「夷川早雲の暗躍」 (Ebisugawa Sōun no An’yaku)
“Behind the Scenes of Ebisugawa Sōun”

Yajirou is going to repent himself by saving the day, specifically by gathering everyone and transforming into a train to get everyone where they need to be on time. Calling it right now.

With that aside: NOOOO! How could you do this, stupid Ebisugawas. To betray your own kind for the sake of politics, to lock up your own daughter for the sake of a title that no one really cares about anymore? This is true idiocy at its peak, but boy is it getting me excited for the next few episodes to roll around!

The real meat of discussion this episode lands squarely with the apprehension of Souichirou by his own brother assisted by Benten. Okay, so I was wrong that Benten was unaware that she was turning in Yasaburou’s father, which then makes this moral dilemma all the more complicated. While Soun may be hiding a fact that’s making him easier to sympathize with (because stealing a girl away from you is not justification for killing off your brother), so far I’m more perplexed as to why Benten chose to ally herself with Soun to purposefully affect Yasaburou. She could have chosen Soun to be cooked if she so wished to, or even any other tanuki for that matter. Thus, the answer is…why. I hope that we can find an empathetic reason as to why she’s acted like this, because right now the show is painting her as a monster who’s destroying a family twice for the benefit of a morally challenged tanuki. Is it for revenge? Is it because she feels so guilty about the past that she can no longer act in goodwill? I want answers now, and I can’t wait for next week’s train to run over everyone who deserves it!

This climax to the plot does excite me though, as it hints at the final masks of this show finally ready to fall off. It was a pleasure to finally put a face to Kaisei, but now it’s purely exciting to see the true background of Benten as well as the eventual triumph over the bad side of the Ebisugawa family. Uchouten Kazoku hasn’t had many climatic events, instead opting for a casual development of the story at hand, but I welcome the end-of-season conflict that gets my human blood boiling. The show has done a wonderful job slowly unfolding each character and making sense of their place in the plot, but now it is time to accumulate all those developments into the answers we have been searching for all season. Come on P.A., I believe you can push out a great story to the very end!

 

Preview

43 Comments

  1. Nominating this show for best of the season so far. If they can pull off the conclusion, then it might just make my best of the year. There’s just something about it that makes it tick, and when I was deciding what shows to watch this season, never would I have thought that Uchouten would be this good.

    1. Partly agree, the show definitely has the promise to be best of the season as well as year. But that promise has been there since its announcement. Having the same author as The Tatami Galaxy and a studio such as P.A. Works is just a formula for a rewarding experience.

  2. FUKKEN BENTEN!!!! The rage!! I should have watched this show when it was completed, I thought I had learned that lesson. Benten is beyond redemption for me, cry all you want, you’re a monster.

    Sirius
    1. That’s a bit of a stretch. He’s definitely in the preview, but to say that he’s alive, and that it isn’t a flashback is a bit of a stretch. I wouldn’t spoil that in an effing preview. If I was in charge of the next episode, and it involved an exposure of the betrayal, I’d think it would be pretty natural to have another flashback.

      Also, he found peace and accepted his death in a noble way. I can’t imagine the meeting with the professor and all that talk about final farewells being all for nothing.

      Then again, I’m not in charge. And this anime is awesome and keeps me guessing most of the time.

      Stöt
  3. I’m not saying I agree with Soun’s actions, but I can understand:
    -Girl gets stolen by his own brother
    -Losing the Nise-emon election/pride
    -Forced to marry into the Ebisugawa family (probably most damaging one)

    In the end I think Souichirou wanted to repent for those things as I still think he’s had some opportunities to escape the cage before ending in the hotpot.

    Benten however, is a whole another story. There must be some huge benefits in joining the Kinyou club for her to go as far as that.

    Poor Kaisei, experiencing the whole ordeal hidden as the wooden accessory. Maybe that’s why she finds it so hard to face Yasaburou…

    ^^0nMe
    1. Really nice explanations for Soun’s actions. It is good to always see both sides of the coin.

