Urusei Yatsura – 35 – What’s at Cake / A Fox’s Tale

Atari spots Ran in the park but loses her, but not before she drops a neatly-packaged cake from her basket. A cake she said would “knock him dead”. Hearing her use those exact words puts us in the Lum’s state of mind, because when she finds Ataru, he’s flat on his back and in bad shape.

Lum, noted inventor and tinkerer, turns to her robodoc, who confirms poison, but no treatment: just funeral preparations. Hooking him up to a vital sign monitor of her own design that she can check on with a handheld remote, Lum heads out to save her Darling. She manages to find the warp gate Ran used to travel to a fantastical (and gorgeous) forest, but she’s always a step behind her.

When a napping Cherry snags a wire, Ataru’s vitals flatline on Lum’s remote. But as expected, “knock him dead” was just an expression: Ran made the cakes for Rei specifically, and the galoot does seem to enjoy them. But Lum doesn’t know that, assumes Darling is dead, and her wailing lament draws both Rei and Ran to her. Ran is pissed at first, but when she sees Lum won’t stop crying, she seems genuinely concerned for her old friend.

She’s able to calm Lum down, assuring her there must be some mistake. Sure enough, they return just as Ataru is reovering a bit, but is still wretchedly bloated. Turns out the cakes were specifically formulated to be one hundred times more filling than normal, in order to satisfy Rei. Pissed that Ataru ate one, Rei goes after him, while Ran lays into Lum for ruining her date.

It’s a raucous, unpleasant ending, but it can’t ruin the previous display of Lum’s genuine love and devotion for Ataru (and despair upon believing him dead) as well Ran showing she’ll be there for Lum if she needs her.

The second half marks the return of the adorable little fox (we’ll call him Kitsune) from last season. It starts with a positively gorgeous folktale of a fox who fell for a human girl and used charmed horsetail shoots to turn her into a fox for a night. Kitsune just happens to have some of spring’s first shoots, and sets out intending to play out the folktale with his beloved Shinobu.

Between the folktale and Kitsune finding Ataru and Lum, his journey to the big scary city and issues with big dogs and cars is played out with scarcely any dialogue. Kitsune, the dogs, and his Kotatsu Cat hero simply make expressive sounds. The music is also superb in this sequence, as it perfectly complements Kitsune’s unique POV in the otherwise familiar town setting.

When he spots Ataru and Lum at a vending machine, he disguises himself as Shinobu (which of course means he looks like a little fox Shinobu and isn’t fooling anyone). Shinobu feels bad about simply sending the little guy on his way, and agrees to help him find the horsetail shoots he lost.

They take him to Shinobu’s, where he disguises himself as Ataru and Lum and even adopts (and mixes up) their unique manners of speech. Kugimiya Rie is the perfect button-cute voice for Kitsune, no matter who he’s imitating. The four eventually encounter Cherry and Kotatsu Cat, who are cooking something (I love how everyone ignores Cherry until they simply can’t anymore).

They initially offer Kitsune some of their soup to comfort him after they were unable to find his shoots. But Kitsune, Cherry, and Kotatsu make the soup seem so tasty, Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu have a bowl as well. And because Kotatsu Cat put the horsetail shoots in the soup, they all turn into foxes!

This reveal, complete with soaring music, cozy lighting, and adorable character designs is masterfully directed and timed for maximum emotional impact. The whole episode was a feast for the eyes and ears, but you simply cannot go wrong with a Kugimiya Rie-voiced little fox. I’d watch a whole season of his adventures and terrible disguises!

Kemono Jihen – 07 – The Spider with the Golden Silk

At Shiki’s request, the agency gang is off to his home village of Kinshigo, now that he’s ready to learn the fate of his parents. It’s bound not to be a pleasant stroy, but Inugami thinks it’s only right for Shiki to know if he wants to, and he does, for closure and to be able to move on.

After a little girl with pink hair gives Shiki a hard look (my first instinct, these two share mom), Inugami runs into his Uncle Akio, who tells Shiki that his parents are both dead. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was five. The reason he’s traumatized is that he walked in on her body at such a young age.

Having heard the news, Shiki returns to his friends to join them for ice cream, but even Kabane can tell he’s putting on a brave face, Akira tells him not to point that out so tactlessly, but Shiki can’t deny something is still troubling him. Enter Nobimaru, joining them at the bath, suggesting they go see the fireflies.

While Nobimaru is clearly still trying to trick Kabane out of his lifestone for Inari, that he takes Shiki into the woods helps trigger a memory involving a peculiar tree. This sets Shiki on a path of landmarks leading to a Creepy Shack, the very sight of his real trauma. It wasn’t seeing his mother’s dead body, but something far worse: her mother being forced to breed with a monster.

As Shiki recovers from the shock, Nobimaru inspects the now-empty shack, where there is still evidence of medical equipment and claw scratches. He recalls a report a year ago involving Shiki’s uncle, who was trying to make the local folktale about “golden silk” come true, which would expose kemono to the world, something both Inari and Inugami must prevent.

Still, Inugami kept Inari from “disposing” of Shiki’s uncle, knowing Shiki himself deserved to face him for what he did. When Inugami meets with Uncle Akio at his house (formerly Shiki’s parents’ house), he’s pleased to find Inugami is willing to spill the beans about his plan, because he doesn’t think what he’s done was wrong.

Shortly after he was born, Shiki came down with a nasty case of the Flu, and Akio coerced Kumi into horrific cross-breeding experiments with various kemono in the forest, hoping to find the pairing that would give them the legendary Healing Silk that’ll make them rich and make Akio famous. And while Kumi died in the process, Akio can report that he was successful in finding that pairing—no doubt the little girl is the result of that success.

Inugami happened to be recording Inugami’s confession/rant on his phone for Shiki to listen, and basically gives Shiki leave to do what he wants. Shiki grabs and suspends Akio from the neck with his silk, and out of deference for the years he took care of him, Shiki is willing to give his uncle a quick death.

While he has every right to make him suffer, there’s no escaping the fact that killing Akio will make Shiki a killer, and likely deprive that girl of her only guardian. Will Shiki follow through on his threat, or further weigh the enormity of his uncle’s crimes with the consequences of taking a life? We shall see.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée 8

Yune and Claude stop by the Blanche residence, and Alice takes Yune by the hand and wisks her off. If it was ever in doubt, this episode confirmed that she sees Yune not so much as a human friend, but as a doll-like ideal of a childhood dream she had. It’s pretty odd that this girl made up a story about meeting a Japanese girl, then meeting her by chance years later. Is she an oracle?

In all seriousness though, while she and Yune chatter away about folk tales and rice balls, Claude is just standing around waiting, when he’s cornered by Camille. From a flashback and her general behavior around him, she had an unrequited love for him. The cold way they interact here confirms that they share some complex feelings, not all good. Camille resents her role as a family bargaining chip – she won’t be marrying for love – but she’s resigned to that life.

Rating: 3.5