#ao no exorcist

The good news: Blue Exorcist just started a second anime season!

The bad news: If you only watched the first season, everything is weird! The first season diverged from the manga and made its own ending, but the second season goes back and follows the manga instead. It’s a retelling instead of a continuation–but there’s like no recap in the first episode. What do?

It wasn’t a very clean break when the manga and 2011 anime branched off from each other. A lot of manga scenes were actually kept, but rewritten to fit the new direction that the anime was going in. This means you can almost watch the first season episodes 1-17, then treat the first season 2 episode like episode 18, but not quite.There’ll be sneaky changes. 

Here is a summary of the changes, if you want to try doing an all-anime rewatch to prepare for season 2. I don’t know how much of the manga will be animated in flashbacks, so there may be a couple spoilers for the new anime.

Big words happened in both the manga and the anime

Small words only happened in one or the other

Adopted teenager Rin Okumura learns he’s actually the son of Satan! He’s inherited the ability to conjure blue hellfire.

Satan possesses Rin’s adoptive dad Shiro and attempts to kidnap Rin. Shiro stops him but dies in the process. Rin decides to become an exorcist and fight Satan.

Rin goes to an exorcist school run by the (sketchy but maybe he’s on our side?) demon Mephisto, and makes a bunch of friends, all the while hiding the fact that Satan is his dad.

But everything changed when the demon king Amaimon attacked.

To save his friends from Amaimon, Rin uses his fire in front of everyone, revealing himself as the son of Satan.

There’s an intense fight between Rin and Amaimon. Rin gives in to his demon side and goes on a rampage.

2011 anime: Rin’s sword Kurikara, which is responsible for holding his demon powers and keeping him more or less human most of the time, cracks during the fight.

Mephisto breaks up the fight, trapping Amaimon in a cuckoo clock.

2011 anime: Rin cuts the clock open in a fit of rage and Amaimon escapes into the woods.
Manga: Amaimon stays in the clock and gets poofed off somewhere else.

Everyone gets a good look at Demon!Rin before he goes back to normal.

2011 anime: Rin charges at the exwires, with Shura and Yukio stepping in to defend them. Shiemi runs up and hugs Rin. This makes him stop and then he passes out for like two episodes.
Manga:After sending Amaimon away, Mephisto drags Rin back to the Exwires and sheathes his sword in front of them. This makes him stop and then he passes out for like two seconds.

The Paladin, Arthur Angel, shows up and takes Mephisto and Rin into custody.

2011 anime: Rin is unconscious. Mephisto gives the sword to Yukio and shows him the crack.
Manga: Rin sees the exwires, asks if they’re okay, and tries to pretend like all that blue fire wasn’t a big deal. The exwires feel that it was a big deal. I have no earthly clue where the sword went during the hearing. It was last seen with Mephisto.

The Vatican holds a hearing to decide whether to punish Mephisto for raising the son of Satan in secret and what to do with Rin.

2011 anime: Rin is unconscious throughout the hearing, trapped in a magic crystal. He has a bunch of disturbing dreams about becoming a monster.
Manga: Rin is awake but not moving around or saying much because Angel appears to have cut his foot off, like all the way off, with a giant sword. (He got better!)

Meanwhile, Yukio explains to the Exwires that he and Rin are the sons of Satan.

2011 anime: Then they go on a quest to fix the sword so Rin doesn’t go full demon forever!
Manga: Then they all kind of awkwardly walk away in a daze, wondering how no one ever told them something that important.

At the hearing, Mephisto argues that the son of Satan is a useful weapon and he had the Order’s best interests in mind when he decided to let Rin live.

2011 anime: Then Amaimon attacks the hearing, and Rin proves himself by defeating Amaimon with his newly reforged sword.
Manga:Then Rin gets annoyed with everyone talking about him like he isn’t there and yells at them about how he’s an actual person with a name and he’s gonna be Paladin one day and so on. 

Angel wants to kill Rin, but the Order cautiously agrees to let him live on the condition that he be monitored etc. Shura agrees to teach him swordsmanship while helping monitor him.

Everyone goes about their lives but it’s hella awkward. 

