Joran The Princess Of Snow And Blood “Fleeting Spring” Review
Joran The Princess Of Snow And Blood “Fleeting Spring” is the seventh episode of the Joran anime. This is a much calmer and slower paced episode than episode 6 but it works. Following both the stories of Sawa and Asahi alongside Makoto’s story. The two couldn’t be more different from the other and the contrast between them is really what makes this episode work.
Plot
Having left and ended up at the shrine. Sawa and Asahi meet the granddaughter of the person who owned it. She greets them and reluctantly lets them stay as Makoto warned her they’d be coming. Sawa and Asahi especially make their home there over the months. Asahi makes friends with the local children and Sawa makes an impression on the local teacher. They’re happy, Sawa smiles for the first time in months now and again but it’s clear it won’t last. The entire episode is filled with a bittersweet feeling, leaving the audience anxious the whole way knowing something is going to go wrong.
Alongside Sawa’s story is Makoto’s. Her story shows her going around finding the hidden treasures that The Treasurer left behind. Finding out that a lot of it is secrets of the Karasumori Clan. The truth Sawa wanted from the treasurer all that time ago is now with Makoto. She has time against her though as Kuzuhara makes it clear he knows where she is and will hunt her down if Makoto doesn’t give him the blue blood medicine. Makoto seems to genuinely want to protect Sawa but she hates what Sawa has become. She loved the Sawa that was full of hate and desperate to live for the sake of her revenge.
Desperate to bring back the Sawa that she knows, Makoto kills Asahi in front of Sawa after taking the blue blood medicine and fusing into a cat-hybrid. The episode ends with Sawa about to transform herself. Giving Makoto exactly what she wants.
Review
This was a great episode. The mostly slow pacing of Sawa’s story worked as it was sweet to see what might have been but there’s always a feeling of dread and doom. The anxious feeling as the episode creeps on just makes Asahi’s death all that more tragic. You know it’s coming. You can feel it but there’s nothing you can do, very much like Sawa’s fate to constantly kill for revenge. Or so she feels.
Makoto’s twisted desire to bring back Sawa as a killer is her way of protecting her. Perhaps because she knows Kuzuhara will never leave Sawa alone or because she’s simply twisted and honestly thinks it’s the best thing for her. But the fact is, if Sawa does kill Makoto, she’ll never learn the truth of her clan.
