Kemono no Souja Erin – 41/42/43/44 – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of Kemono no Souja Erin! We’re getting close to the end here, with only 2 more posts left. That means we’ll be picking a new show soon, so if you have one you’re interested in being covered make sure to comment with it down below. Now without further ado, on to the episodes!

Starting off we have episode 41, “The Truth About the Queen”. This episode finally sees the political fallout of Erin’s little jaunt on Lilan. Surprisingly however, it’s not actually all that negative. Oh the Queen wants Erin and Lilan to move from Kazalm to Lazal, true. But they see it, or at least frame it, as more of a promotion than anything else. They want Erin to become the Queen’s personal protector, the one and only Beast-Lord rider who can keep her safe even against Touda. Of course it probably wouldn’t stay as just that, she’d probably be expected to look after/raise more Beast-Lords just like Lilan. But there’s a whole lot less threats of death and treason than I was expecting. At least until Erin turns them down that is.

Now this wasn’t a huge surprise, we’ve always known Erin’s goal was to prevent the Beast-Lords from becoming tools of war. And we get to see here just how resolved she is to do so, completely willing to die rather than allow them to be used this way. What’s funny though is that Damiya and the Queen can’t actually follow through with their threats here. Oh they could, sure. But in doing so they would lose the one person who can actually control/ride the Beast-Lords. It’s a catch-22 for them, a situation where Erin really holds most of the power. For now at least. This changes in the upcoming episodes, mostly due to the Queen being an actually decent human being and not wanting to push it any further. Luckily for Erin though, her being a nice person actually factors in to what happens next.

Sensing the Queen’s nature, Erin makes a gambit: Telling the Queen the true history that she herself learned from Nasan. Now one would think that the Queen of this nation would already know the story, that it would be royal knowledge. Amusingly though, Erin has actually had a justification for her not knowing this the entire god damn time. Remember how the palace was attacked and set on fire before the series started? We heard about it all the time after all, it’s part of the recent conflicts. Well turns out the Queen’s parents died and she never actually had anyone to teach her this history! That’s… Surprisingly planned out, if I’m being honest. And it makes her acceptance of Erin’s story, and the justification for why she withdraws her demands, so much easier to buy. Simply put, well played to Erin on this one, I never expected that.

Unluckily for Erin however, the Queen doesn’t survive long enough to communicate this to anyone. It appears her injuries were worse than we thought, causing her to die of internal bleeding right as she arrived back at the capital. At first I was kind of annoyed by this, it felt like a bait and switch, like Erin had set something up and then proceeded to just skirt around it. But as I thought about it I ended up deciding that this was well done, because it forces Erin back into the political conflict. It was a rug pull, yes. But it was one done to the detriment of our lead, rather than their benefit, and sets up the upcoming finale as a whole. So yeah, overall this was a pretty decent episode.

Next up we have episode 42, “Seimiya’s Tears”. This one focuses entirely on the aftermath of the Queen’s death, very next to no appearances by Erin and Lilan. We see Seimiya become Queen, the continued deterioration of the country into war, andd Shunan doing his damnedest to avoid it. Unsurprisingly, with the Queen dead and unable to communicate what she’s learned to Seimiya, as well as Seimiya being in Damiya’s pocket, the Duke’s Quarter is still being blamed for the attack. War is becoming ever more likely as both sides gear up for it, with Damiya especially egging it on under the guise of “protecting” Seimiya and the people. It might not even be a guise, he might mean it! But his method of doing so is driving the country ever closer to war and I can’t help but think it’s going to blow up in his face.

As for Shunan, he was easily the best part of the episode. I loved how proactive he was, coming straight to Seimiya to try and convince her of what was happening. His whole thing with the soldiers, bringing them in to force Seimiya to confront the harsh realities of war that she and her quarter have long been protected from, was brilliant. Not just in how it affects her, showing her an undeniable truth, but in how it was shot and presented. These guys were torn up. You could see the hatred on their faces, how absolutely done they were with Seimiya and the Holon’s at large. They knew they were being made a show of, yet they seemed to almost relish the horror on her face. Combine that with the fantastic war song we heard before and it was just… A fantastic scene all around.

Shunan then followed this up by forcing an ultimatum onto Seimiya. Either marry him, uniting their quarters and peoples, or face a war she could never hope to win. After all, her quarter has no standing army. Meanwhile Shunan has a country forged in war, filled with professional soldiers and Touda. This wouldn’t be a war, it would be a slaughter, and they both know it. But that isn’t what he wants. It’s cruel on his end, even if he did care for her he’s still trying to force her into a marriage against her will. However he’s trying to end the war before it can begin, to fix this dying country. It’s honestly not something I was expecting, I thought Shunan was above all this while Nagan was the more war-like of the brothers. It was just… It really saved his character for me, here at the end.

Of course he did give Seimiya an out, one that we as viewers know only Erin can fulfill: If a Beast-Lord flies down at the sight of their battle and bows down before her, he will swear eternal loyalty. He’s basically asking Seimiya to reaffirm the myth upon which their country was founded, to show them that she really is a God and not just a figurehead. The question then becomes, will Erin do it? Will she ride out on Lilan to prevent a massacre and unite the countries under a lie? Or will she stick to her beliefs and refuse to turn the Beast-Lords into weapons of war, even as it causes the very destruction she’s trying to avoid? It’s a great moral quandary for her, one I really like and am surprised Erin managed to introduce. If it can pull this off then the finale should be great.

