Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 17 – A Better Bed to Lie In

While she was just a lowly underling in the Dark Realm, Druj has risen in the human world to lead a Fortune 500-equivalent company, and even launched a highly-successful line called For J, inspired exclusively by her desire to see Jahy in outfits other than her usual strappy black number.

But Druj is still miserable as long as she’s not by Jahy’s side, and furious when she finds out Kyouko works for her at her pub (even though Jahy neither employs Kyouko nor owns the pub). Druj still manages to divine a convoluted reasoning for Jahy is still the Same Old Jahy…without any input from Jahy needed.

Jahy has been doing well of late in all aspects of her life in the human world, but she can’t get a decent night’s sleep, and blames it on the grungy futon the landlady gave her when she first moved into her apartment. Feeling like she deserves a reward for everything she’s accomplished, he hits up a home goods store and buys the best futon they’ve got.

Ryou-chan comes by and tells Jahy she’s been scammed, but that claim is undone when moments after testing out the futon, both the landlady and Jahy fall right to sleep next to each other. This is the scene that greets the manager, who is happy to see what good friends Ryou-chan and Jahy have become.

Unfortunately, the sisters came to Jahy’s to deliver a spot of bad news: the water of the apartment building has to be shut off for three days. Instead of going without a sink and toilet for that time, they invite Jahy to their apartment above the pub instead.

Jahy accepts the offer, and suddenly her living situation has been upgraded considerably. Little does she know the manager had been hoping Jahy came around her place so she could dress her up in all of Ryou-chan’s old clothes and then snap photos of her. Like Druj, the landlady wants variety in Jahy’s wardrobe.

The reason the clothes fit now is that even in her child form, Jahy has physically grown since first arriving in the human world. Jahy warns the landlady that this also means she possesses the power to destroy her at any time, but the landlady trusts that Jahy would never do that. And judging from what we’ve seen of Jahy, she’s absolutely right.

Besides, the true destruction comes shortly after the manager suggests she, Ryou-chan and Jahy put their futons together for the night. That’s when Jahy learns that despite her sweet nature while awake, the landlady is an absolute menace while asleep, flopping around like a fish and throwing vicious kicks and jabs. Ryou-chan, obviously used to this, retreats to the edge of the room, while Jahy plans to return to her apartment ASAP.

The post-credits sequence is actually the most significant part of the episode, overarching plot-wise. At first it seems to be a series of running gags where the Magnificent Saurva thinks of various ways to torture and torment Jahy, all while doing good deeds around town: picking up litter, returning a lost girl to her mom, and helping an old lady across the street.

The dissonance between Saurva’s thoughts and actions and idea of herself as the ultimate Evil Bad Guy finally comes to a head when some kind of sparkly benevolent being—who vaguely resembles the Demon Lord and may be her good counterpart—bestows power upon Saurva, and turns her black uniform white.

It’s possible Saurva accidentally became a magical girl, as she’s given the same mission: destroy the mana crystals. In addition to being an interesting twist in Saurva’s fate and potentially setting up the series’ endgame, it’s also immensely funny development to behold.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 14 – Second in Command, but Third to Food

Here it is: the epic battle between light and dark that Jahy has been looking forward to, but only recently become powerful enough to fight: a duel with the Magical Girl. As they fight, Kyouko says Jahy knows nothing about her, about the loneliness she’s felt, and her calling to erase all misfortune from humanity. But even when she disarms and bests Kyouko, this new Jahy tempered by human kindness and generosity stays her hand.

She’s not too proud to admit that she would never have collected the crystals she needed, or even survived in this strange new human world, were it not for the help and love of others, from Manager and Landlady to Kokoro and Druj. Kyouko being utterly alone in both her life and mission is the reason Jahy can defeat her, but also the reason she won’t: no one person should have to bear everything alone.

So thetwo make peace, and Kyouko embraces “Jahy-kun” as her first and only friend. Since she’s so rusty in social skills, her manner of trying to get Jahy to hang out borders on stalking and harrassment, but the promise of the all-important snacks finally wears Jahy down. That, and the fact she assumes Kyouko to be loaded and have a nice place.

She does not. Her house, while large and grand, is run down and “riddled with calamity”. Floors and ceilings crumble above and below even the tiny Jahy’s feet. It’s no surprise the house is in this state: this is where Kyouko has stored all of the crystals she’s amassed. One wonders how Druj’s employees dealt with the misfortune of handling and sotring industrial levels of crystals.

The epicenter of misfortune is the crystal storage room itself, which Kyouko warns Jahy has been haunted by a “shade” after dark of late. Jahy, spooked but determined to get to the bottom of this, opens the door to reveal…Maou, The Demon Lord. Jahy later explains that the mana crystals themselves represent the Demon Lord, and Kyouko must’ve simply collected enough to bring her back into being…albeit in lil’ squirt-sized form like Jahy herself.

