Wagaya no Oinari-sama. – 22

「お稲荷さま。パーティーにのりこむ」 (Oinari-sama. Paatii ni Norikomu)
“Oinari-sama. Joins the Party”

Episode at a Glance:
At school, Tooru runs into his friend, Pakerata, who has been away for a while on sick leave. Upon asking him about the grey werewolf rumor that’s been going around, Tooru learns that Pakerata doesn’t know anything about it and has been bedridden with a fever and two bite-like marks on his neck, similar to his older brother Midori. After badminton practice, Noboru runs into a strange floating white fish. Having recklessly entered Kou’s protective jutsu around Noboru, the fish then introduces himself as Kiyomaro, a servant of Miyabe Juuzou, the current head of the Miyabe family and Momiji’s father. On behalf of Juuzou, he thanks Noboru for taking care of Momoji all this time and asks a favour from the head of the Mizuchis.

Later that night, Noboru arrives at Momiji’s Christmas party, but is suddenly pinned down by the others there. Baring her fangs, Momiji tells Noboru that she’ll probably get stronger if she drinks his brother’s first-rate blood. For now though, she decides to make Noboru her servant, but the lights suddenly go out and Kuugen rings the doorbell, looking for Noboru. Hearing this, Momiji challenges her to come get him, after which she orders her servants to take out the intruder. Transformed into werewolves, several of the servants ambush Kuugen when she arrives at the elevator, only to realize that it’s a fake. Kuugen then busts through the window and surprises everyone that the Noboru there is a fake as well. With everyone transformed into werewolves now, Momiji questions Kuugen what she’ll do now, so she tells her that numbers aren’t an issue, reveals a handful of syringes, and vaccinates everyone in the room, reverting them to their human forms. Shocked to see that she has vaccines, Momiji decides to take things into her own hands; however, Noboru arrives telling everyone to wait.

Noboru then recalls how Kiyomaro explained that the recent grey werewolves are created by Momiji’s newly acquired transformation abilities (on her sixteenth birthday), how the infection is only temporary if the host isn’t suited, and how he asked him to get Kuugen to help stop her, before Kou came by and knocked him out from behind. With Kuugen looking on, Kiyomaro was also repelled. Back in the present, Noboru asks to speak with Momiji and Kiyomaro surprises her with his presence, who then asks her to stop what she’s doing because her father’s worried about her. Angered that her father didn’t come see her himself, Momiji transforms into a golden werewolf, so Kuugen cools her down with a water jutsu and injects her with a vaccine to revert her back to her human form as well. While Kiyomaro is busy covering Noboru’s eyes, Bekira arrives and unexpectedly defends Momiji, whose family are supporters of the Hokangakari. Kuugen is surprised to see this when Bekira had asked her for help to begin with, but she offers some insider information as a form of gratitude.

While unable to seal or dispose of a Miyabe, Bekira adds that punishment isn’t out of the question, which Kuugen isn’t happy about since Momiji was after Tooru’s blood. Noboru steps in though and correctly suspects that Momiji was simply trying to draw her father‘s attention and make him come to see her. Seeing as he didn’t come, Momiji feels that he doesn’t care about her, but Noboru claims that if that were the case, he would’ve left her alone rather than sending Kiyomaro, who reaffirms that her father’s always thinking about her despite how busy he is. With Momiji relieved by this revelation, Kuugen comments on how Noboru was able to understand her feelings on their way out. Bekira then tells them the insider information—Byakki is sleeping calmly. As Noboru heads home with Kuugen, he decides to buy some cake to celebrate Christmas, a day Kuugen has no idea about. At home, Kou offers to clean Noboru’s ears again having practiced on herself, making Haruki feel that his son’s going to have woman troubles this year. At school later on, Momiji declares to Misaki that she likes Noboru too and says they’ll have to let him decide who he likes better.

Next Episode:
「お稲荷さま。だいえっとする」 (Oinari-sama. Daietto Suru)
“Oinari-sama. Goes on a Diet”

Impressions:
First off, those are some damn nice-looking dresses Momiji and Kuugen were in this episode. Noboru sure is one lucky guy to get to witness Momiji taking off her coat and eventually reverting back to her human form in the nude, plus be protected by a female kitsune that looks this good while doing it. Now that Momiji has officially declared to Misaki that she likes Noboru, that’s one more girl to add to his mini-harem too. Given how Noboru is financially responsible and knows how to show some reservation though, I find all his interactions with the four girls a lot more entertaining than a typical perverted male lead, which is a big plus for a series that never intended to fill the harem genre in the first place. With a wolf, a fox, a protective maiden, and a regular school girl, it almost sounds like we have the makings of another Kanokon, except here it’s done with a lot more class.

In short, I enjoyed this episode a fair bit since it focused on Momiji, whose desire to be with her father more caused her to cause this ruckus to begin with. Noboru sure has won her over now after being able to pick up on exactly how she’s been feeling, so I look forward to seeing the love triangle at school thicken. It was also nice to hear that Byakki is doing well and see Kou freak the hell out of Noboru yet again by volunteering to clean his ears. With this arc concluded, next week looks to be a humorous one with everyone going on a diet. While the preview never really indicates what’s to come anymore, it still was funny seeing the overweight versions of Misaki, Kuugen, and Kou.

Tidbit: Takagaki Ayahi had a small role this episode as Tooru’s friend, Hashimoto Shunta (a.k.a. Pakerata).

Cast:
– Tenko Kuugen (天狐 空幻) / Yukana (ゆかな)
– Kou (コウ) / Hayami Saori (早見 沙織)
– Takagami Noboru (高上 昇) / Mizushima Takahiro (水島 大宙)
– Takagami Tooru (高上 透) / Shimura Yuu (嶋村 侑)
– Sakura Misaki (佐倉 美咲) / Kano Yui (鹿野 優以)
– Miyabe Momiji (宮部 紅葉) / Itou Shizuka (伊藤 静)
– Takagami Haruki (高上 春樹) / Miyamoto Mitsuru (宮本 充)
– Bekira (汨羅) / Asano Masumi (浅野 真澄)
– Kiyomaro (清麻呂) / Tatsuta Naoki (龍田 直樹)
– Hashimoto Shunta (橋本 春太) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Fujii Keisuke (藤井 啓輔)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Kushida Yasumichi (櫛田 泰道)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Anzai Ryuuta (安斎 龍太)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Nakano Kouki (中野 光貴)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Ishikawa Ayano (石川 綾乃)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Nagai Takanori (永井 孝則)
– Werewolf (狼人間) / Honda Mariko (本多 真梨子)