[DreamSword]

"All women are motivated by hatred and thus cannot be allowed power."

Those were the exact words spoken by a friend of mine who watched Hibiki at the start of the year, when I asked him what his thoughts on the second half were.

And now that my Binge Bud and I have passed the (in)famous Akira arc of the second half, I can definitely see why my friend came to that conclusion; With the only two female Oni in the show having their motivations reduced to vengeance.

Now, I don't like to discuss gender politics, or any politics for that matter, so I'm not going to! All I will say is that I cannot blame anyone for taking either interpretation; whether it be an unfortunate happenstance or actual sexism. I really can see the six episode arc being viewed either way.

There's still plenty of other issues with it though!

First and foremost, the Shuki two parter is filled to the absolute brim with retcons. Suddenly, Zanki has a chest wound that was never mentioned up until now. As well, despite Zanki outright stating that his mentor was the previous Zanki as per tradition, apparently not. Apparently it's someone we've never heard of before named Shuki.

Also, now suddenly past shikigami are made out of fire despite having been shown to be made out of paper beforehand. Akira's' character development and portrayal also got entirely reversed. Akira had shown many, many times that she was dedicated to helping others(like when she helped the pregnant woman); she just didn't put up with people's' crap. Now suddenly though, she's fueled by nothing but hatred and scorn.

There's also the various issues of the writing with Asumu and Kiriya, but I'll save that for when we reach the end of Hibiki as a whole.

Here's another fun fact too. For four out of those six episodes, guess how many lines Akira actually gets? Because we counted: One. She gets a single word in the entire debacle. Simply saying Ibuki's' name. For the majority of the arc, the perspective is not of Akira, who by all account should have alot of emotions going through her head after recent events, but rather of everyone else, gossiping about her. Man, remember in the first half of the show when characters other than Hibiki and Asumu were allowed to have focus? Not anymore.

And at the end of all of this, what is the reason Akira decides to end up quitting? Is it because she botched her first transformation and feels humiliated? Is it because of the trauma of seeing someone die infront of her? Is it because she feels she's shamed the Oni for her(alleged) behavior? Heck, could it even just be a case of finding something else in her life she finds important, and trusts everyone else in Takeshi to be able to handle things while she sorts herself out? Nope! The reason is that... there is no reason. No, seriously. We're never actually given a definitive reason about why she quits. She just does.

In other words, much like this entire second half has been, the majority of the Akira Quits Arc is a complete waste of time that serves to only further flanderize more of the cast and introduce incredibly annoying "drama." Absolutely fantastic Toei, thanks.