10 Second Anime - Vatican Kiseki Chousakan - Episode 7

Roberto finds clues in the mission's library. The natives' festival may be related to certain post mortem rituals.

Episode VII - "Those Branded with a Curse"

Heh.

Roberto had a strange dream about his father. He called his son "Child of Satan." I wish clues to the mystery plot were found outside of visions and dreams.

Well, I was totally wrong about where this place is set. It's in Africa, the Republic of Sofuma. I suppose I got on the wrong track because of the prologue last episode which showed drilling underneath a body of water and an erupting volcano. And then Roberto and Joseph traveling by boat to their final destination made me think they landed at a larger island and had to ferry to a smaller one. They were just traveling by river, which is a thing to do in the jungles of Africa. Anyway, the old-fashioned travel transition showing the plane landing just South of equatorial Africa was a big clue I was wrong.

Roberto woke up from his strange dream in the hospital. Last week, he got a whiff of the strange incense and went a little haywire. Julia and Joseph say he had a panic attack.

Joseph decided to keep Roberto's ramblings to himself. Roberto had mumbled that a demon was just there.

This Kid Goldman guy seems kind of happy to see Roberto die if it proves the prophecy correct.

The native religion says the dead spirits hunt down Christians during their Shin-Shin festival, which is tomorrow!

These places always seem to have an old library... The Saint Carmel mission has a 16th Century one. So, when Fr. Julia said the order was founded in 1538, he must have meant the mission was founded then.

Books about the House of Bourbon and rumors of how they got their great wealth from dead bodies, alchemy, is where this grand mystery is headed.

I knew zombies were going to be involved! At least, zombie rituals. It's really necromancy and alchemy that we're dealing with.

Ah. Fr. Julia's office appears to have a lot of antique stuff with Bourbon crests all over them. Suspicious...

Fr. Julia just happens to know all about these three cursed books that Roberto took which will make the Devil steal his soul.

I don't get this Bourbon corpse ritual at all. The dead make gold, somehow, yet they still retain their living form? Do they poop it out? The soul makes it? This isn't too clear to me.

Oh, and part of the ritual is carving crosses into the hands and feet. This means John Jordan didn't have the stigmata after all.

The night before the Shin-Shin Festival and Fr. Julia conveniently has to absent himself. That's not suspicious either...

Black mamba... I'm sure the yaoi fans were expecting another kind of black mamba to visit in the night.

So the Devil stealing Roberto's soul involves a trial by faith. That's not really stealing then, is it?

Faith is represented as a tongue of fire. Very Pentecostal of them.

Heh. Roberto had no trouble being tempted by gold, jewels, or women (what if some lanky man legs had been thrown in there?), but a pile of rare books? Close one.

Of course, the only wavering he could have had was for Joseph, but offering himself to be burned instead ends the whole trial. Jesus himself said that there is no greater love than to offer himself up for his friends.

Who are those three good guys? Or Good Guys? Could they be the souls of Fr. Samson, John Jordan, and that Amy person? That's a bit too easy to call at this point.

Joseph sucks the poison out of Roberto's upper thigh. Calm down fujoshi!

Joseph thought ahead and got the anti-venom of all the local poisonous snakes from Lauren because he thought the rope around Roberto's neck in the painting looked like a snake. This leads to thinking that Kid Goldman planted the snake to make sure the prophecy came true.

So, Fr. Samson is dead and decapitated. It looks like the rituals of the local religion and the Bourbon alchemy thing got combined.

Hah. Roberto figuring something out about John Jordan not being a saint and laughing maniacally about it is our cliffhanger. That's not a good look...

The yaoi preview couch has Roberto giggling over the phrase "instigator of darkness," from the local language for black magic practitioners. I guess he figured out who that was.