Subculture Anime Blog

Ayane is sitting outside of her house having some snacks. However, upon looking at the dish, she finds a note from her sister warning her not to eat them. Of course this puts her into shock.

Ikuto and Suzu are carrying things up some very long steps to a temple. When they get to the top, Suzu goes to bring in the turnips, and Maki surprises Ikuto by landing on top of him. She mentions that she has been looking for her sister, as Suzu returns telling Ikuto how Ayane and Maki are related. Suzu asks Maki where her mother is, and after she tells Suzu that she has been making daifuku, Suzu gets hearts in her eyes at the thought of the delicious daifuku. Maki offers to give Suzu some of her mother’s daifuku if she helps to find Ayane, and Suzu quickly agrees.

While Suzu sets up a trap, Ikuto mentions that he doesn’t think such a simple thing would work. Suzu assures him that it will, and jumps on top of some rocks, yelling that Ayane’s breasts are small. Sure enough, Ayane comes dashing from very far away to Suzu, very angry. When Ayane sees Ikuto, she happily greets him, but Suzu walks toward her with a sack. Ayane already suspects her sister, and Suzu confirms that she wants to catch her for the daifuku. Ayane activates Suzu’s trap, but before the net captures her, she calls for Monjiro who picks her up along with Ikuto.

While they ride on top of Monjiro, Ikuto suggests that Ayane should just apologize to Maki for whatever she did. Ayane replies by saying he doesn’t know Maki’s truly evil nature. Suzu appears before them in the road, but Ayane offers her a deal where she would give her three times as much daifuku than her sister if she switched sides. Ikuto doesn’t think Suzu would simply agree to something like that, but is surprised when she does right away. Suzu goes off to search, while Ayane takes Ikuto with her to ask the villagers about her sister.

They go to Rin first. After asking about Maki’s weakness, she replies that she didn’t like the Ushigaeru in the South Swamp. Ayane dashes to find this, while Rin remembers that the Ushigaeru is very dangerous. Maki returns with the Ushigaeru who is trying to eat her.

Next they go to Chikage and Yukinari. Yukinari replies first that she doesn’t know, then gets angry after Ayane calls her a child. Chikage says she doesn’t know, but she once played a prank on her and she wasn’t amused. Ayane realizes that Maki likes to play pranks of people to see their reactions. However, upon remembering the time she tried to change her reaction to Maki’s pranks, she realizes that it only made Maki want to do it more.

At the end of the day, they stop at the water well. Ayane is very disappointed that she couldn’t find her sister’s weakness, but she still doesn’t want to give up and apologize. Suzu shows up saying she found Maki’s weakness. She tells them that if she was pierced in the heart she would die. Ayane realizes that anyone would die from that, so Suzu didn’t help much either. Maki is there too, getting ready to sneak up on Ayane, but stops when Ayane starts yelling that she is an old hag and a middle aged woman. Suzu points out that Maki has has been listening behind her, so Ayane calls Suzu a traitor. Suzu tells her that she thought it would be better if they hurried and made up. Besides that, Maki offered her a lot more daifuku. Maki is still in shock from being called a middle aged woman, and Ayane starts claiming victory for finding her weakness. However, Maki starts chanting and summons a monster to attack Ayane.

On another day, Suzu and Ikuto are carrying logs along a high path. Ikuto tells her to be careful and Suzu replies that she is ok, but she loses her footing and falls down the side. Ikuto hurries down to her asking if she is ok. Suzu replies that she is fine, besides maybe her hurt butt. Ikuto mentions that there was rain yesterday so it wasn’t too surprising that it could happen. He finds it ironic that she would fall after being told to be careful. Suzu sees that Ikuto is making fun of her, but he apologizes and helps her up. However, Suzu thinks that she felt like she hit something. They turn to see a broken statue. Suzu panics when she realizes that she broke Ojizou-san. She tells Ikuto that it isn’t a normal Ojizou-san, sealing a monster a long time ago. Ikuto thinks it will be fine if he just puts it back together, although he does a really crappy job of it.

After they return home, Suzu wonders if Ikuto isn’t afraid of ghosts. He replies that since he has never seen any he couldn’t be afraid of them. However, Suzu screams in fear after seeing a ghost looking in the doorway behind him.

The next day at the water well, the rest of the girls tell Ikuto that they believe in the same curse Suzu does. Ikuto explains to them that those stories were made by adults to keep children from breaking rules. Ayane pokes some fun at Suzu who is clinging onto Ikuto in a blanket. However, after a bit more teasing, Suzu snaps and throws Ayane into the distance.

Suzu is still acting very afraid when they return home at night to eat. Ikuto asks Suzu why she is so afraid of ghosts. She explains to him that although she had gotten used to being alone in dark places as a child, when she heard scary stories she would become afraid again. In addition to that, she would become sad from remembering that her mother, who is no longer there, would comfort her when she was scared. Ikuto comforts Suzu by telling her that, although he cannot replace her mother, he is there for her. Outside, Ayane who was planning on playing another prank on Suzu, decides that she would give up on it after hearing this. However, when she turns around she lets out a scream after seeing the ghost.

Ikuto rushes out to find Ayane who’s face is full of fear. After Suzu lets out a scream, he goes back inside to find the ghost behind Suzu. Ayane prepares to exercise it, but she is defeated easily. The ghost goes to attack Ikuto, but he gives it an uppercut. Suzu wonders if Ikuto isn’t afraid, but he replies that he isn’t because he doesn’t believe in ghosts despite the fact that there is one right in front of him. Ikuto lectures the ghost, realizing that it was just playing pranks because it was lonely. He ends up being friends with the ghost, seeing it off in the morning. Despite Ikuto’s calm demeanor, Suzu and Ayane are still afraid. Since he doesn’t believe in ghosts, Ikuto suggests that it could have been a white bear, as they all decide to finally get some sleep.

Impression:

So this episode wasn’t the Maki episode I was expecting, being another Suzu and Ayane centered episode. I should have guessed they would have taken such a fan service filled part out. They also completely removed Maki and Ayane’s mother from the first part, with Ikuto finding out their relationship through Suzu. This episode was still very fun, and had great animation. I kind of expected that they would start doing the two stories in one episode thing, looking at the material they have in the manga. I personally liked the second half with the ghost more then the first part. It would have been funnier if they didn’t take the original parts out. Since they’ve started shifting the sequencing around, which is common for manga to anime series, I don’t know what to expect next episode. I’m sure this show will not disappoint though!