Fun fact: I brought myself a new laptop, and this is the first post that I am writing on it. That has nothing to do with Katana Maidens, but I feel it may be something worth mentioning.
Episode 15 of Katana Maidens ~ Toji No Miko focuses on Kaoru, and she gets some unexpected company whilst trying to expend as little energy as possible whilst on a mission.
Kaoru relaxes in a hot spring whilst eating a kanpyou roll
The episode starts with Kaoru just relaxing. She’s in a hot spring, and has her favourite kanpyou rolls to hand as well. However, her relaxation is soon cut short when she received a phone call from Sana, telling her to get back to work.
Kaoru has been working non-stop for the previous four months, so she is eager to get a break. She’s supposed to be on a mission, but Kaoru has different priorities.
Sayaka unexpectedly joins Kaoru’s team
Sana sends Sayaka to join Kaoru’s team, much to Kaoru’s surprise. With Sayaka’s impressive physical abilities, they are able to widen the scope of their search for an aradama that has been causing trouble in the area.
Kaoru finds it a struggle to deal with Sayaka, so she calls Kanami for some advice. She quickly regrets that…
Sayaka and Nene hit it off
Whilst Kaoru finds it a struggle to deal with Sayaka, Nene has no problems at all. Nene starts imitating Sayaka whilst she is practicing her sword swings, and Sayaka takes the time to correct the little aradama’s form.
Kaoru challenges Sayaka to a game of table tennis
Sayaka ends up playing table tennis with Kaoru – I won’t go into detail about what happened, but I will say that it was a very amusing scene.
Satsuki and President Souraku place flowers at the Tsubakuro family grave for Yume
Satsuki and Souraku talk a little about Yume, as well as what Satsuki intends to do now that Yukari has gone.
Meanwhile, Kaoru’s hunt for an aradama continues. It isn’t long before she and Sayaka stumble across a small, rabbit-like aradama. Sayaka moves to kill it, but Kaoru stops her.
Sayaka is convinced that it is a Toji’s duty to destroy aradama, but Kaoru makes her think twice about that – after all, Nene is an aradama as well. At this point, Sayaka and Nene have developed a bond.
The mysterious hooded Toji shows up
Kaoru is willing to leave the aradama alone, at least until it suddenly increases in size. Then she has no choice but to cut it down, as it has become a threat.
This change in the aradama was likely caused by the hooded Toji showing up, who easily defeats Kaoru’s team.
However, there is another hooded Toji who appears as well.
Maki Shidou
Sure enough, one of the hooded Toji that has been running around was Maki Shidou – just as both Kaoru and Kanami had guessed before. She has been chasing after the other hooded Toji.
By the time Kaoru and Sayaka return, Maki is the only on there. As such, they believe she was the one responsible for wiping out the Toji. She doesn’t exactly attempt to explain herself, either.
The episode ends with Kaoru’s mission complete, and an amusing conversation between her and Sana.
It really feels like Katana Maidens is taking its time with this second cour. That’s fine, as we are getting episodes that explore characters’ personalities a bit more. I enjoyed this episode quite a lot – I like Kaoru, and Sayaka forming a bond with Nene was quite sweet.
We also got proper confirmation that Maki is still active, though I think everyone would have guessed that already. It’s the other hooded Toji I want to know more about. I’ve got a vague idea of who she is, but there hasn’t been any concrete evidence to back that up as of yet.
Overall, an episode I had fun watching, Didn’t really do much to advance the plot, but it did give us some neat interactions between Kaoru, Nene and Sayaka.
Rory Muses 