  I didn’t always like this show, but I’ll definitely miss it.