Yukio is feeling pretty stressed out about basically everything.

Rin trains with Shura, and she tells him he can’t use his sword until he has better control of his flames. He practices by setting out three candles and trying to light just two of them at a time. 

2011 anime: A series of short arcs about miscellaneous demon attacks begins.
Manga: Suguro gets a call from home saying something’s happened with his dad, and Yukio/Shura get a call that something’s happened with the Left Eye of the Impure King. The Kyoto Arc begins.

The Kyoto group is skittish around Rin, and he and Suguro get in a shouting match about how blue flames are dangerous and Satan killed a lot of the Kyoto group’s family. Izumo calls them hypocrites and tells Rin it’s not that weird to be part demon, whatever, it’s not like she was trying to cheer him up or anything.

2011 anime: This happens in and around the classroom over a couple different scenes in ep 17.
Manga:This happens on the train to Kyoto. Izumo and Suguro start yelling at each other and Shura punishes the group by making them sit with Bariyons (those heavy rock things) on their knees for the rest of the ride.
(2017 anime:  This happens on the train to Kyoto. Izumo and Suguro start yelling at each other and Shura tells them to knock it off.)

Shiemi gets attacked by a small demon and Rin rescues her with fire. Shiemi realizes Rin kept the flames from burning her, but Konekomaru and Suguro denounce him for using his flames too close to a person. You could have hurt her!

2011 anime: This happened in the classroom with a large swarm of Coal Tars.
Manga: This happens with a Bariyon (that heavy rock thing) on the train to Kyoto.
(2017 anime: This doesn’t happen?)

After 12 hours of surgery, the manga and 2011 anime are finally separated from each other.

2011 anime: goes into a Neuhaus thing and then an anime original ending. Everyone gets over the whole “son of Satan” thing in like an episode.
Manga:Starts the Kyoto arc and meets up with the 2017 anime. Everyone has a lot of their own issues to deal with, which impacts how each of their friendships with Rin heal.

Welcome back from the dead, Blue Exorcist fandom. You’ve probably noticed that we’re about to return as a two-part fandom, with one part actively following the manga and one part actively following the Kyoto Saga anime. To help with that transition, I’m putting together a list of things that have not happened in the anime for manga fans who are trying to remember what to tag as spoilers.

(On my own blog, I’ll be using “blue exorcist spoilers” as a general spoiler tag and “blue exorcist manga” for things that are only spoilers if you’re an anime-only fan. Some old posts may escape getting tagged but I do try to hide the worst spoilers behind warnings and “keep reading” type things.)

OBVIOUSLY, THIS POST CONTAINS A GREAT MULTITUDE OF MANGA SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.

• The Impure King is dead you guys, only its eyes are a threat.
• it is not sealed under the Kyoto branch ready to be revived
• Karura and Suguro’s dad are not guarding its secrets
• there is no war in Ba Sing Se
• We know exactly zero things about Mephisto
• Powers? What powers?
• His official title? Why, director of the Japan branch of course
• king of what now
• be careful using the S-word to refer to the guy
• Shima’s brothers don’t exist (until next episode)
• Mamushi doesn’t exist (until next episode)
• Godaiin doesn’t exist (possibly ever)
• Lightning doesn’t exist (possibly ever T-T)
• being nonexistent makes it real hard to uncover any truths about any twins, try to contain your chapter 86 on Monday, let’s all try to implode BEHIND spoiler tags and read-mores when we implode
• Izumo doesn’t have a backstory
• Shura doesn’t have a backstory
• No one knows how Shiro ended up with Kurikara
• Yukio is only at like 5% angst rn
• But Rin’s gonna be at like 50% angst in a few episodes
• Rin has not been granted a stay of execution yet because no one has actually ordered Rin’s execution yet
• Toudou looks like a good guy until midway through episode 1
  
