Joran The Princess Of Snow And Blood “The Witching Hour” Review
Joran The Princess Of Snow And Blood “The Witching Hour” is the eighth episode of the Joran anime. Following episode 7 we see Sawa fly off the rails and attack Makoto to avenge Asahi.
The fight for revenge
Whilst Sawa goes absolutely ham at Makoto. All whilst Makoto is being a total creeper towards Sawa, showing her clearly unhinged state. She wants to be the only thing Sawa is thinking about. Whilst they fight to the death, however, a mysterious black crow creature kills Makoto. Even though she’s in shock, Sawa still mourns over her body lying lifeless and eventually passes out from her wounds.
Fast forward and we see Kuzuhara speeding through the roads of a countryside with the man he was torturing last episode in the passenger seat. He openly says if the man wants to keep his brother safe then he’ll do as he says. The cat lady is also there and she uncovers a body under the floorboards but she’s not surprised to see it. She just calls the body collectors over. Another mystery.
Fleeing to safety
Turns out Sawa was in the back of Kuzuhara’s car. He’s taken her to a refuge near the shore miles from anywhere. She spends the entire episode depressed and wanting to die, naturally after all she’s been through. So she goes to drown herself but Kuzuhara saves her. He does show genuine concern. And at first I didn’t buy it but I’m thinking he’s a double agent for sure now. He confides in Sawa the his mother died shortly after he was born and he struggled. He was treated like crap but continued to kill to live but he loved someone once. They died so he knows what it’s like to lose someone you love. He also reveals his real name: Makabe Iori.
The episode ends with Kuzuhara asking Sawa’s crow to take care of her. Whilst he makes his way to the shore and meets Elena, heavily pregnant, there. They discuss one last job and the episode ends with us all questioning what the last job will be and what that random changeling was that killed Makoto.
Review
This was both a good and bad episode. It had all the problems of episode 5 but had everything going for it plot-wise. I won’t lie. Introducing new stuff into the show so close to the end of it has me worried the ending will be rushed or we won’t get any answers at all. The reveal about Elena being alive and Kuzuhara not being called Kuzuhara wasn’t really a reveal. More of a confirmation, it was pretty clear he had more sides to him than even Makoto and Elena wasn’t going to be killed so soon. She was and still is a key character.
The one thing I’m puzzled about is the creature that killed Makoto out of nowhere. Likely it’ll be another changeling. Perhaps the one who killed Sawa’s family and it turns out it wasn’t Janome at all. Who knows but a lot of this episode was used to flesh out the remaining characters and try to take the audience off guard again.
One thing I will give it mad respect for is the fight animation. The animation is stunning especially during the Sawa vs Makoto fight. The tiny details like Sawa holding a handful of Sakura petals whilst she’s being attacked by Makoto and begging her to explain why and later the piece of china she goes to kill herself with is a cup with pink sakura petals on. But with all it’s subtleties, it doesn’t really give anything that wasn’t expected. It’s fine but nothing breath-taking.
