English Dub Review: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko “The United Maidens”

Loose ends are tied in this final episode.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

Long after the previous episode’s ending where Kanami and Hiyori finally put a stop to Princess Tagitsu and put her back into the netherworld along with themselves, thereby closing the portal and saving the world with the incident now being called the “End of the Year Disaster” with Kanami and Hiyori officially declared missing, though their friends are certain they will return.

The entire episode is devoted to a time-skip where Two months later, life has gone back to normal, with the Sword Administration taking steps to prepare for Princess Tagitsu’s eventual return. However, the real meat of this story is when it reveals that Kanami & Hiyori in reality, stuck in the netherworld. As weird as this is also going to sound, the two meet the spirits of the teenage versions of their mothers Kagari and Minato, who were left behind when the real Kagari and Minato unsuccessfully tried to seal Princess Tagitsu.

Throughout this entire series, we’ve seen Kanami accessing the ability to randomly contact & communicate with the teen version of her mother in her dreams but I barely talked about it in my past reviews as I felt at the time that It didn’t really lead anywhere, but here it for once has great significance and closure for our two leads. After having a brief & heartfelt reunion, Kagari and Minato show their sort-of future daughters a path to return to the real world since according to them, “their bodies still exist”. As the credits roll, we’re treated with an epilogue of sorts for everyone on the show, including a scene where Yukina who’s now reduced to being emotionally & physically broken from Tagitsu’s betrayal in combination with Yomi’s sacrifice is told that her school can keep Yomi’s Okatana as a memento. But the episode ends on a happy note when Kanami and Hiyori face off against each other again in the final match of the school tournament.

Our Take

This was quite a satisfying way to end this show that feels very self-contained. But the epilogue did a good job tying up loose-ends despite the ending itself feeling rushed with all the characters.

What more than made up for this, was the dramatic & heartfelt moments, including that last fight scene with Kanami and her sort-of ghost-mother dueling it out with the show’s opening music playing, but the final scene felt even more symbolic when you realize that the show both began and ended at their school tournament.

Be sure to check out my Season Review as I gather my thoughts on this grossly underrated show as a whole.

Score
9/10