• Toudou taking Karura’s powers is a spoiler! Karura doesn’t even exist yet! Toudou DOES NOT have any phoenix-y traits. He won’t have any phoenix-y traits for what will feel like a hundred years. Be aware of what your Toudou fanart looks like and tag appropriately!
• side note show me all your Toudou fanart
• just show me all your fanart period
• THE FANDOM LIVES
• Mamushi is not in league with Toudou
• Toudou is not working for Lucifer
• Lucifer isn’t even a thing
• The Illuminati isn’t involved unless you’re making an ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED type joke whilst cackling to yourself silently
• say it with me:
• Shima is goofy comic relief
• SHIMA IS GOOFY COMIC RELIEF
• THAT SHIMA KID, HE’S A PRETTY DECENT GUY
• Lemme know if I missed anything that’s likely to come up

WATCHthe first anime series, episodes 1-15

READ manga chapters 14 and 15 (aka the second half of volume 4)

WATCHthe second anime series from the start

chapters 14 and 15 got ripped into little bits and scattered across disconnected scenes of two anime series, be careful out there

I learned a neat thing years ago in a Japanese short stories class, and now I have a burning desire to share it with the Blue Exorcist fandom, so!

There come times in every human’s life where we need to tell a close loved one everything we feel about them at once. Maybe it’s because one of you is dying or going away forever, or maybe it’s just because you really wanted them to know you care right now. Either way, it’s impossible to just sum up an important relationship in a few words.

But despite that–or maybe even BECAUSE it’s impossible to do–we have a default for what to say. A stand-in for all those feelings that can’t get said in the time we have.

Where I’m from, it’s “I love you.”

Right? Just think of corny movie scenes; it’s always like “If I don’t make it back, tell my wife I love her.”

And that makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s like…Thinking about you fills me with joy. I want nothing more than to just be with you. You have left a deep impression on my soul. My life is better because you were in it. “I love you.”

But there’s no reason it HAS to be worded that way, is there? The people you care about make you feel a lot of things and “I love you” is only one convenient way to say them. There are others.

In Japanese, the default If-I-Could-Only-Say-One-Thing-To-My-Loved-One thing isn’t “I love you.”

It’s “Thank you.”

And that makes sense too, doesn’t it? It’s like…You helped make me into what I am. You support me in all the hard times. You’ve done so much for me and I appreciate it so, so much. My life is better because you were in it. “Thank you.”

And like…I’d be crying at that scene from the chapter ANYWAY but I am crying EVEN MORE because I know that little tidbit.

Time to dust off my translation of the Shiro story from the light novels and actually start trying to finish it!

 Part 1 is here.

The white car I had driven into the village was parked inside the grounds. I let go of the man’s hand as we reached it.

I’d had the ghouls slash a front tire and a rear tire on my beloved car right from the start. That way, the villagers couldn’t suggest driving somewhere to call for help. All the cars in town had suffered the same sort of attack. And of course, all the phone lines were already cut.

By now, this village was like its own lonely island.

As I was feeling proud of my work, the Asian man muttered something in a language I wasn’t familiar with. “Kyou…kai?”[T/N: “A church?”] He was frowning.

Probably wondering why his chant hadn’t had any effect back there.

Seen from the side, he had a face like a knife blade: sharp, cold, and guarded. I would have to be careful around him.

“I think we lost them,” I told the men calmly, putting on a relieved face.

I was plenty aware that my gorgeous features and the bright white teeth peeking out from behind my smile had a tremendous effect on new people—or rather, on men. I use every resource available to me. What’s wrong with using my femininity a little?

I could either dispose of them somewhere in the commotion, or use my body to entice them—either way, I would have to pretend to be their ally for now.

“All of the villagers are hiding in here. I’ve surrounded the grounds with high-grade holy water, so middle level and lower demons can’t get in. It’s safe.”

“You put up this barrier?” the Asian man asked when I had finished speaking. This time he used proper English.

“Yes.”

“Fujimoto Shirou, Order of the True Cross, Japan Branch,” he said, taking out his license from his inner coat pocket and showing it to me.

So he was Japanese?

I honestly hadn’t expected that.

With his native-like English pronunciation and the way he looked straight at a stranger like he was trying to drill through them with his eyes…well, to put it bluntly, he didn’t seem very Japanese.