Jahy is absolutely over the moon to reunite with her one and only superior, and Kyouko provides tea, snacks, juice, and eventually a huge spread of delivery delicacies for the celebration. Maou says nothing and only eats and drinks. Even when she eats everything, leaving Jahy nothing, Jahy is happy, as her lord was only just restored and needs her energy. There’s a little bit of Druj in Jahy’s demeanor towards Maou, in that Maou can do no wqrong in her eyes.

Kyouko has already stated that she harbored no ill will towards the Dark Realm itself, and regrets destroying it. Her journey as a magical girl began when she rescued a drowning kitty, only to fall into the water herself. Rather than dying, she was met by a bright light and a benevolent voice, that made her into a magical girl and gave her the mission to free humanity from misfortune by collection all the mana crystals.

I loved how beautiful and dramatic this sequence was, contrasted with Kyouko’s and the show’s usual goofiness. It strikes the right balance of helping us learn about and empathize with Kyouko’s own plight, while still maintaining that she is, and always will be…just a lot.

This means if the Dark Realm is going to be restored and stay restored, that mysterious voice must be identified and dealt with. In the meantime, while Kyouko wishes to dedicated every waking moment of her life to being by Jahy-kun’s side and assisting her, Jahy is content to simply go back to her home with Maou. Only…Maou doesn’t want to go with her.

On the contrary, she runs over to Kyuouko and hugs her instead! And why? Simple: Kyouko gave her food. Was that the secret to gaining the Demon Lord’s favor all along…just keeping her fed and happy, like a stray kitten? If so, it isn’t mana crystals Jahy needs, but cash to buy more delicious snacks. In this endeavor, it would probably be wise to join forces with Kyouko rather than try to compete.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 13 – Punching the Shark

The first half is a Jahy beach episode. Jahy is vibeing on her newly-found mana crystal and eager to find some more, but the manager and landlady insists she work at their uncle’s seaside restaurant. Every time Jahy tries to rush out into the sea to look for crystals, she’s lured back by yakisoba, ice cream, and the threat of being docked pay.

But the fact that the normally packed restaurant is almost empty, and it starts pouring when there was no rain in the forecast, and couples get in fights and lots of people end up in danger in the ocean, means that there must be mana crystals nearby, casuing all that misfortune. In the process of narrowing down exactly where they are, Jahy ends up rescuing dozens of people.

When it starts getting dark, the manager and landlady insist she give it up and come inside, but Jahy doesn’t give up, and she is rewarded in the eleventh hour with a bonanza of mana crystals. They’re small, but she harvests two big buckets worth of them, meaning she’s never been in a better position to take on the magical girl.

If she’d simply accept what must by not be several warehouses full of crystals from her underling Druj, Jahy might’ve already defeated the magical girl and restored the Dark Realm. But she’s never even considered taking Druj’s haul. Druj, who is having a bad stretch, is immediately cheered up when she spots Jahy (who is waiting for Kokoro), but is worried that living with humans has changed Jahy.

Praising her hard work, letting her sit next to her, telling her not to work too hard…this is not the Jahy Druj knows and loves, and because she’s an incurable masochist, she simply isn’t satisfied until Jahy berates or abuses her. Jahy goes just far enough to placate Druj, who goes on her merry way very much convinced Jahy-sama is the same second-in-commander who made her fill the holes she dug and threw wine in her face.

But we know better: Jahy’s insistence she’s the same is just another piece of the throne of lies she’s built around herself to save face with Druj. And I highly doubt she’ll go back to being an evil villainess after thirteen episodes of hanging with humans.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 17 – Miyama-ty Report

This episode considerably scales back the complexity of last week’s outing and focuses on the precognitive abilities of Miyama Shaei, and their role in transforming Kuroko into even more capable and efficient Judgment Officer.

He starts by predicting a girl falling into the water—Chisa, whom I believe injected an ampule of fertilizer into a tree last week. Where before Kuroko would not have learned of her predicament until after it happened and it was reported, thanks to Miyama’s prediction she can rescue Chisa seconds after she falls in.

One after the other, Miyama predicts mishaps and Kuroko is able to teleport in the nick of time to save the would-be victims. Be it a girlfriend with a knife, a falling sign, or bullies, Kuroko is on the scene and Getting Shit Done.

Like the previous arc where she lost her memories, it’s never not great to see Kuroko operating in fully bad-ass non-comic relief mode. Mikoto and Saten don’t even appear this week, but I didn’t miss them because Kuroko can carry an episode any time she wants.

With the combined help of Miyama’s ability and Uiharu’s handy hacker skillz, a pattern of incidents are predicted in a public park, and the imagery points to a raging fire, so the girls recruit their superior Konori Mii and other members of Judgment to lock the park down and prepare for anything.