      I think that the reasons for Benten actions are simply human nature. I remember Benten telling Yaichiro that he cannot simply understand her since he is just a tanuki. And i also remember she saying that even thought she was Benten, she was also human.

      So what does human nature has to do with this? Well she wanted more human political power and fame. After all, you can see her enjoying all the fame she has. But i have to say that she got her new attitude from her teacher the tengu. After all, she was simply a plain countryside girl before being in contact with supernatural phenomena.

      banzemanga
    2. None of those justify Soun’s actions, though. It’s clear that Soun has a lot of pent-up frustrations for his clearly more successful older brother, but that Soun channeled those emotions for such a despicable act just hammers in that this tanuki is beyond redemption. Really, if not for Souichiro being a genuine nice-guy (pending next episode because of that preview), Soun’s ploy never would have worked.

      There never was a reason for Souichiro to repent, yet still he felt obligated to grant Soun whatever measure of happiness he could give– even if it means forfeiting his life.

      And that still wasn’t enough for Ebisugawa Soun, no…

      Beedle
  4. I think that maybe Benten want yasaburou to hate her by eating his father , if Yasaburou hate her ,she can justify herself an evil and stop loving yasaburou , but seriously Benten,you are such a bitch

    PeTdo
  5. Actually, after reading the novel, Benten came out as a very flat character. Almost a plot device with no other purpose than helping things to fall into place.

    Her backstory/motivations hopefully/probably would come out in sequel novels.

    hoh
  6. oh my seeing recent drama on last few eps & now this all my it’s a was all a conspiracy Coup d’état!!!

    so give soichiro’s brother had his own older brother to get cooked in hot pot as offer for ben10 with kaisei hearing it all.

    then forward to now with help from his smug twins sons do a divive & conquer on soichiro’s family.

    to have oldest get caught, mother got fear of thunder to have her taken somewhere, youngest got lock in a storage area, leave frog brother alone cause still on blame game for father, & now going to catch yasaburo.

    yea it’s a total takeover in the making.

    dowcraw
  7. Jeez, this is an emotional rollercoaster. Quite a difference from the easygoing nature of the earlier part of the show, but still a well-executed one.

    Personally I have no sympathy whatsoever for Soun and his shitcake family. He may have had his underlying reasons, but in the end he is just an entitled gloryhog who looks down on everyone around him, and he doesnt seem to have much in the way of a conscience. His sons are just as bad, and all of them have crossed the Moral Event Horizon as far as I’m concerned. Poor Kaisei, knowing your dad is a unrepentant murderer can’t be easy on her. Benten, on the other hand, does seem to be regretful a little bit (given by what Yajirou said) though she still seems to be as ruthless as always. Makes me wonder what she’s up to now.

    And yeah, Yajirou will probably save the day, as per the nature of Soun’s family of smug snakes, they’re overconfident and think he’s harmless. I’m looking forward to it. It shall be glorious.

    Dvalinn
    1. The only defense I will give Benten is that she does not seem happy. Her crying at the well for example. Her unhappiness does not excuse what she did and I think she understands what she has done is inexcusable. Soun deserves the fate of a lobster (boiled alive).

  8. Hate to say it – oh, who am I kidding, I don’t hate it at all – but I called pretty much all of this last week!

    Even as little as this all surprised me, it still cuts deep to see that Benten is truly the femme fatale she appeared to be. There’s no redeeming her in my eyes – what she did to Souichirou – and why – can never be redeemed, no matter how many tears she sheds about it at Yajirou’s well and even if she turns her coat now and helps the Shimogamos.

    I agree, I think Yajirou is going to be key to the counterattack. One positive from all this is that he was not at fault – not only was his father’s drunkenness not an issue, but in fact Souichirou himself said he “doesn’t get dead drunk”. I think this will be the key to restore his ability to transform – though the question is, how will the information get to him?