When I thought of a Japanese person, I imagined someone who was all cheerful smiles but never looked anyone in the eye, who was always hunched over busily working on something, who had a big camera slung around their neck, and who was surprisingly bad at English—not just the children, but grown adults too.

The thick glasses he was wearing were just about the only thing that matched my mental image…

“Maria LaMorte. Upper second class. I’m an Aria meister.” At any rate, I went ahead and held up the badge that I had hanging at chest level on a gold chain. Showing proof that we were allies would be the most effective way to get him to let his guard down.

“Maria, huh? Hey, have we met somewhere before?”

He lazily waved his index finger back and forth between us.

“Hm? I’m sorry, I don’t recall.” I shook my head.

“That’s weird,” said the man from Japan, rustling a hand through his coarse-looking hair. “I usually make a point of remembering every beautiful lady I see, even if we only met once.” He pulled one corner of his mouth into a crooked grin as he said it. It was the smile of a ladies’ man.

This is a japonés?At this point I’d gone so far beyond exasperation that I was almost impressed.

As I answered him with a “hmph,” the white man joined the conversation, also speaking fluent English.

“May I introduce myself as well, Fujimoto-sempai?”

I observed the second man indifferently.

First off, he was terribly tall. Even I had to crane my neck to look at him.

He was probably an Aria or something, with skin so pale you could see the veins underneath. He had nice features that I suppose could be called handsome, but there was a nervous look about him—maybe it was the dark circles under his eyes.

“I’m his underling Johann, lower second class. It’s a pleasure to meet such a lovely Sister.”

He certainly wasn’t shy about speaking so pretentiously in his clear baritone voice, complete with theatric gestures. And what’s worse, it actually suited him.

If he was lower second class at his age, he must have just become an exorcist. That would explain why his brand-new uniform looked so pitifully out of place on him.

Plus, he seemed weak and sickly.

Nothing to worry about from this one.

I made myself a mental note and turned my gaze back to Fujimoto.

There was one thing I needed to confirm before anything else.

“Do either of you speak Spanish?”

Spanish was the lingua franca in much of South America. The villagers here all used Spanish in their daily lives, and knew practically no English. And that meant things could get dicey if these two spoke any Spanish—but they both shook their heads.

That was a relief. It looked like fortune was on my side.

“But what are members of the Japan branch doing here?”

“It’s a cross-border mission based in international goodwill,” Fujimoto answered my question first, but he was clearly stifling a yawn as he said it.

Johann was eager to add, “We finished our mission without incident and were on our way back to the nearest branch office when we ran out of gas. We walked the rest of the way here! Yes, that’s why we’re so ill-equipped. We’ve already exhausted the bulk of our supplies.”

What an unbelievable stroke of luck. This is perfect, I thought, as I desperately resisted the urge to grin. That would explain why they were so lightly armed.

In that case, it would be child’s play to kill them. As long as I promptly dumped the bodies somewhere near where their mission had been, I could fool the local branch. I’d found a silver lining to all this.

“It’s true what they say—that exorcists are always horribly understaffed. To think a new recruit like me would be sent out to work like a dog…I’m afraid I may have chosen the wrong profession.”

Fujimoto ignored his lackey’s cheerful complaint and asked me, “So what the hell happened to this village?”

He spoke casually, but his sharp gaze never dulled. Beneath his flippant demeanor, the man had no weakness, no openings. I felt like he’d pierce right through my armor if I let my guard down at all—and as I thought that, I casually glanced away from him.

It was dangerous to make too much eye contact with an enemy, especially a sharp enemy like this.

That said, avoiding eye contact too much wasn’t an option either. That was practically begging them to suspect you.

I was confident that I could strike the right balance.

“When I got here this evening, there were already ghouls wandering all over the village.” I put everything I had into playing the part of a good and pious exorcist.

When I bit my lower lip a little in mock bewilderment, I really did start feeling bewildered. I was sure the deep lines forming on my forehead looked surprisingly natural too.

“The villagers were in a terrible panic over being attacked by corpses all of a sudden—everything was completely out of hand. I don’t think I finished setting a barrier around this church and getting everyone inside until about an hour ago.”