Since Kuroko has been at the center of so many incidents with happy endings, the other Judgment members don’t bristle at the odd request. However, Miyama eventually reaches his physical limit and has to be hospitalized with blood cell damage from ability overuse.

While there, he dreams of how he was ostracized at school by popular girls lke Okawachi Megumi for having such a “creepy” ability. She changes her tune when he predicts she’ll fall victim to a mishap, and promises her he’ll try to prevent it. Of course, since this was well before he met Kuroko—the only person who can change the fates he sees—Okawachi is badly injured and curses the day she met him.

When he predicts the first and earliest of the incidents to occur in the park, it involves a stray dog with whom he is close, and starts to wonder if Okawachi is right—if bad things happen to people who know him like her and Perro—as a result of his ability, a chicken-and-egg dilemma that would be stressful for an adult, let alone a grade-schooler.

Night comes, and with them predicted raging fires, an extremely clever and complex sequence of events involving both the park’s vending machine (which may have a frayed power cable due to Mikoto having always zapped it) throwing a short that ignites dry leaves and grass and eventually causes Chisa’s ampules to violently detonate.

Of course, Kuroko, Uiharu, and Judgment don’t panic; they planned for this, and Kuroko is outfitted with both a HUD monocle and breathing tube for a sequence of quick teleports into and out of the fire, rescuing imperiled parkgoers each time. Again, I cannot underscore how much enjoyment I get out of Kuroko simply hunkering down and doing her job extremely well.

A panicked Miyama races to the park to try to rescue Perro on his own, but in his childishness (he is still just a kid after all) he wrongly assumed Judgment wouldn’t bother saving a random stray dog. Kuroko heads back into the inferno with Konori and her X-ray vision and eventually find the dog, a bit limpy but none the worse for wear. Miyama can’t help but blush and tear up, and Kuroko tells him its okay.

Later, we learn that Miyama has arranged for Okawachi to adopt Perro, and that she’s ready to apologize for how she treated him. In a chat with Kuroko, he worries his predictions will only involve those close to him, but she doubts that will be the case, since he’s like her: devoted to peace and justice for all.

She also believes that in time his power will grow to the point he can use it more often without risking his health. And when he does, she’ll be ready and willing to receive more intel so she can do some more rescuing. I love how Kuroko faces away from him to hide her blushing, no doubt a bit embarrassed she shares the same values as a little kid, while also casually mentioning a certain “champion of justice” she looks up to.

The big question last week was if and how the shared dream fad and Miyama’s mishap prediction plot would connect, and the answer comes in a very small detail at the very end: those ridiculously hazardous nutrient ampules that Chisa used? They were meant to allow the cherry blossoms to bloom year-round.

Chisa and her friends got idea to use the ampules…in a shared dream. With the additional brief mention of a “mass unconsciousness outbreak” this week, is it possible Chisa was unknowingly directed to plant explosives, or was it an innocent accident? Considering the potential for abuse of the shared dream system and the large number of troublemakers populating Academy City, I’m not ruling anything out.

Ushio to Tora – 05

It was only a matter of time before one of the characters from the OP we haven’t seen yet comes out of the woodwork, drawn out by Ushio and Tora’s very highly-televised appearance a couple weeks back, the fallout for which I’d been waiting for. This new character, Hyou the Exorcist, is probably the most interesting “monster”-of-the-week thus far, because he’s not merely pure evil, nor does he immediately target Ushio’s girlfriends. He’s a breath of horribly-scarred fresh air.

Hyou gave up his name and his old life after his family, most of that life, was viciously murdered by a demon, so he trained his mind and body towards avenging them. Hyou could only have gotten the slightest glimpse of the demon in the dark that tragic night years ago (with his one non-blood-filled eye), but the fuzzy image on the TV is enough to convince him that Tora is the culprit.

When he comes to Japan to kill Tora, he inevitably meets Ushio, whom he trusts is not his enemy because he wields the Beast Spear. That being said, Ushio is immediately conflicted by the situation before him. He can either tell Hyou the truth—Tora has been locked in a cellar for 500 years and couldn’t possibly have killed his wife and daughter—or simply let Hyou kill him, so he doesn’t have to do it.

Ushio decides on the latter, and Hyou begins to battle Tora fiercely while Ushio…washes dishes, not at all confident that the choice he made was the right one. At school the next day the girls immediately pick up on his quandary and the fact he’s not acting like himself. Mayuko imagining an imminent shouting match that doesn’t pan out is a nice way of showing how off he is.

Asako, showing how deep and strong their friendship goes, isn’t about to let him be. While Hyou is a great new introduction and his history is a sad one, but it’s the deepening of Asako’s character, who might feign dislike for Ushio most days but won’t hesitate to leap out and try to pull him out of his funk, that forms the emotional heart of the episode.

