Yukimura showed her real emotion for the first time, an action packed and emotional journey on the fourth episode of Joran, the princess of Snow and Blood

 Finally we got another amazing episode from Joran starting from the first minute to finish. Well this episode seems quite short for me because it was started with a bang and had much more action oriented event all over the episode. From the first minute we found out that Jin Kusuhara a.k.a Nue boss tried to stop Sawa Yukimura from finding Asahi. He told her that the moment she lost her calm, and choose over the girl life over her revenge, the more vulnerable she was for Janome’s traps. Kuzuhara tried to stop her because at this very moment, the the blue blood inside Sawa’s body was targetted by Janome to strengthen him further and it seems that his plan for capturing her was already on motion. He also mentioned that he knew Tsukishiro’s betrayal all along as well as the fact that she secretly killed the cleaner.

Maybe she meant Jin should retire and become farmer somewhere lol

The battle did not last long and Kusuhara managed to beat Yuki due to the fact that she was hesitating. After Yuki fell unconscious, Jin took her into a car and drove away. Just as he rode, they got blocked by changelings that look like dogs and after a brief high chase and lots of explosion, Kusuhara’s car got crashed. The beaten up Kusuhara saw a figure holding sawa’s still unconscious body and that person was Tsukishiro. She took Sawa with her and left her former boss holding his injured stomach.

a certain lady said that she doesn't care for Asahi's life ;p

While being unconscious, Sawa had a dream from her past; especially the time when she was still living happily with her brother. His brother told her that birds was their clan’s closest friend in which I assume why the white crow can somehow unleashed her true potential. This scene also worked as the base for the emotional build being showed later on. First of all, her brother was still alive and in captivity but he was already lost his sight and he barely can move at all. Second, with Sawa close bond to her brother, his dead will definitely unleashed her repressed emotion and she might need another support after his passing (I got reminded of Asahi at this moment; maybe she will be the one who will save her later emotionally). Finally, Sawa waking up in a place that she didn’t recognized. When the light turn on, she saw some painting that resembles an old renaissance painting and someone that she knew well. Janome and her co-worker turned into a traitor; Tsukishiro.

Maybe Janome was inspired from megaman's snakeman

What I don’t understand from this anime was about Tsukishiro’s allegiance. First off all, she knew Janome and I thought that she was the villain of the story. However, just as they managed to capture Yukimura by using Asahi, she was also the very person who killed Janome’s snake pets and released Yukimura from captivity. If a smart villain like Janome can get confused with Tsukishiro’s act of betrayal, how about me who was just a normal viewer lol. Just what was her true motive? Is she really stood for or against Yoshinobu Tokugawa?  Even after the last episode, she was already behaving suspiciously. Still, if she doesn’t side with Nue (Yoshinobu side) yet she also betrayed Janome even if they had a shared goal then whose side she belongs to? What kind of freedom did Tsukishiro sought after???

What I love bout this show is that she is not a Mary sue. Off course she is strong but not invincible

The main event of this episode off course was the fight between Sawa and Janome who had enhanced his body with Sawa’s blood. It was a great battle but isn’t it a bit anti-climactic if they put the supposed end game in the fourth episode? With eight more episodes, the battle against Janome should be on the eleventh or twelfth episode. But in my opinion, if it was the end of Janome, it means that Sawa’s revenge was over. Doesn’t that mean that she already lost his purpose of life since her drive to keep alive was to avenge her family? The fact remained that by end of this episode, Sawa did kill Janome, Tsukishiro managed to escape (although minus an arm). And least but not last, her captivated brother finally die peacefully knowing that he could save his sister with his last dying breath. The scene when she cried while holding her brother was very strong emotionally and I am not regret to say that this anime at least had a heart on it. Yuki was always pictured as a cold and merciless lady that this scene wants to show us how fragile she was in reality. This break her apart and showed her weak side as a woman and as a sister.

I know break the ice queen moment was not rare but..this scene was powerful

If I could rate this episode, I will give a nine out of ten for all of the actions and emotions jam packed inside this one episode. Honestly, before I review this anime, I never had a high expectation from this anime. Since the first episode, it seems like another action oriented anime with a tsundere and cold main character. But as each episode passed, I found that each scene link to each other neatly and every confusing term that we saw in the earlier episode was explained one by one while keeping the action in high octane. I guess after this very intense episode, the anime will go into a breather episode. Or, the producer of Joran will create a new opponent. After all, the first episode already showed a mysterious female changeling and maybe she will be an even bigger threat to Sawa.