I cut off the story there to say, “Anyway, let’s all go inside the church,” and invited them onto my home turf. The more I talked, the more likely they were to find holes in my story. I needed to keep conversation about the village’s condition to a minimum. “The ghouls might attack us again, after all. Can we wait until we’re inside to talk?”

The two men accepted my proposal easily.

I had some awful uninvited guests on my hands, but I was glad they were both men, at least. If they were women, I wouldn’t even have the option to seduce them as a last resort.

The Japanese one especially seemed like a womanizer. As long as I could deal with him somehow, that weakling Johann wouldn’t be a problem.

It’s okay. They’re not a major obstacle, I repeated to myself as I led them to the church and pushed the door open. The door was needlessly heavy, maybe because of its elaborate construction, and Fujimoto casually reached out from behind me to help support it. At this decidedly un-Japanese show of chivalry, I looked back at him over my shoulder and smiled.

“It’s too bad for you two, but…I’m glad you ran out of gas.”

“Well, hearing that from someone as beautiful as you makes the whole walk worth it,” Fujimoto answered, flirtatiously.

I gave him a gentle grin in return.

Deep down, all I could think of was how to entrap this man from Japan.

At the very least, I had to get rid of these two tonight.

No matter what it took…

The 10th anniversary book has a section where Katoh answers 100 questions submitted by fans on Twitter, so here they are translated/paraphrased! May contain manga spoilers up to the recent flashback arc, so be warned.

(Note that I’m playing it very fast and loose here because there are A HUNDRED OF THEM, so not exact wordings, but it should capture the gist. Lemme know if there are any you want elaborated on)

1. Katoh likes the feel of traditional drawing more than digital but is impressed with how far digital has come

2. Meph THOROUGHLY ABUSES spacetime to watch all his shows and ensure that he gets all the merch he wants

3. Did the girls take all of Yukio’s school uniform buttons in middle school? Yes, they did (apparently it’s like A Thing for girls to ask for a button from their crush at middle school graduation, based on some sad movie from the 60s where a guy who got drafted as a kamikaze pilot gave a girl one of his uniform buttons to remember him by)

4. Rin’s tail is about a meter long

5. There are tons of servants working at Mephisto’s mansion. Belial is in charge of them

6. Katoh borrows from all sorts of neat real locations when making settings

7. Katoh identifies with pretty much all the characters the most! Except Lucifer.

8. Demon designs she’s proud of include the impure king and hachirou, pretty much anything that was the main one in an arc

9. Katoh lists a bunch of her favorite musical artists/music she’s listening to recently: King Gnu, Official Hige Dandism, Kenshi Yonezu, BAD HOP, Sakanaction, Keyakizaka 46, Hypnosis Mic, Aimer, B’Z, Queen Bee.

10. Awww the rabbit manga that characters are often reading isn’t just Robo to Usakichi, it’s an even older one that she drew as a little kid

11. She likes industrial style interior designs

12. Rin and Yukio alternated who got the top bunk growing up, because they couldn’t agree on it lol

13. Katoh cares a whole lot about panel layouts and speech bubble positions, might even be her favorite part of the process (it shows!)

4. Katoh does NOT have a mashou, lol

15. Rin has probably been practicing in secret so he can learn to carry stuff with his tail

16. Izumo probably got into shojo manga around 1st grade, her mom had some around the house

17. Specialty dishes: Rin - lots of stuff but especially nabe Yuri - stuff you can throw together quickly Shiro - stuff he learned from Yuri and/or cookbooks, alongside teaching Rin Yukio - Does. Not. Cook.

18. Can’t pick a favorite place she’s been on research, but there’s no place like Japan

19. Kinzou’s band isn’t currently meeting because demons, but he’s probably still thinking of new songs

20. Hardest characters to draw: anyone with detailed flowing hair. Hardest to write for: Lightning and Gedouin. She had to go read books about serial killers specifically for material for Gedouin, lol 

21. Suguro actually gets a dorm room to himself, though allegedly Yukio is technically assigned as his roommate, lol. Didn’t end up that way what with Yukio being a teacher and also Rin’s whole…situation