That heart is fully bared as Asako follows Ushio home at sundown, keeping her distance at first, then rushing and attacking him, hoping he’ll lash out and snap out of whatever is going on with him. Ushio isn’t about to hit her, funk or no, but Asako’s passion, concern, love, and physical blows do shift Ushio from his stasis, and inspire him to right the wrong he made. Komatsu Mikako really pulls out all of the stops for the multi-dimensional Asako.

Meanwhile, Hyou has been battling Tora for two days and two nights, and he’s on the brink of victory, which he believes will quell his boiling rage and give him peace. And it would have, had Ushio kept his mouth shut. But that ain’t how Ushio works. If it’s within his power to correct an injustice, he must act, much like the Road Runner must run on the road.

Tora may be an evil jackass sometimes, but he didn’t kill Hyou’s family, and killing him, or rather killing Ushio, who decides to protect him, will make Hyou a murderer, not an avenger. And that isn’t even the only reason Ushio is doing this. Not only did Tora save his life (and the lives of his friends), but if anyone is going to ultimately defeat Tora, it has to be Ushio. Just as Tora fights off others to preserve his prey for himself, Ushio fights off Hyou to preserve his.

In keeping with shonen-style romances, Ushio doesn’t thank Asako face-to-face (meaning no blushing or near-kissing; though it’s a long show; who knows what the future holds). Instead, he thanks her by delivering a gigantic beauty of a watermelon that puts a big smile on Asako’s face, not just because she knows Ushio is feeling better and got over whatever was bothering him, but because she was the one able to help him out.

Ushio likely didn’t want to freak Asako out by appearing before her anyway, as his face is a swollen, scarred mess and he’s recovering from multiple stab wounds at home, all the marks of defending Tora. Tora performs his usual stalking maneuvers over the snoring Ushio (calling to mind Hobbes’ pouncing routine), but seeing those marks stays his paw, as does remembering how good Mayuko’s cheeseburgers tasted.

Ushio to Tora – 04

Ushio to Tora continues its run of Very Good-ness serving up meaty portions of unsettling supernatural baddies-of-the-week, the gradual forging of something resembling a friendship between the titular characters, and exciting action with high stakes laced with hearty comedy.

There’s something both frightening and funny about the giant floating heads called the Gamin-sama, not to mention the fact they’re released by the greed of developers for whom there are no sacred cows. Frightening because they tear humans to pieces like wild dogs; funny because, well, they’re giant floating heads with extremely expressive faces and voices.

They’re out for the blood, flesh, and bones of the beautiful shamaness Hizaki Mikado, who sealed them in the Meiji era, according to an old man who pleaded with the construction teams not to lift up the “keystone” that kept the demons sealed. When Ushio gets a look at Hizaki, he finds she bears more than a slight resemblance to his old friend Inoue Mayuko.

Mayuko just happens to be on a shopping trip into the city on her own, which was a situation that immediately spelled dread. But her doomed trip crosses with Tora’s own excursion into the city, for the first time, where he’s flummoxed by glittery skyscrapers, annoying cars, and those magical transparent barriers known as windows. It’s a great fish-out-of-water situation for a youkai out of his time.

Best of all, Tora is in town to eat someone, so he’ll have the strength to kill Ushio once and for all. But the smells of perfume and hair products and the presence of “anti-youkai trinkets” (i.e., accessories) on their bodies nearly puts him off his lunch…until he finds the soft, clean, nice-smelling Mayuko (who conveniently told Asako she’s not one for accessories).

Not only is it clever to make Ushio target the same food as the giant heads, thus bringing them together in conflict, but Ushio chooses her specifically because she’s a more traditional human that looks and smells like the humans he’s used to. Kinda like Hizaki Mikado, whom the heads mistake her for (we’ll see if in turns out they’re actually related).

Regardless, Mayuko puts up a pretty good fight, in that she’s able to successfully run away and evade the Gamin (and her death) for a good long time; she’s partly fueled by primal fear, sure (who wouldn’t be) but there’s a toughness to her refusal to be glomped up, not to mention put bystanders in harm’s way. That buys enough time for Ushio and Tora to show up and save her; Ushio because she’s a dear friend; Tora because he won’t let these moronic heads eat his food; the same reason he won’t let anyone else kill Ushio.

It’s selfish altruism, but it’s altruism, and Tora is making more an more exceptions to his evil youkai ways and doing ever more semantic gymnastics to explain away what are, essentially, good deeds that make him more than just a monster and Ushio and Mayuko more than just dinner.

Once the five heads are squished, sliced, and speared into oblivion, Mayuko gets up, dusts herself off, and, realizing Ushio told her who Tora was, offers a cheeseburger in gratitude for his help. And it’s perhaps the most proportionally amazing feat anyone pulled off this week that despite everything she went through, she managed to hang on to those burgers!