This was another pretty solid episode for Jigokuraku.  I’d have to say that the overall arc of the series has been positive, though by no means unidirectionally so.  There are almost always some clunkers (this week was no exception), but there seems to be an overall quality to the series that gives it traction.  It’s not exactly getting Mappa’s A-list treatment (never mind we don’t even know for sure if it’s getting a second split cour), but there’s enough interesting stuff about to keep me tuning in.

Obviously the biggest takeaway from this episode is Jiujun (if indeed that is his name) spilling the beans that the whole elixir of life thing is a lie.  If humans drink it they turn into a tree, Jiujun says – not the sort of immortality they’re looking for.  We have no means of knowing how reliable this info is, of course, but I see no obvious reason he’d lie about it.  And it fits into the larger theme of the show, which is that sooner or later the humans have to figure out that the entire premise of their presence here is a sham.  The elixir, the pardon, the rules they’re supposed to abide by – it’s all total bullshit and I think that’s been obvious all along.  The sooner the wool is pulled from all their eyes the better.

That leaves the question – which Sagiri asks – of what the next step is if their whole raison d’être is invalid.  But Yuzuhira is right for once, at the moment the only thing that matters is surviving.  The rest can be figured out later if they manage to do that.  And fighting against what Houko calls a God makes that very problematical.  All of the scattered human parties are figuring out bits and pieces of the whole tao thing (if only they could get together and share info…), and this trio is no exception.  Effectively all martial artists are using tao in some form even if they’re not aware of it as such, which means the real battle is to give context to that.

If indeed this island is nothing more than a platform for human experimentation, then Jigokuraku is effectively a tweaked version of The Most Dangerous Game.  Between Yuzurihaya’s ninjitsu and Sagiri’s keen eye they do manage to give Jiujun a bit of trouble.  Even Senta draws his blade and proves himself quite adept with it, though he’s hoisting a veritable United Nations of death flags for the entire episode.  Through teamwork they manage to cut the tensen down, seemingly permanently.  However, “let’s settle down for a rest a few feet away from the corpse of a seemingly unkillable God” is a seriously dumb move and one of those clunkers I was talking about.

If indeed this is the end for Senta I can’t say I’m surprised, as it was certainly telegraphed.  And it seems like best practice with this series to just assume every character is going to die sooner or later.  Shion’s timely arrival is probably too late for Senta but it does suggest that we’re about to get another merger of groups, and assuming this new quartet eventually reforms with Gabimaru’s team that leaves only the Aza brothers as outliers (assuming there are no other survivors we’re unaware of).  All the humans uniting up and the story being re-framed with the elixir reveal would be a logical place to end the first cour – if indeed we’re going to get a second.