The sixth episode of Jigokuraku takes the prisoners alongwith their assigned monitors to discover a secret village on the deadly island of Shinsenkyo. Are they inching closer to finding the elixir or are they moving to their inevitable death?
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 6: Recap – Heart And Reason
In the previous episode, Genji was fatally wounded by Rokurota, who roamed around freely after having killed his assigned monitor. The episode begins with Rokurota’s origin when he was a simple child. His first kill was his parents and he has continued to kill since with his latest victim being Yamada Genji.
Sagiri reaches up to Genji to help, even though he tried to assassinate her. Genji on the verge of death is amused by Sagiri’s nature. He is bewildered as she had just shown steely resolve like a man and now after a split moment, was showering feminine care upon him. What does she really want?
Rokurota does not care if it’s a man or a woman in front of him. Seeing Sagiri in front of him, he goes in for the kill, but receives a thunderous kick from Gabimaru who leaps just in time to save the preoccupied Sagiri. She turns back and sees that Gabimaru’s kick managed to throw Rokurota off his feet but couldn’t even scratch his skin a bit. Even Gabimaru is surprised that his kick, which previously helped him pulverize monsters on the island, did not harm Rokurota.
Gabimaru remembers his Shinobi warrior training and one of the rules of battle was to analyze the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. Rokurota seems to have none. Getting too close means suicide and using ninjutsu from afar, hampers the projectiles effectiveness. Gabimaru thinks to himself that only he could distract Rokurota, would he get the chance to use the Ascetic Blaze, one of his most powerful weapons. He even asks the cunning Yuzuriha to help but she waits for the bruised winner to emerge so she could kill him and remove two competitors out of the quest for the elixir.
Sagiri tends to Genji’s wound. Seeing her he realizes that her way is different from the other samurai. She has decided to tread the middle path galvanizing both her heart and reason unlike others who divide the world into binaries. Sensing his death to be nearby , he offers Sagiri his sword and asks her to kill Rokurota. Gabimaru’s wish for a partner comes true. Sagiri slashes a finger off of Rokurota, drawing the first blood as soon as she joins the battle. The invincible Rokurota suddenly seems vulnerable. Sagiri realizes her strength lies in executing a prisoner, but the head of a prisoner during an execution is always still, which helps Sagiri land a clean blow right between two bony joints, resulting in immediate severance. Rokurota was a giant, so his neck was beyond reach for Sagiri. If only he could be made to fall, would Sagiri have a chance to kill him.
Sagiri and Gabimaru make an impactful duo but not that effective so as to kill Rokurota. A growling sound startles them. It was coming from Rokurota’s stomach. A bawling Rokurota bangs his palm on to Gabimaru with a lightning speed and this time he isn’t able to dodge the blow. Almost killing him with a single blow, he goes for the fatal second one. It all comes down to Sagiri to save him. Will she be able to?
Sagiri’s conviction to the middle path is tested right there. Calming her nerves and balancing emotion with reason, she wields her sword and miraculously deflects Rokurota’s killer blows. Gabimaru recovers and holds Rokurota’s palm giving Sagiri a window of opportunity to sever his neck. Before she lands the killing blow, she realizes that Rokurota, the giant of Bizen, is simply a hungry and lonely child at heart, who yearns for security and connection. This understanding does not deter her from chopping off his head, but she manages to do so with compassion, successfully managing to balance her heart and mind.
After this intense battle, Gabimaru and Sagiri run off to the interiors and find a place that looks like a village for hermits. Aza Chobei and Toma arrive at the village as well and see something extremely peculiar.
‘Jigokuraku’ Episode 5: Ending Explained : What Did Aza And Toma See?
Yuzuriha, Senta, Sagiri and Gabimaru arrive at a village in the interior of the island. Senta guesses that the island may have residents who might have been living as hermits. The whole village gave off this impression. Aza Chobei and Toma also locate the village, but from a different angle than Gabimaru’s gang. They also sense that the village is for hermits, but as the fog over the village clears, they see two human-like creatures intensely making out on a tree branch. They get startled seeing Aza and Toma.
Episode 6: Review
The sixth episode brought forward Rokurota’s story and gave him a bidding farewell. As the series unfolds, it does a good job of playing with the viewer’s perception of the various killers, as this episode did with Rokurota. The episode left at an incredibly unexpected cliffhanger which will surely be further explained in upcoming episodes.