English Dub Review: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko “The Point of a Sword”

Is there a point?

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins during an exciting action sequence involving some young girls up against a giant firey centipede monster that’s intercut with an exposition dump that talks about a monstrous entity called the “Aradama” that’s become a primary threat to Japan since ancient times and the only solution to combat this menace are a group of young Shrine Maidens called the “Toji”. The narration further explains that the Toji have the ability to use magic swords called the “Okatana” which in a basic sense, function like Green Lantern rings as each sword chooses it’s wielder as represented by a glowing white aura that covers them. The Toji themselves all work alongside police and government officials to take on this Aradama threat and are legally allowed to carry their swords around in public. At the 4 min mark, we meet our two main protagonists which are school-girls named Kanami and Mai who have both made it to the tournament nationals and are representing their school the “Minoseki Academy” against four other Toji schools once every spring.

Much of the episode’s running time is spent on us getting to know Kanami & Mai as we do see a best friend/sister-like dynamic with Mai being quiet & reserved, while Kanami is eager to kick some ass at the tournament. The next day after traveling by train, the plot starts to pick up when they encounter a diverse group of young Toji’s who are also partaking in the tournament and each of them also possess magical katana blades with some that even differ in size, but during a montage of seeing each one battle against one another, we also learn that instead of wearing any kind of body armor during their duels, the white aura each Toji posesses works sort-of like an invisible armor that’s capable of protecting the sword wielders without the risk of death or dismemberment when they lose after one strike. While Kanami & Mai feel like the primary focus, another contestant who also keeps getting equal moments of screentime is a lady in green named Hiyori.

When we get to the third act, Kanami makes it to the finals and we get another exposition dump about the head of the tournament who’s a famed elite guard named Yukari Origami whom for reasons we don’t know yet, Hiyori seems to have an implied personal grudge against her. When the tournament Finals begin, It’s Kanami vs Hiyori but in a surprising twist, Hiyori attempts to assassinate Yukari but fails and for some reason, Kanami felt the need to rescue her because they didn’t start their match properly and the episode ends when they both proceed to escape from their now shared predicament as one of the elite guards is actively pursuing them against Yukari’s wishes.

Our Take

For a first episode, the show itself is very female-dominated. Many characters are introduced during the tournament segment that we don’t even know the names of yet which I hope they’ll cross that bridge later on. The pacing is a bit slow at times during scene transitions and the animation quality is bright & colorful with the action scenes being the only highlight so far.

If there are any other redeeming qualities, the character designs at least attempt to differentiate each Toji, but the strange part is how the swords choose a wielder. It’s not properly explained yet, but the Okatana’s seem to go for teen/pre-teen girls rather than grown adults or anyone of the opposite gender. The most compelling aspect for me is the mystery behind Hiyori’s motivation to kill Yukari which I hope they’ll also get to answering in later episodes.

A compelling start, but not terrible in execution.