With that we come to episode 43, “Beastinarian”. With the Queen dead and the politics kicking off we return to Erin to see how all of this effects her. Here’s a hint, not well. Right away men arrive to take Erin and the Beast-Lords to Lazal, to the capital, no more requests or ultimatums, this is a demand. And unfortunately for Erin, these men are incredibly far up their own asses. Makes sense, they are professionals, have done this for a while. They’re even the same ones who cared for/transported Lilan 5 years ago during the Queen’s birthday at the capital. However in their arrogance they seem to have underestimated the Beast-Lords, as Lilan remembers exactly who they are, not letting them anywhere near her or Owl. And you know what? This is really cool.

Not Lilan getting aggressive with them, that’s expected. I more mean that Lilan remembers them. That Beast-Lords in general remember anyone who uses a mute whistle. This some thing I think Erin has always done really well, showing us just how intelligent these beasts are and not to underestimate them. It adds a lot of retroactive weight to Erin’s decision not to use a mute whistle. Before now it was part of her good nature, her refusal to impose her will over Lilan. But now it’s become one of the primary reasons Lilan trusts her at all. It also makes Erin’s use of the mute whistle when the handlers are attacked, this betrayal of Lilan’s trust as Erin has to choose whether or not to save them, so impactful. They are family no more. Now they are simply Beastinarian and ward.

This shattering of trust is of course really important for the ultimatum that Shunan introduced just last episode. Before now it was a given that Erin could avoid the entire conflict by simply riding Lilan out and presenting herself to Seimiya. But now? Now I doubt Lilan will ever let Erin ride her again. Or if she does it’ll be something Erin has to work for, rather than simply being a given. It actually makes me wonder how exactly Erin will end. Will she be able to rebuild that trust? Or will it end in a tragedy as Shunan goes to war? It even end with Erin regaining the trust but refusing to use it, instead riding out into the wilds and away from humanity and their bullshit rules. Anything could happen! And that’s a pretty cool thing for Erin to be able to pull off this late.

My only real criticism of the episode is that I think Erin got off with to small of an injury. That’s not meant to downplay what happened, she got bit and lost a few fingers. But for how big Lilan is, how much damage she could do, I fell like it’s not enough. Considering the hand is mostly useless now anyways, Erin could easily have taken her entire arm, at least everything past the elbow. It would be a much more noticeable change, if more violent. I understand why they didn’t of course, it would be much more traumatic, take more time to recover from, heavily change up her design and probably be to violent for the “kids show” it is. But this is also the same show that had Erin’s mother be eaten alive in front of her so… Don’t tell me it wouldn’t fit.

Finally we come tp episode 44, “Akun me Chai”. Finally arriving in the capital, this episode is all about Damiya trying to bend Erin to her will and Erin, naturally, refusing. Not so easily stopped, and without the Queen to hold him back, Damiya goes full super villain and starts threatening everyone Erin knows and loves. Kazalm? Soldiers have already taken it over. Yuuyan? He can go get her. The guy is well aware that he can’t kill Erin, not without losing the very thing he wants as she’s the only one who knows how to do it. But unlike the Queen he isn’t above threatening people completely unrelated to this. Honestly, as evil as it is, I like how far he’s willing to push it. Anything that makes this decision harder for Erin, and thus more interesting for the audience, is a plus in my book.

Of course Erin isn’t going to take this laying down, so she comes up with a lie about it all being “Arryo” powers. By her nature as an Akun me chai, a half-breed basically, she has access to sorceries no one else outside her people do. This is… interesting. Up until now Erin has done her best to avoid being judged for her heritage. It’s something she’s hated in fact, dealing with it since she was a child. Yet here she is using it to her advantage, perpetuating the myths and stereotypes surrounding her people to her own advantage. It’s kind of sad in a way, how far she has to sink to do what she views as right. I doubt there will be any backlash from this, mostly because Erin doesn’t have the time for it. Still it was interesting to see.

As for what she’s being asked to do, that should be obvious. Damiya wants Erin to raised a Beast-Lord army or, barring that, to ride Lilan out to Seimiya to force Shunan to honor his deal. So when confronted with “Arryo magic” he wants proof that only she can really do it. Of course there is no magic, Erin just knows that Beast-Lords are smart and remember those who have blown a whistle, that’s why they listen to her harp and not theirs. But still it’s nice to see these pompous guys get knocked on their ass, shown up by a girl half their age. Naturally one demonstration isn’t enough to convince Damiya, but he has four months until Shunan’s invasion, so it’s not like he’s hurting for time.

The remainder of the episode had some small scenes back at Ake village, the original Touda town Erin grew up in. This was… unexpected. It was nice to see all of the characters again obviously, seeing where they were now after like… 10 years. Two of Erin’s childhood friends even got married and had a kid! But their inclusion here makes me wonder what exactly Erin is going to do with them. Will they be relevant for the rest of the show? Will Damiya threaten them, or will Shunan get them involved? Will they ever get to learn Erin is alive, perhaps watching her fly down on a Beast-Lord in front of the army? I hope so, I think that would be a beautiful way to end the show. Hopefully Erin does something with them though, because I’d hate for them to be reintroduced and then do nothing.

So yeah, all in all this was a decent week for Erin. Some good episodes, some nice escalation of the conflict, some absolutely stellar scenes. It feels good for the show to finally be moving again. For a long time in the middle there it felt like nothing was really happening, that it could easily have covered that same amount of content in half the episodes. And while part of that is the point, Erin is meant to be a slow burn, you can be that and still make the episodes feel meaningful. And a lot of middle Erin didn’t. Still, the ending is always the most important thing for me. So long as Erin can land that I should at least end positive on it.