English Dub Review: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko “The Space Between Humans and Disgrace”

Winners don’t do Noro!

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins when Kaoru wakes up after the exhausting ass-kicking she delivered to the Elite Guard Yomi who turned out to have Aradama powers but is given a text message from Erin to find Kanami & Hiyori and take them to the rendezvous point, while Erin purposely allows herself to be captured by the other two Elite Guards. Erin’s scene with them does flesh out a number of things about her backstory, including the fact that her grandfather is also a suspected member named Dr. Friedman. but the Interrogation comes to an abrupt halt when Maki and Suzuka leave the camp to investigate a possible sighting of the two.

A good portion of the episode’s running time is spent updating the audience on what everyone is up to, it even cuts to a scene where Yukari is at a weapons facility with what looks like gallons of Noro (Aradama Blood) being processed which I thought was being used for research but apparently it’s being weaponized, as shown with scenes of the Elite Guard Yomi using it periodically to recharge her “Swarm” powers. As Erin breaks free after most of the guards leave, she manages to steal one of the Noro syringes Yomi used but while taking her on, Yomi proceeds to inject another syringe of Noro in an effort to make herself more powerful, but just when things seem decidedly bleak for Erin. Kanami, Hiyori, and Kaoru arrive to help with Kaoru’s pet “Nene” leading the way.

As Kanami takes Erin to safety, Yomi starts overdosing with multiple noro syringes but loses control of her powers and let’s just say it isn’t pretty… As the Two Elite guards notice how out of control Yomi’s Aradama powers become, Kanami and the others escape the area via submarine from the Mokusa people. In the aftermath, Yomi gets medical attention, It also tells us that the two elite guards that Yomi was apart of showed actual sorrow for her which means they’re fully aware of a corrupt system. Yukari later dismisses everyone from hunting the two down and the episode ends on a cryptic note when the purple-haired bitch Yukina escorts Sayaka out of her room for an unknown purpose.

Our Take

Judging from this episode alone, this served as a big reveal in regards to the Toji who use Noro as a weaponized performance-enhancing drug and the “Mokusa” freedom fighters only being briefly mentioned during the previous episode, the status of them being real was cemented near the end.

While we did get a few decent action scenes, we also got to know Erin’s history with Mokusa during the interrogation scene. And despite still not getting any damn answers to why Yukari doesn’t want to pursue the very people who attempted to kill her since Episode 1, we did learn how deeply corrupted the Sword Administration is at some level, and part of me is now kinda worried about Sayaka who started to show some emotion for once when she saw Mai again before being dragged by Yukina for whatever purpose she has.

Let’s hope they touch upon what happens next with Sayaka next episode.