English Dub Review: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko “The Burden of Resolution”

Make this week’s episode a burden.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins immediately after the Sayaka battle as Kanami & Hiyori drop off Sayaka with her sword whom strangely enough, has no prior knowledge of memories of her previous actions when she was assigned an ordered by Yukina in the last episode. As Kanami & Hiyori continue on their way to the meeting point after Gladdy’s anonymous tip tells them to meet at a forest location called “Ebisu”, Erin & Kaoru are forcibly sent on a mission much to their disappointment as they just wanted to go on vacation.

During their journey to the meeting point, much of the episode is spent on a conversation where Hioryi expresses concern for Kanami that she shouldn’t accompany her if she doesn’t have the resolve to kill if necessary given that Hiyori was more willing straight-up murder Sayaka until Kanami resolved it without any death’s whatsoever. While the verbal-chewing bitch Yukina gets chewed-out in turn by Yukari for actively pursuing Kanami & Hiyori without Yukari’s permission, and yet we still don’t get any fucking answers to why. I know Yukina is a cunt, but she brings up a valid question to why Yukari is just letting the two go despite Hiroyi almost killing her? Just as Hiyori suggests to Kanami they should go their separate ways, they end up being intercepted by Erin & Kaoru who battle them briefly in a thrilling action scene, but Kanami and Hiyori flee when Erin and Kaoru call in their S-Equipment which is basically some form of battle armor deployed at their location.

The Sword Administration detects some foul-play involved as the deployment of “S-Equipment” was revealed to be sent out without their knowledge or permission. In response to this, Yukari sends three of her Elite Guards to investigate. While Kanami & Hiryoi continue their convo with Kanami resolving to stay by her side and keep her in check from killing anyone except Aradama which leads to a heart-to-heart talk where Hiyori reveals that she knew the plot-twist about Yukari’s terrifying secret due to a letter from her late mother, who was also a Toji that tried to kill her during an incident “20 years ago” for the same reason but failed. As Hiyori makes it abundantly clear that she will destroy Yukari for being the indirect cause of her Mother’s death, the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when the Elite Guard arrives in their area, prepared to hunt down Kanami and Hiyori.

Our Take

While the series works in terms of building up the mystery, character progression and action sequences, I really hope they don’t drag out the twist for too long on why Yukari isn’t actively pursuing the two. The trouble of her not telling the Sword Administration and by extension, the audience is starting to get on my nerves and it’s only piling up trouble with everyone within her circle, government or otherwise.

Given that Kanami & Hiyori are now far away from civilization with no means of food or water while on the lam, how are they gonna get out of this predicament?