Black Torch Ep.10 - Whoa, are all Ibuki named characters like that? I like it!

Episode 10 of Black Torch continues with Jirou's training arc in Ibuki's forest, wrapping it up quickly as we move toward the final confrontation against Amagi. If you remember, last week I was worried the series might not be heading toward an ending, but things seem different now that Amagi has literally killed everyone on his side.

While the mononoke wanted to regain their original status relative to humanity, Amagi just wanted them as fuel to gain more power and become an even greater entity. He is the only mononoke with the power to absorb other mononoke's energy by eating their hearts, and he has been doing that for hundreds of years.

As a design Ibuki might look skimpy, but it actually looks good overall and fit the demoness character. I may be biased but...

Amagi instead doesn't get a good visual upgrade after the transformation. He's just a lame version of himself with a coat...

Why? That's the question here: does he want to play god with humans like he did in the past? For what purpose? What is he gaining from it? Before, there could have been the rationale of creating a safe place for mononoke, but that assumption has fallen apart now that he has sacrificed them all with ease.

The training arc wrapped up quickly and showed the true forms of Ibuki and her husband. Ibuki is often portrayed with a snake motif, and it's no different here as she shows up in snake form to help Jirou. Of course, it's anime, so she's also a beautiful, mature, curvy lady in skimpy clothing.

Not that I'm complaining, except maybe for an "It should've been me! Not him!" joke directed at Jirou when he woke up in her lap. She was apparently approached by Amagi to "join him," but refused. It turns out she made the right choice, or she would've been eaten too by this point...

The next episode will show Jirou facing Amagi again using Ragou's power, and everything is set in terms of stage-setting, especially considering Kouga and Shinji are both alive and can easily reveal information about him to the humans. You know: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Sorry Roren, but Ichika is clearly done with you. I can imagine her trying hard to suppress her rage all along.

Imagine waking up to such mountains from Ibuki right in front of you. Seriously shocking development!

There's still the question of which mononoke actually caused Ichika's mother to be petrified, but at this point it would be weird to add a new character to the story, so I'm leaning toward "Amagi did it" being the resolution the anime will go for. It'll be lame, but I can't see any other way out...