22. Shiemi makes some of her own hair accessories! Cute

23. Katoh doesn’t mind if you include stuff with fan letters but check with the editor first

24. Time for making each chapter: Planning/storyboarding: 1-5 days. Sketching: 3-5 days. Drawing/inking: the rest. Just…the rest of the time

25. Neither Suguro nor Izumo have dated before and neither is currently dating. But that’s probably just because things were hectic for them! It could happen

26. Yukio breaks 5 or 6 pairs of glasses a year, someone get this kid a strap or something

27. How many spare glasses does Yukio have? Check the fanbook lol it’s in there (dang it Katoh)

28. The demon she wants us to pay the most attention to is Lucifer. Because plot.

29. What’s under the Order’s big meeting table? It’s a BOTTOMLESS PIT and if you fall in it you DIE that’s what makes it COOL (laughs)

30. What are the job requirements for the angelic legion? Literally just Arthur liking you and inviting you to join

31. She WANTS to do more character profiles but just hasn’t gotten to it

32. Rin’s tail feels like a cat tail, texture wise

33. The “red Assiah fire” is literally just actual fire nothing special

34. Rin’s current hair color is light blue fading to white at the ends

35. Thoughts on Rin’s growth: she likes that he stays positive in awful situations and she also thinks it’s very main character of him to face the past instead of avoiding it

36. Mephisto didn’t purposely surround Rin with stuffed animals when he woke up after going crispy. Mephisto’s bed is just Like That

37. Kurikara was based on a cool sword she found in a sword book, but that one was technically just a ceremonial sword. The symbol on it us a Sanskrit letter kaan (sp?) associated with Fudou Myouou

38. Kuro can communicate with normal cats and hangs out with them often

39. Sometimes Shiemi’s skirt is extra fancy around the hem what’s up with that? Apparently it’s an optional accessory that comes with the skirts help I haven’t noticed this and don’t know any fashion terms in any language

40. When coloring, Katoh always tries to have an overall theme in mind (“emphasis on blue” etc) so it comes together in the end

41. Yes the twins are genetically related to Shiro because of Goro (she says they’re like his nephews but I say GENETICALLY at least they’d be indistinguishable from his children)

42. Strongest mom of all the strong moms around here? Yuri! Did you SEE her give birth??

43. Are you careful about your own health Katoh-sensei? Not particularly! Her mom has had to bring her food at work sometimes! Don’t do this at home kids

44. At the dating events Shura goes to, does she drink cocktails in moderation? Yeah, she probably downplays her normal drinking habits at these things. But normally she’s down for just about any kind of drink

45. Lucifer just really likes oysters okay

46. How many pages of manga does Katoh draw in a day? If she’s being good about self-care: three. Maximum number ever: TEN

47. Mephisto is one of those folks who can eat like a garbage compactor and never gain weight. Possibly because his body resists that sort of change the same way it resists aging etc

48. First food Rin cooked: fish burger type patty. Yukio’s favorite things Rin cooks: fish simmered in soy sauce, yellowtail with daikon radish. It’s fish all the way down

49: Did Rin ever get more monthly allowance from Mephisto? It doubled! He gets TWO 2000 yen bills now (rip) [T/N: That’s uh, that’s USD $37.26 a month or 33.10 euro]

50. Why isn’t Rin more popular with the girls? He gets nervous talking to them, plus he’s too oblivious to notice even if he DID have some fans

51. Why change Suguro’s hair? She gets bored with keeping everything the same, and she wanted a visual representation that he was getting serious and going into kind of a training arc

52. Things Katoh pays extra attention to when drawing: trying to capture the feel of whatever she’s drawing (like “that looks warm and soft” or “I bet that guy stinks” cough Lightning cough)

53: Does Rin take after Yuri more? (He’s got her eyes!) Katoh tried to draw Yuri so she looks like both twins. Personality, too - Yukio has her smarts and Rin has her optimism

54: Do you ever wanna be like Mephisto? Well she’d like to be able to get away with just ANYTHING EVER, but no, let’s not be like Mephisto

55. Konekomaru not only carries around a cat toy in case he meets any cats, he MAKES cat toys to carry around based on what he thinks the cats would like

