In the twelfth episode of Katana Maidens ~ Toji No Miko, Kanami and Hiyori have reached their target. However, getting there was only the beginning; they still have to fight.Before getting to the main event, let’s catch up with some of the other characters after the events of the previous episode.
Ellen and Kaoru get up after their fight against Yume
Sayaka and Mai continue to fight Satsuki
Of course, the main event in this episode is Kanami and Hiyori’s fight against Yukari.
Yukari fends off both Kanami and Hiyori with her Niten Ichi style
Yukari dual wields okatana, and is able to fight both Kanami and Hiyori at the same time. Yukari is able to see through their attacks, so it proves to be a difficult fight.
Meanwhile, Mai and Sayaka’s battle comes to an end, and Sayaka gets a great moment where she tells Takatsu that she pities her.
Maki comes across Yume’s body
There is a scene where Maki seems to mourn the loss of Yume, showing concern that she doesn’t get to die a normal death. Suzuka says she will deal with Yume’s remains, otherwise she will just become an aradama. Suzuka also tells Maki to go ahead to Yukari.
Turns out Yukari – or Princess Tagitsu – can’t exactly see every attack
Going back to the fight against Yukari – or, more accurately, Princess Tagitsu – she says that she can see every move that her opponents will make. Naturally, this is shortly followed by Kanami managing to catch Princess Tagitsu off-guard.
This allows Kanami to realise something – Princess Tagitsu is reacting to their attacks. By not attacking, Princess Tagitsu sees too many possibilities and is unable to act.
Kanami lands an attack on Princess Tagitsu
Princess Tagitsu recognises the girls’ okatana, and then it seems that Yukari surfaces for just a moment. She tells the girls to attack her, but the great aradama springs forth.
Princess Tagitsu
Princess Tagitsu is a formidable foe, and she gets the upper hand over Kanami and Hiyori for a moment. However, reinforcements show up.
Mai and Sayaka arrive to help
Whilst that happens, Maki makes her way to the place where all the noro was being contained to check on something. She ends up encountering a couple of familiar faces.
Ellen reveals the truth about the noro
After their conversation, Princess Tagitsu comes crashing down, still fighting the others. Ellen and Kaoru jump into the fray, making it six Toji vs. an aradama using six-sword style.
This was a pretty great sequence
Ultimately, though, four of the Toji are knocked out. It ends up coming down to Kanami and Hiyori. Hiyori considers using the same secret technique her mother used before, but there’s a flashback to Yukari’s past before that.
Minato refuses to let Kagari go
We see the moment when Kagari used her technique to seal Princess Tagitsu. Minato didn’t let her go alone, which meant Yukari was left alone. However, Princess Tagitsu made Yukari an offer…
Princess Tagitsu suggests Yukari allows her to fuse with her
Princess Tagitsu says that the lives of Minato and Kagari can be saved if Yukari fuses with the great aradama. Of course, we all know how that ended up playing out.
Back to the present, Princess Tagitsu ends up taking Kanami out of the battle, leaving Hiyori alone. However, Kanami isn’t exactly out of the battle yet…
Minato somehow manages to possess Kanami, or something like that
It’s not Kanami who gets back up; it is Minato. This comes as a surprise to Princess Tagitsu, who never foresaw that. Minato is only around for a few moments, but that is more than enough for her to get the better of Princess Tagitsu and provide an opening for Hiyori.
Hiyori tries to drag Princess Tagitsu to the depths of the netherworld, but Kanami has no intention of losing Hiyori
Finally, the episode ends with this:
Kanami and Hiyori out cold, holding hands
I really enjoyed this episode. I suspected we’d get a mid-season climax for this show, and it turns out I was right. The showdown against Princess Tagitsu was fun to watch, and I particularly enjoyed watching the six Toji fight side by side.
Minato putting in a sort of appearance was interesting as well – we know Kanami talks to her in her dreams, but this is suggesting that Minato’s spirit lives on within her.
It seems that Princess Tagitsu has been defeated, though we will need to wait a little while for that to be confirmed. Assuming that is the case, it’ll be interesting to see what the remaining elite guards will do – particularly Maki, as she was there to directly witness the fight against Princess Tagitsu.
It seems that the next episode will be a recap, so I’ll probably be taking a break from covering the show for a week. However, normal coverage will resume after that – I’m looking forward to finding out what is next for the Toji.
Rory Muses 
I am sensing that this is leading towards a world where Aradama and Toji can live in peace. Hooray for Kanami stopping something unrecoverable from happening, and somehow getting Tagitsu to “change” at the same time. Should be very interesting to see what all that blue means for Tagitsu, and to see if Yukari’s been “freed” or not. And finally….what is the actual fate of Yume? They kept on dodging answering the question, so i have to wonder if it’ll come up in the second half.
Sadly it will be two weeks of waiting, but that is how it goes sometimes