「望み」 (Nozomi)
“Wish”

After making plans with Yuuno, Shinkurou makes a lengthy trip over to her place on Sunday and takes Murasaki along with him. Unbeknownst to them, Yayoi has come along to keep an eye out for Murasaki. On the train, Murasaki is a bit worried that Shinkurou might be taking her to the Kuhouin household, but he reassures her that he’s not since he doesn’t even know where it is. On a bus shortly after, she also says she’s scared of Yuuno since she knows about the Kuhouins, so Shinkurou reassures her again, saying how kind Yuuno is.

After the bus ride, Shinkurou and Murasaki arrive at the Houzuki household, where they run into Yuuno’s 5 year old sister, Chizuru. After Murasaki’s short interrogation of Chizuru, Yuuno arrives and Shinkurou suggests that they head off to the dojo. Murasaki wants to come along to see this “training”, but Shinkurou doesn’t let her, so she hangs out with Chizuru instead. (Murasaki thought that they’re going to do some ecchi training, after Shinkurou said it’s not something for kids to see.)

In Chizuru’s room, Murasaki starts playing with a Nintendo DS until she breaks it, while Shinkurou gets worked by Yuuno in the dojo. After breaking Chizuru’s doll too, Murasaki heads off to look for Shinkurou just as he and Yuuno are finishing up. Yuuno’s grandfather, Houzuki Housen, then speaks with Shinkurou about his jobs with Benika and how the Houzuki family has already killed countless people. In particular, he mentions how Yuuno and Chizuru are going to get pulled into this and wonders what Yuuno’s like as a normal girl at school.

Elsewhere, Murasaki has fallen asleep, so Shinkurou carries her home. As they leave, Housen tells Shinkurou to come by whenever since this is also his home, and Yuuno decides to walk them to the train station. Later that evening, Shinkurou and Murasaki are grocery shopping and Murasaki manages to get Shinkurou to agree to buy her a DS, despite how expensive he thinks it is. The two of them then talk about what they should eat (with Murasaki surprising Shinkurou with how knowledgeable she is about saba no miso ni (鯖の味噌煮), “simmered mackerel in miso“) before heading home.

Back at their apartment, Shinkurou suspects that someone’s in his room and finds that Tamaki and Yamie have made themselves at home to eat yudoufu (湯豆腐), “boiled tofu”. After watching Shinkurou get teased to no end and lose a week’s worth of food, Murasaki realizes how fun Sundays are. Meanwhile, Yayoi is starving outside and freezing to death.

 

Next Episode:
「貴方の頭上に光が輝くでしょう」 (Anata no Zujou ni Hikari ga Kagayaku Deshou)
“A Light Probably Shines Over Your Head”

First off, minor oversight on my part regarding Shinkurou’s “technique” shown last episode. I’ve added the extra tidbits of information to my previous post, which involves some discussion about how it uses his bone(s). Next off, a word of warning to everyone playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on their Nintendo DS: Don’t be like Murasaki and get frustrated to the point where this happens. I know when we get into games, we think pressing buttons harder (or in the case of a DS, tapping the screen harder) makes a difference, but it never does. =)

From the onset of this episode, it seems like Shinkurou still hasn’t quite recovered from using his “technique”. In that regard, I found it interesting how he told Yuuno that this techinique isn’t true strength and that true strength comes from the heart. Speaking of Yuuno, I was surprised at how ridiculously strong she is. I mean, it looked like Shinkurou was going to get killed while they were “practicing“. In hindsight, it was probably more of a “beating” than practice for Shinkurou, although he did land some blows on Yuuno near the end. As for the background of the Houzukis, there were some hints from what Yuuno and her grandfather said, which I found intriguing. Based on what they said, it seems that the Houzukis used to get involved with killing people for some reason or another. Because of this, Yuuno thinks she’s already tainted/stained. Shinkurou tells her to stop thinking that way, but Yuuno says she won’t. While I’m not surprised that they killed people given their ability to do so, I’m quite interested to know what the history, both past and present, of the Houzukis is.

Other than that, there was also a fair bit of subtle comedy from Murasaki based on what she learned from watching TV, and near the end of this episode when Tamaki and Yamie made themselves at home in Shinkurou’s room to eat yudoufu (湯豆腐), i.e. boiled tofu. Semi-drunk, Tamaki kept bugging Shinkurou about what kind of “recuperation” and “practice” he was getting at Yuuno’s place, with all types of sexual connotations. Yamie on the other hand kept bugging him with comments about being poor, to which Shinkurou simply replied that it’s because he is poor, but she wouldn’t have any of that nonsense talk. =) I actually felt kind of bad for Shinkurou when they took one week’s worth of his food (which is more like rations with the way he eats it) and put it all into the nabe at once. It looks like poor Shinkurou’s going to starve for the rest of the week.