56. How’d you come up with Shima? Go read the fan book!

57. Do the kids have Twitter/Instagram accounts? Rin - probably not. Konekomaru might be on some social media. Paku and Izumo are totally on instagram

58. Is there something Rin makes that you wish you could try? All of it! That’s the whole idea! He’s good at cooking!

59. Will we ever have a (G-rated) reveal of what ALL of Mamushi and her family’s tattoos look like? Maybe! She’ll think about it

60. Does Arthur have a repertoire of different hairstyles? Not really, he just puts some of it up on the top. Heck he might even have people to do that for him

61. If you wrote a shojo manga what would it be about? She’d have to do a lot of research before even coming up with a story, since there are so many style differences between the genres aside from just the subject

62. The other two of Mephisto’s top 3 favorite foods: Cup ramen and….f-fried bubblegum?? Is that a THING???

63. Where do you start when drawing a character? Usually the outline of their face but if it’s a complex pose/composition she’ll start with whatever’s in the foreground (like hands)

64. If Katoh could have a familiar, what demon would she choose? Mephisto. As the all-powerful author, she might actually be able to command him as a familiar!

66. If you swapped Yukio and Rin’s relationship around what would change? not much, you’d pretty much have Rin going to the Illuminati and Yukio going to the past

67. Top 3 foods/souvenirs to try in Kyushu? Well she doesn’t know what’s good CURRENTLY but when she was there she always used to like burdock tempura udon, hakata torimon (a kind of manju with white bean paste inside), and Chikae style cod roe. today I learned Katoh went to high school in Kyushu

68. Katoh listens to music a lot while she’s storyboarding, then when she and the assistants are all drawing and inking they put various videos/movies and stuff on in the background

69. For all his hitting on girls, is Shima actually popular with the ladies at all? He’s got enough girls in his life that he probably COULD find a girlfriend if he really wanted, but the double agent thing tends to get in the way. He still wouldn’t be as popular as Yukio though (side thought/translator’s note: Shima would be proud of being number 69.)

70. Katoh has the ending planned out in a big-picture way, but there are still a few details here and there that she’s fretting over

71. It’s cute when the boys put their ties over their shoulders when they’re working on something! Where’d that come from? She just figured a tie might get in the way and that seemed like a realistic way to get it out of the way

72. Looks like Yukio is getting some facial hair! What about Rin? They’re both about the age for it, but maybe Rin can’t grow a beard yet. Maybe a little peach fuzz here and there

73. Katoh’s favorite blue exorcist merch? There were some exorcist licenses a while back, and the exorcist pins. Basically it’s really cool that these little accessories she drew ACTUALLY EXIST NOW, LIKE YOU CAN HOLD THEM IN YOUR HANDS

74. Okay realtalk how long do we have left, I don’t want the series to end yet? We’re solidly in the second half by now but it’s not, like, ABOUT to end yet

75. Katoh would be a Knight meister, based on what characters she likes to play in games and such

76. How many people in the whole exorcism cram school? More than you think! She doesn’t give a number but apparently licensed exorcists also attend classes for new meisters, etc, so there’s a wide age range attending

77. How’s Arthur feel about, like, studying Taming on the way to becoming Paladin? He’s at least mostly accepted that you have to use demons to fight demons effectively

78. Konekomaru started wearing glasses in his first year of middle school, so like 7th grade (more recent than I thought!) He has one spare pair, in contrast to Yukio lol

79. Katoh’s current obsessions? Ghost/scary stories! She’s even been going to live readings of them recently

80. Media Katoh consumes for inspiration? A wide range of foreign teen drama, horror/suspense, shojo manga, light novels, anime, etc. Special focus on things where two boys are in conflict or there are brothers involved

81. If they weren’t exorcists what jobs would they have? Rin - chef. Yukio - doctor. Shiemi - uh, florist?

82. Inspiration for the design of True Cross Town? Katoh and her assistants gathered up a bunch of references, picked out stuff they felt matched the tone, and mashed them all up together

83. Did you use any references etc for the school/exorcist uniforms? She says she probably should have but she just kind of made them up before publication

