Three men are appreciating a Baroque painting of a madonna with children when they are warned of the coming of the Shogun's officials. The men quickly try to take the painting and flee but they are stopped by a mysterious swordsman. One of the men recognizes his voice and calls him a "Bakufu dog." Without a trace of remorse, the man kills all three. Afterwards, with blood splatter on his face, he turns to the painting and points his sword at it.
obsession
The present: Manji and Rin are at a restaurant, discussing Rin's decision to get an additional hand to help her with her mission. Manji is not too keen on the idea but Rin says that after their encounter with Kuroi Sabato she realizes that the Itto-ryuu are not normal swordsmen.
The man Rin has in mind is Sori, an artist who was a childhood friend of her father's. However, Sori does not seem too interested in helping Rin exact revenge against Anotsu and his cronies. While Rin tries to persuade him, a customer of Sori's arrive. Upon seeing Rin, this customer is immediately taken and gets Sori to convince Rin to model for a painting.
Rin agrees to the deal and uses this chance to persuade Sori to help with her cause. Sori, again, thwarts her effort. This time, he makes the excuse that he is but an artist. Rin then wisely reminds him that she is not asking the art master but the "master of the brilliantly reclusive wisdom." (wow, that's a mouthful) This prompts Sori to tell her that he came to work for the Shogun, not because of his sword skills or some desire to serve his country, but because he wanted to get a hold of the forbidden arts from the West and the only way for him to do that is to become a Bakufu spy. So he really is just a selfish artist and his sword is not worthy of Rin's cause.
Hearing this, Manji laughs and calls Sori on his bluff. Then he walks out, seemingly leaving Rin behind. But Sori assures her that Manji is not the sort who would abandon her.
how rude to be woken up from a perfectly nice dream to this
That evening, Rin dreams that her parents are still alive. But when she wakes up, she finds an Itto-ryuu man in her room, threatening her with a spear. Rin quickly makes a run for it, first using her blanket to block the man's first strike. However, the man eventually catches her by the collar of her yukata and pins her to the wall.
too close for comfort
Fortunately, Manji has noticed people secretly spying on them. He comes to Rin's rescue just in time. But the Itto-ryuu man has brought his friends with him and together they attack the two of them.
While this is happening, Sori is in his studio, mixing paints. He is looking for a particular shade of red but can't seem to arrive at the right color. While he angsts about his level of art skills, Manji cuts a man and the blood spills into Sori's studio. The sight of blood sharply brings back to Sori's memory that night when he betrayed his artist friends and killed them all in the name of the Bakufu. However, the moment he has an epiphany, the Itto-ryuu man steps on his painting, destroying it and leaving Sori in shock.
Meanwhile, Manji finds himself stuck to a tree with nail hooks biting into his back. The Itto-ryuu man then proposes to strip Rin naked in front of Manji and Manji says: "OMG, Yes!" Kidding. Anyway, Rin tries to put up a fight but the Itto-ryuu man breaks her sword and forces her to the ground. Just before he kills her though, someone else's sword pierces through his throat. When Rin opens her eyes, she sees Sori standing behind the dying Itto-ryuu man, his drawn sword stuck to the man's throat.
Sori makes short work of the Itto-ryuu men and his friends. Manji and Rin just watch him with something like awe in their faces.
Two Itto-ryuu men somehow manage to escape. However, once they arrive at their dojo, Anotsu meets them at the entrance. He tells them: "The only rule of Itto-ryuu is one-on-one killing." With that, he draws his sword and cuts the two men as they attempt to flee.
alksdjf
Afterwards, Anotsu notices someone nearby and calls him out. A young man, who introduces himself as Makoto, goes to his side. Anotsu comments that he has never seen him before, prompting Makoto to say that he was permitted to enter through Abaya's permission.
After the fight with the Itto-ryuu, Sori's customer arrives for his painting. Sori shows him the sad state of the painting but promises that he will make a new one right quick if he pays 50 gold taels for the paint. The money Sori gives to Rin as a form of help since he can't lend her his sword. Then he and his daughter, Tatsu, wave Manji and Rin off.
COMMENTS:
It's getting better and better. The art, I mean. That is so rare because in anime, the general trend is that pilot episodes supposedly have the highest production value. That said, this episode is pretty good. They made Sori creepier than even in the manga, which is better actually. You don't know whether to laugh at his antics or be genuinely terrified. And Tatsu is as likeable here as in the manga. She had more lines in the manga, I think, and her relationship with her father is more fleshed out there. But I can understand why the anime wouldn't deem to spend too much time on fleshing out side characters, especially when the production team have the time factor to consider.
I feel really sorry for Rin now. I didn't feel too sorry for her in the last episode, mainly because I was too busy being weirded out by Kuroi Sabato's fetish. But in this episode, especially in that dream, the writers tried to show Rin's driving motive in going to such lengths to kill all Itto-ryuu.
I'm a bit iffed that they didn't show that part in the manga where Rin buys something for her hair, then asks Manji if she looks cute, and he's like you look like a child, and Rin gets all sulky.
Looking forward to the next episode.
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