REVIEW: ‘Kemono Jihen,’ Episode 12 – “Kemono Incidents”

Ah, the pain of being an anime fan when the series ends open-ended. As the manga is still ongoing, and there has been no announcement regarding season two, Kemono Jihen Episode 12 does its best to give viewers some kind of closure. Don’t get your hopes up too high. While multiple anime seasons are getting more common, it still tends to happen much more often to series that have garnered enough popularity. 

On the plus side, the fight in Kemono Jihen Episode 12 is a great battle to end on. Nobimaru’s transformation into his true kitsune form is unsettling on top of his general suspicious demeanor. It is a compelling fight because viewers don’t necessarily know who to root for between him and Yui. Of course, what Yui is doing is wrong, but Nobimaru clearly has no care for Yui’s well-being. 

When Kabane gets involved in the fight, it has those perfect horror vibes reminiscent of the battle back in Episode 3 when Shiki argued with Kabane’s severed head. The animation does an excellent job of making the gore just enough for viewers to get queasy but not need to look away. It is all very exciting, even if the final solution falls into more traditional shonen tropes. 

Kemono Jihen Episode 12 succeeds in bringing Akira’s character arc to a close. His heartfelt confrontation with Yui is well done and performed. The best part is the show doesn’t require Akira to completely change himself to take on Yui’s pain. I had my reservations about how the show treated Akira’s character, but it was really satisfying to see him succeed by being unapologetically himself in the finale. 

Given the revelations and ending point of Kemono Jihen Episode 12, it makes the last eleven weeks feel like a prologue to a larger story. As a whole, when the show was good, it was great. But it had consistent stumbles around gender and didn’t utilize its intriguing cast of characters to their full potential, especially Kon. The writing attempts to justify why this entire prologue was necessary, but it feels weak and will make viewers question why Inugami was so quiet for so long.

Kemono Jihen Episode 12 is a solid wrap-up to Akira’s story arc; however, it leaves a lot to be desired as a finale for the show. Satisfying fights will excite viewers in the first half, but unfortunately, the exposition to tie up loose ends in the second will make the last eleven weeks feel like a prologue without much closure.

Kemono Jihen is streaming now on Funimation.