天下制覇

AKA, the "We Remembered That Sion Exists" episode.

Impressions:

Oh hey, remember that other Sonozaki? She finally makes her appearance after being gone for two months. She much easier on the eyes too. Anyway, I found it very amusing that the Yamainu were able to nearly effortlessly subdue two people armed with heavy weapons despite having to enter through a choked entry point, but couldn’t handle one unarmed man in an open space… and instead of bumrushing him, all 30 of them retreated. What on Earth are the people of Hinamizawa afraid of again? Some guys that are too stupid to pull their pistols?

Another episode full of the kiddos nearly effortlessly triumphing over the bad guys. Makes you wonder why they were so inept through the other dozen incarnations of the world. It’s good to watch and cheer for, but it doesn’t make for much interesting to talk about. I guess the big reveal is that Satoshi is still alive, but that was pretty obvious about a month ago when they were going through him his descent into insanity. Otherwise though, things happened, the Yamainu were scared off by one unarmed guy, and Takano got to play footsies with a bound Tomitake. Just another predictable Hinamizawa day.

At the clinic, Irie hears tires squeal. He looks outside and sees the Yamainu carry in a bound Tomitake. He flashes back to Tomitake warning him that the Yamainu might make a move and turns to the phone.

Unfortunately for him, the Yamainu have him under close supervision and intercept his call. Takano decides that he must be trying to get help. They realize a moment too late that Irie is leaving the building and she orders them to catch him as he pulls away in his car.

He drives and the Yamainu give chase. They open fire on his car with pistols and shoot out a tire. The car careens out of control.

Akasaka watches a phone ring. He flashes back to Irie telling him that the actual message would be the amount of time that the phone rings. Akasaka counts down and then realizes Irie’s alert and runs out. The Yamainu are caught by surprise, but they quickly mobilize to catch him.

Akasaka runs through the festival with them in chase. He heads into the wilderness as he thinks about their plans. He suddenly turns around and attacks the men chasing him.

Other Yamainu look at Irie’s car, which has fallen off a cliff. He’s badly injured inside, but still conscious. Sion and her driver come up on him and offer their help. Irie stumbles out and asks for the Sonozaki’s help before doubling over. They decide from the bullet hole in Irie’s tire that somebody is trying to kill him and take him away to the Sonozaki house so they can figure out exactly what’s going on.

Back at Takano’s HQ, various deployments are made to control the situation. Takano starts to panic, but they’ve got a tracer on Irie, so everything is still more or less in control. They pull up a map and figure out that he’s been picked up by car and heading towards the Sonozaki house.

In the caves, the kiddos watch the outside over the security cameras. They see Sion pull up with the injured Irie. Mion, Rena and Keiichi run out and Irie tells them that he barely escaped. Mion asks if they were followed, but Sion doesn’t think so. The two start arguing, but decide to head inside… right as a Yamainu car pulls up.

The soldiers report in and Takano laughs. She turns to the handcuffed Tomitake. She taunts him with her foot a little bit.

Back at the Sonozakis, the Yamainu draw their pistols and start to give chase to the fleeing crowd, but are tripped up by various rope traps and the kids/Irie get away.

Inside the basement, Mion locks and bars the door. Sion has no bloody clue what’s going on and Mion yells at her for it.

The Yamainu search around outside. They soon find the door that leads to the basement.

Inside, Rika, Satoko and Hanyuu are glued to the monitors. There are a ton of Yamainu forces crawling all over the places. Mion thinks they’re still fine, but they decide to call the cops. Unfortunately, the Yamainu cut the phone lines and the power is gone as well.

Mion thinks that they’re still safe since the Yamainu can’t use overwhelming force (ie, explosives) without drawing police attention. Satoko rains on the parade, reminding them that there are fireworks associated with the festival so explosions might go uninvestigated.

Right on cue, they use the cover of the fireworks to start attacking the door.

The kiddos head to a dark passage downward that’s their hiding spot.

Sion tells them to go first, but Mion tries to make her. Sion puts her foot down and says that she understands enough, and she can guard the rear with Kasai. He asks for the keys to the door before Mion descends.

