English Dub Review: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko “Heart Ache”

End of heartache.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins with Yukina attempts to inject Sayaka with noro in order to increase her power. It’s a quiet yet suspenseful scene while quickly answering a plethora of questions on how far corrupt the sword administration is and goes as far as to make Yukina an even more despicable character. Of course thanks to the acts of Kindness & Cookies from Mai in the previous two episodes, Sayaka rejects the injection. Back at the submarine, our protagonists have escaped in the last episode, Kanami & Hiyori meet the scientist Richard Friedman, Erin’s grandfather and one of the leaders of Mokusa.

During a very long Info-dump, Friedman reveals that Hiyori’s family history with Mokusa runs much deeper as her mother “Kagari” helped found the organization which you’d think she’d actually mention Mokusa in her last letter to her daughter, but whatever. Much like Hiyori, they also first grew suspicious of Yukari when she began making sudden technologically advanced breakthroughs in noro research, and thanks to the syringe Erin stole during her battle with Yomi, she can use it as evidence to expose the corrupt & inhumane nature Sword Administration. On the subject, Yukina keeps finding new ways to be easy to hate unhinged cunt as she outright insults Yukari’s elite guard for turning down her request to find Sayaka, and even bitch-slaps Yomi for her failure, while Yume offers her services to track down Sayaka out of curiosity and to kill her boredom.

As we cut back to Mai’s place, she contemplates to herself about Kanami’s whereabouts until she gets a phone call from Sayaka and goes out to look for her, finding out that Sayaka fled from Yukina. As the psychotic Yume arrives to attack the girls with a sadistic game of cat & mouse the action scene itself is really good and shows the extreme opposites of Yume & Sayaka going at it, but is forced to retreat when Yukina arrives. As Yukina demands Sayaka to return to her, Sayaka calmly turns down her demands by stating that she’s made actual friends and refuses to lose them at the cost of her emotions. Later on, President Hashima arranges for Mai & Sayaka to go into hiding with Mokusa, where they’re reunited with the main protagonists, but the episode ends on a shocking cliffhanger when everyone finally meets Mokusa’s other leader, Akane Origami.

Our Take

Sayaka and Mai were easily the real stars of this episode. Their interactions along with delivering good amounts of character exploration and development are where I felt this episode shined the most. Since they later meet up with Kanami and the others, I suppose that means they’ll all be on the same page and learn what happened to the Origami family. I’m interested to see where they’ll go character-wise with Sayaka now that she’s no longer Yukina’s emotional punching bag of unrealistic expectations. Yukina is such a loathsome cunt, she’s like the Toji equivalent to those unethically demanding & abusive moms from “Toddlers & Tiaras” who put their daughters in beauty pageants with a superiority complex, but in Yukina’s case, she’s using Sayaka for the sake of upping her status to be on Yukari’s good side more than treating her or anyone else like a human being.

Now that the whole Team is united, they seem to meet the other leader of the rebellion forces at the end of the episode. But another Origami? perhaps someone related to Yukari who knows all her terrible secrets? I guess we’ll find out next episode.

Score
8.5/10