This episodes gives us a closer look into Jinta addressing his own jealousy, before the events that led to Jinta and Shirayuki’s decision to choose duty over romance.
Video Review
What Stands Out About This Episode?
Duty Over Love
One of the most classic storylines in any medium is a “love triangle” or some sort, but Sword of the Demon Hunter somehow took that angle with its own personal twist, that leads us into an entirely different outlook.
Episode one of this anime series still holds the most weight, as it’s the foundational piece that makes you appreciate the rest of what you will see. This episode provides a rare glimpse into recapturing what was so painful in episode 1. From any romantic angle regardless of gender, no one wants to be “NTR’d.” It’s one of my favorite words I use loosely for variations of the dirty “C” word and jealousy, when another guy is trying to steal your girl.
Before I end up recapping the entire first episode, if you want a review of Season 1 Cour 1, please watch my video here.
The biggest takeaway from Jinta and Shirayuki’s standpoint is the idea of duty and responsibility over their own personal love interest for each other. Shirayuki, who is now Byakuya, the “Itsukihime” that watches over their village. Combine her with Jinta, who is the “Sentinel,” the main protector and implied lover of the Itsukihime. Both hold titles and swear an oath to protect their village alongside the village higher-ups, including the village chief.
To put it simply from what we learned in episode 1, this episode gave us a deeper look into the village chief choosing his son’s love, Kiyomasa’s over the village’s own safety. Any person that has a shred of tact and understanding of human beings can understand that a monogamous romantic relationship only involves one guy and one girl. However, when you introduce a 2nd Sentinel in Kiyomasa, you just created a love triangle that could have been avoided. Are you really asking the two most powerful people of your village to maintain their relationship, protect the village from demons, while this 2nd Sentinel wants the Itsukihime to fall in love with him instead??
People underestimate what humans are designed to do in pro-creation. Being “professional” can only last so long—and in this case, it’s just completely ignored. The initial reason given by the village chief is that Kiyomasa being a 2nd Sentinel is for safety precautions as the rise of demon events around the village has been rising, which is fair. However, it ultimately leads to the village chief asking Shirayuki to have a relationship with his son, as this would be in the best interest of the village for a native to be with her.
This episode is that first introduction of Kiyomasa being the 2nd Sentinel of the village, which leads to clear antagonizing of Jinta, while he’s off getting hurt and fighting off demons. At the same time, Kiyomasa gets to stay back with Shirayuki and slowly tries to build this romantic bond with her. This is all apparently, “for safety and security” reasons. Once again, people do love to underestimate how fracturing relationships between opposite genders can destroy a whole village, like what we saw in episode one.
Just as I haven’t mentioned Suzune yet, that is intentional because it is the neglect of one’s feelings and intentions of this half-demon, who loves her human brother that ultimately destroyed Kadono. It led to Shirayuki’s death, Jinta turning into a demon and Kiyomasa being kidnapped with nefarious intentions in mind. All of this could have been avoided if feelings didn’t follow with misunderstandings and one where Kiyomasa could have helped protect Kadono without needing to be a Sentinel..
OTAKU SINH 