While nothing major happened this episode (e.g. no Benika), the introduction of Yuuno’s younger sister Chizuru and the “sparring” (if you can call it that) between Yuuno and Shinkurou made it all worthwhile. Production-wise, distant face shots improved (much to my relief) and some of the scenic shots were drawn pretty nicely. Based on the preview for the next episode, it appears that Ginko is gazing off into an empty park with a somewhat troubled expression, and Yamie runs into Yayoi, much to her surprise.

 

Cast:
– Kurenai Shinkurou (紅真 九郎) / Sawashiro Miyuki (沢城 みゆき)
– Kuhouin Murasaki (九鳳 院紫) / Yuuki Aoi (悠木 碧)
– Inuzuka Yayoi (犬塚 弥生) / Ookubo Aiko (大久保 藍子)
– Houzuki Yuuno (崩月 夕乃) / Shintani Ryouko (新谷 良子)
– Mutou Tamaki (武藤 環) / Sanada Asami (真田 アサミ)
– Yamie (闇絵) / Kimura Haruka (木村 はるか)
– Houzuki Housen (崩月 法泉) / Takkou Ishimori (石森 達幸)
– Houzuki Chizuru (崩月 散鶴) / Imagawa Reina (今川 怜奈)
– Passenger 1 (乗客1) / Takatori Masafumi (髙取 昌史)
– Passenger 2 (乗客2) / Ogasawara Yuuki (小笠原 裕樹)
– Preview narration (予告ナレーション) / Muramatsu Ken (村松 健)

18 Comments

  1. It might just be me, but has anyone else noticed a bit of drop in quality of the animation? Ex: Sparring scene and the shading (or lack thereof) on Shinkurou when he’s wearing his blue hoodie? It was really noticeable in the first bit of this episode but it quickly caught right back up in the end? Iono :s

    Mido
  2. In the manga…Yuuno wears more like a copy of a miko style uniform which…with her beauty was like….heaven. However, I do feel sad for Yuuno though to say that she is tainted- I now understand why she has an attachment to Shinkurou other than the fact that he sorta grew up in their household- he is the only other than a Houzuki that has experience their lifestyle. Also the fact that he is around her age and that he is a male.

    Bakanekokun
  3. Well, the original series are light novels. Although i have also read the manga adaptation as well. So far, i liked the manga better than the anime. I mean it seemed more funny and entertaining. I was expecting a lot from the anime but this episode seemed to be quite boring. Hopefully it turns out better by the time.

    banzemanga
  4. if you think yuuno is strong here she went overkill on him in the manga so much so that she told him they should stop cause he would get injured further……later on we find him covered with bruises and sores

    asian182
  5. I’m not sure who I like more at this point, Ginko or Yuuno. It’s win either way imo. And I’m hopping Ginko stops with the subtle hints and gets more direct like Yuuno has in the future.

    GP
  6. OMG….. Chi-Chan (Chizuru) is adorable.

    A friend who reads the novel told me that there’s a possibility that Shinkurou has always ‘held back’ when sparring with Yuuno. Whether it’s true or not, I dunno. Also, Shinkurou has a special ‘title’ given to him by the Houzuki house… something like ‘young demon’ which should mean that he’s pretty bad-ass (although nowhere near Golgo, IMO)

    Lithium17
  7. @Lithinum17

    It’s good to get those tidbits from the light novels. I’m told from a friend that the anime follows the light novels more than the manga version does.

    I’d like to read them but I can’t read moonspeak 😛 If they get translated it’d be nice.

    I’m still rooting for Ginko at this point, though I like Yuuno also. I guess it’s the underdog support side of me poping up.

    GP
  8. @GP

    I don’t think this series is will actually end with him hooking up with any of the girls…. it’s not a harem type anime, although some viewers seem to think that.

    I’ve not read the novel either, but in terms of actual timeline with regards to anime and manga, my prediction is the anime will end where the manga starts, with maybe a few overlapping bits.

    Well…. it’s all speculation on my part, so take it with a pinch of salt.

    Lithium17
  9. So what’s with Shinkurou being poor? It seems like he would be payed more for the type of work he does. If it were me, I wouldn’t go up and say ‘hi’ to the mob for cheap. And he’s protecting the ojou-san of a rich family now…so he should be getting payed a lot of money.
    Well, whatever. I guess they want to leave the poverty thing as a running joke.

    Waffo
  10. @Lithium17

    I know it’s not a harem type anime, but the romantic bits between him and the girls are there and very interesting. The fact that they’re secondary to the story is what stops this from being like any other harem show.

    Still, they are there, so who knows how it’ll go, the light novels aren’t done I think? So we don’t know how the story will end or how the anime will go.

    GP

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