    1. Either Yasoburou escapes and gets to Yajirou or Kaisei does (she’s a smart girl and her brother’s are poster children for idiocy). And the Yajirou train rescue is sooo Chekhov’s Gun, but in a good way.

    2. You can cry only so many tears . . . you can say “I’m sorry” only so many times before they lose their meaning. Words are shadows that are easily forgotten once actions shine as a light upon them. I, too, thought that she would be somewhat redeemable given the proper revelations, but no more. I was fooled by her appearance and her manners. Benten is beyond hope of forgiveness. For her to knowingly take part in these schemes makes her a monster in my eyes.

      I thought I knew that one of the family would be nabbed, but to offer up the entire family, to wipe it out completely without a second thought . . . that’s just evil.

      Flaiboy
  9. Benten is Show Spoiler ▼

    Spoilers
  10. It’s hardly surprising the Ebisugawas were responsible for capturing Souichiro and eating him. They been portrayed as the antagonists throughout this show as clear as day! It didn’t make those moments any less tense. I really have no idea how this short series is going to end.

    starss
    1. He’s a frog because he feels he failed his father and his family. His subconscious won’t let him change (much as his father couldn’t when in the presence of Benten). He’s depressed and perceives himself as worthless (he’s said it a number of times). So that’s why he stays a frog. With his family in danger that could change and he’ll step up to save them once he knows the truth. Maybe even Kaisei could admit that she loves him and that will do the trick. The marriage contract to Yasaburou was voided so there’s nothing standing in their way.

  11. I should have caught that there was a reason why Kaisei could not face Yasaburou. That has to be eating her.

    Wow, Uncle that is a great big helping of dick you had for lunch.

    One of the best anime i have ever seen. I hate that it is so few episodes. The world is so rich and full of great characters that i would like to spend more time with and i suspect in two weeks we will never see them again.

    Mike
  12. Man i fuckin hate Benten. She’s just a gold digging backstabbing bitch and Soun is a complete bastard. Benten needs all of those powers stripped from her by the end of this show i swear and Soun needs to get killed by one of the 4 brothers. I hope Yasaburou pulls of an epic level transformation like his father did because that would make this anime even more of a masterpiece than it already is. Plus it would be completely awesome.

    Haseo
  13. Well, that was an extremely inconvenient point at which to actually start watching all available episodes of this show.

    …and, from a brief look at this and several other sites, I have to wonder why no one at all seems to have the same theory I have as to Benten’s motivations behind eating Souichirou and appearing to like Yasaburou, the child ‘most like his father’. Especially with all that Benten and Yodogawa exposited at length about with regards to the twisted and possessive nature of love that makes one want to eat what one loves.

    …or maybe I’m just that mentally unscrewed. Who knows?

    Corin
    1. Also, in case it didn’t come through – I easily have this as one of, if not the, brilliant show of the season. My one complaint is that Ebisugawa Soun is just too unrepentantly evil at this point… and that his sons are almost painfully idiotic evil. Seriously, getting rid of his sons would do the narrative a great favour. It’s probably this that holds it back a bit from the quality of Tatami Galaxy.

      Corin
  14. Well I have to say BenTen is arrogant way to bloddy Arrogant and the more arrogant u are the harder u fall. It myt not be my place to say this we can make all the speculations we want, but da fact is we have to wait and see wat happens next. (But still hope dat the yajirou train will come to the rescue, and benten and soun get wat they deserve)

    Dra5ke SoS
  15. Yo please read and tell me wat u think well now the previous nise-emon yasaburoz father eas a well known and powerful (da dude changed into a MOUNTAIN) nw such a great tanuki easily captured, I dnt thnk so look at da cart dat yasaburoz old brother owns da freaky lookin doll wears a red headband, nw watch da next ep preview u see yasaburoz dad wearin da same red head band so da old man was da freaky cart pullin doll da whole time ? Well its jst my own weird theory and if it turns out to be him then he pulled of hz greatest trick yet (fooling death) well we’ll see wat happenz next week

    Dra5ke SoS

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