84. Favorite part of drawing? For color pages, picking out a color scheme. For black and white, drawing in all the little details (though she doesn’t always get time to lately)

85. Once again confirms the demon kings’ weird hair is a representation of their horns. ADDS THAT PEOPLE WHO CAN’T SEE DEMONS CAN’T SEE THE WEIRD HAIR

86. Now that Yukio’s at the Illuminati, where’s he gonna get his Jump SQ and spare glasses? Well he probably never planned to stay for long, but hey it’s a big ship and they might have an optometrist and/or newsstand there

87. Do you base the demon characters on any references etc? Not really, she just gets a general idea of popular demon designs and then makes up her own in her own style

88. Merchandise Katoh personally wants to have made: stuff that an adult could just use in their day to day life. Also, it’s not gonna happen, but if her favorite figure brand made AoEx figures she could die happy

89. If Beelzebub’s host body was a beautiful woman, how would Shima react? Would the womanizing win out over the bug phobia? Katoh replies that Shima would probably just faint from being near a girl that pretty, before the bugs even got involved

90. Will the twins ever get to smile and eat dinner together again?? We’ll just have to wait and see!

91. What do you check at a “scenario check”? what’s a scenario check man I dunno They check for people being out of character or the setting feeling off. They had a lot of these checks for the anime, but they also do them for the drama CD, games, and all that other stuff where multiple authors are involved

92. Why does Shura use baldy as an insult for people who are clearly not bald? She feels like they have some kind of metaphorical, mental kind of “baldness” and she’s calling them out on it. Whatever that means

93. After Blue Exorcist ends, what do you want to draw next? She has SO MANY IDEAS, SO MANY

94. Did Katoh make up the Shinto chants that, for example, Izumo used against Gedouin? They’re assembled from bits of actual Shinto prayers according to what feels right in the scene

95. Yukio reads the Jump SQ, right, and, just hear me out here, he likes gag manga, right? Does this mean he reads Salaryman Yukio? It’s something he would read, but let’s say that in the AoEx universe there’s just a very similar manga that he finds oddly relatable

96. What do Yukio and Shima do in their free time on the Dominus Liminus? oh my god you guys this ship has so many amenities.  Yukio probably spends time reading in the library, which they totally have. There’s also, like, a gym, and a movie theater, and a THEATER theater, all of which are free. Shima probably hangs out at the pool (!) and goes to the movies, and hits on illuminati girls, lol

97. Easiest character to draw? The ones with boring simple hair, lol. Lightning gets an honorable mention for ALSO not having eyes in most shots, but Rin wins–he was specifically designed to be easy for Katoh to draw because that’s what you want in your main character

98. How do demons understand gender? They just possess whatever feels like the best match to how they feel in Gehenna, whether that’s a man, or a woman, or a rat, or whatever

99. Where do you start when you’re coming up with a story? She starts with character design and how the characters relate to each other. Currently she’s just continuing an existing story, so she works on splitting up the overall plot into episodes and fleshing it out with scenes and information about characters

100. When do you feel most happy? She honestly feels like she lives a very happy life overall. Mentions noticing a lot of little things, like how nice her cats’ heads smell when she cuddles them or taking a nice cold refreshing drink of water. There’s happiness in everything. aww.

For the first time in ages, Blue Exorcist 121 has a title that isn’t all numbers and such! It’s called 無双（むそう/musou)! Let’s take a look at how a Japanese dictionary defines that word:

1. Peerless, a cut above the rest, invincible, unmatched by anyone
2. A garment where the inner and outer layers are made of the same kind of cloth
3. A sumo move where you sweep away the opponent’s thigh with your arm, knocking them off balance

Personally, I’ve pretty much only seen it used for definition 1, though I think the Viz title (”Of the Same Cloth”) does a pretty snappy job with definition 2.

…What’s that? You want to know how on earth the same word means “invincible” and “using the same cloth for both layers”?

Well, you see…that’s because of the LITERAL meaning of the word.

LITERALLY, like if you just look at the kanji it’s made of? It means…uh…well…it means…

Twinless.

And I am NOT sure how to feel about that one, Katoh.

and the final battle begins!