Another week, another grand entrance.

I continue to be struck by just how much happens in every episode of Sengou Youko. But it’s not as if it feels rushed, per se – breathless perhaps. Or indeed as if White Fox is skipping much from the manga. This is just a fast-paced story with a ton going on, and more great characters than your average manga magazine could scrape together in total. If anything it may be a little more impactful in anime form, where with manga one has to ability (at least after the fact) to consume the story at their own pace.

For starters, there’s that business with Mudou to wrap up. And old friend Tama of course, who shows up in the nick of time to offer some assistance of an illusory nature. Mudou is indeed powerful as befits a young dragon – though not, as Tama notes, especially classy for one. H’e also hotheaded and direct, which is surely the easiest sort for the likes of Tama to work her magic against. And she’s been practicing with her coach, too. Easily fooled, Mudou leaves (pun intended) with a bogus Tsukiko in tow, leaving Senya to catch the real one. Tama assures Shinsuke that her leaves would have broken her fall anyway, but that would have deprived us of one of the best dual-blushing scenes in ages.

This reunion gives Tama and Shinsuke a chance to catch the other (and us) up on what’s been going on since they parted. Which is three months ago, as it happens. Shinsuke is a bit miffed that Tama left without him, but she insists she had no idea when he’d wake up and there was the matter of finding Jinka to consider. That binds the two of them together, as finding Jinka is just what the Mountain God asks Shinsuke to do when he does stir. In fact, she says, she’ll pay him if he can – by waking up Shakugan, currently in rock form.

Shinsuke considers himself a failure and is definitely overfond of his sake. But he’s also the sort of man who’d defy a God to save a kid who’s only ever been his enemy, even after being promised to have his greatest desire fulfilled by her. And defy her he does, as the Goddess seems intent on killing Senya after the boy refuses to take on the same mission as Shinsuke in return for her releasing his father from his sealing. Shinsuke flees with Senya in tow, but the Goddess’ parting shot leaves him where we found him – in Furukoke’s village. That established, Tama (she doesn’t explain her changed appearance) parts ways with the others to continue her quest, with a warning to Senya that avoiding battle is especially difficult for the extremely strong.

Shinsuke takes the kids to Kyoto, which is more of a thriving metropolis than he’d expected. Scraps of memory start to return for Senya – among them Jinun warning him that Kyoto was an evil place full of miasma. Shinsuke sends them off on a mission to deliver a message to Raidou Zanzou, now in residence at Nijo, while he settles in for a midday bender. But on the way Senya sees another apparition – this time a nude woman telling him that she’s about to appear before him as a mad God. Taking this as a warning Senya leaves Tsukiko in Nau’s care and isolates himself for what he assumes will be an unpleasant meeting, intent on luring the mad God into the mountains and ditching it there.

The hard truth is, being Senya is suffering. All he wants is to be left alone, but in both the literal and symbolic sense, he’s never alone. His strength is a beacon to foes of all stripes. In this case, a God who begs him to kill her. The “Go-ninkumi” (them again) “wormed their way into her soul”, she says. But even as an act of mercy, Senya doesn’t want to kill anyone. It just adds to his Karmic debt as he sees it, and it’s destroying him inside. But if a fight can’t be avoided, what choice does he have but to fight? He could allow himself to be killed of course, but that would fly in the face of his vow to live on and forge a new path.

Again, there’s not much that Shinsuke can offer Senya but consolation – that, and a reminder that at the very least, he has friends who want nothing from his strength. Upon return to Kyoto, Tsukiko and Nau are waiting for them – but not alone. Tsukiko is on the shoulders of a samurai (Hatano Wataru – I kind of imagined Koyama Rikiya here, myself). And once more the fourth wall is left in rubble – though it’s worth pointing out that ******** did the very same thing in the manga, deferring his self-introduction because “sadly we’re out of pages”…