English Dub Review: Blue Exorcist “Help Me”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The True Cross team reunite and try to rescue Izumo, but she rejects Rin’s offer to save her. He then faces Shima, equally confused about his friend being a traitor, while Izumo tries to accept the spirit of the Nine Tailed Fox into her body. It quickly overpowers her, but Rin makes it there yet again and saves her, but also takes her mother at her pleading. Surrounded by zombies who were once humans, Rin finally puts aside his hesitation and starts cutting them down.

OUR TAKE

The plot continues to escalate as we inch closer to the finale, with Rin finally getting a bit more focus after being mostly in the background for the past few episodes. He finally gets to meaningfully confront both Izumo and Shima on their drastic decisions. I mean, Izumo didn’t really get a decision in getting kidnapped, but her rejection of Rin saving her to then take on the Nine Tails spirit is very much based on her own distrust of people, which we now know goes back to how her mother treated her and her sister. Now, she’s finally trying to trust others again and lets Rin save her after realizing she actually likes her friends and loves her mom, despite everything she put her through. As for Shima, he still doesn’t really seem like someone who’s committed to the cause of the Illuminati. In fact, the way he’s handled both Izumo and Rin in battle seems like someone who is holding back to keep them safe somehow while also trying to do enough to look loyal enough to the people he works for. Something is definitely up with him and I have a feeling that we’re going to figure out what that is pretty soon.

As for Rin, nice to see the MAIN CHARACTER finally get some focus again, though I do acknowledge that other characters need the spotlight from time to time. His main development this week is finally moving past his hesitation to kill these mindless zombies, which he mainly held back on because they were formerly human. It’s worth noting that he’s actually the last of everyone to get past this, which does make a bit of sense seeing as he’s had people admonish him for being part demon and being scared that he might snap and kill innocent people, so it would track that he wouldn’t want to just look for an excuse to kill a human, even a zombified one. Now though, with everyone very clearly deciding to kill these things if need be, and his friend’s life on the line, he does make the decision to finally kill them. I guess we’ll see if this weighs on him at all moving forward, but I’d say that he made the best decision he could at the time…which is weird for me to say because I didn’t care for the ending of Man of Steel. Anyway, three episodes left, let’s see where this arc is going to hit its highest point!