At the bottom, Mion waits for Rika. She stumbled on the ladder, but regains her footing and continues down, thinking to herself that there’s no way she’s going to lose anybody this time around.

The Yamainu finish breaking down the door and survey the scene with night vision goggles. There are tripwires all over the place and debris everywhere. Dealing with the traps will take some time, during which the kids keep going downward.

As Keiichi (the last one) starts to head down, Sion wishes him good luck.

She has a machine gun and Kasai a shotgun. Keiichi wants to switch with her, but she tells him that there’s no way he could use weapons like this as effectively as her. She leans down and whispers something in Keiichi’s ear. An explosion rocks the area. She and Kasai head off to confront the Yamainu.

Keiichi reaches the bottom amid the sounds of gunfire. Mion yells upwards that Sion is an idiot. Rika starts crying that this isn’t the world she wanted. Nobody should die. The gunfire stops and the Yamainu appear at the top of the passage. They look down and find the kids. The Yamainu demand Irie and Rika be sent up. Mion calls up at them for killing Sion, but they assure her that Sion is alive and offer to trade her for them. They hold out an unconscious Sion as proof.

Irie wants to give himself up and tells the others to run away with Rika. Rena won’t let him, saying that Sion and Kasai fought for Irie’s safety. Even Satoko steps in, saying that Sion is her "nee-nee" and they shouldn’t waste what she did. Mion starts sobbing. Rika turns to Hanyuu and demands an answer. Hanyuu has nothing and Rika demands to know what kind of god Hanyuu is that can do nothing, not even a miracle to save them.

Hanyuu slaps Rika and tells her to listen closely. Both of them have fought for this world and the precious things in it. A miracle isn’t something that just happens to save them all and she needs to stop wishing for someone to save them and instead save herself.

Rika thanks her for the reminder and switches back to normal cheerful mode. She asks them all to flee. Rika thinks that if she doesn’t let herself be killed, then maybe things will work out. It’ll all be okay even if she’s the only one killed because then they won’t be killed because of her.

Rika heads to the ladder and gives them a "ni-pah" before ordering the soldiers to take her straight to Takano. She switches to Dark Mode and gives them more orders to the Yamainu to immediately withdraw as she comes up before heading up the ladder with a final "ni-pah."

Outside, Rika and Okonagi face down. He’s happy to finally put this to rest and orders the men to capture the rest of them. Rika angrily yells at him, demanding he stick to the promise. He idly wonders what she’s talking about. She tries to run, but is caught and then gagged. One of the men pulls out a syringe and prepares to inject her right there.

Rika despairs, but the man is attacked and the syringe shatters on the ground. One of the Yamainu stands between Okonogi and Rika. He throws off his cap to reveal himself… Akasaka. He ungags Rika and tells her to run as the other Yamainu rush to attack. She takes off and Akasake uses his karate to take them all down easily. He even slams Okonagi backwards into his van. Okonagi recovers and punches straight at Akasaka, who just lets it hit him without flinching. Akasaka simple stands there and says that it’s a weak punch. He winds up and throws his own… shattering the van’s windshield. The rest of the Yamainu retreat.

Sion and Kasai lower their weapons (when’d they even regain consciousness, let alone get those back?). All the kids gather again. Rika thinks that it was a miracle. Hanyuu turns to everybody and says that it’s time to go on the offensive.

After the ED, Irie treats Sion’s wounds. He asks her if she was really ready to give her life for them. She figures out that Keiichi told Irie what she said. She flashes back to that moment, whispering to him that the guy she likes is gone, but Sion’s is still alive.

Irie wonders if Sion was talking about Satoshi. Sion squirms and admits that it is, but she has no idea what happened to him. Irie says simply that Satoshi is still alive. Sion is shocked.

Kasai, Akasaka and the rest make their plans. Sion suddenly walks in and tells them that she’ll help. She covers Satoko’s ears and tells them that her will is restored. She has something to fight for again. Rika and Hanyuu understand that she found something to believe in… her precious thing still exists. Sion smiles and thanks them, removing her hands from Satoko’s ears. Satoko wants to know what was going on.