A Part

「拝啓お犬様」 (Haikei Oinu-sama)
“Dear Dog-Sama”

B Part

「ランナーズ・ハイ」 (Rannāzu Hai)
“Runner’s High”

A rather tame episode compared to last week, not much to talk about really. I guess the biggest takeaway for me is the knowledge that stoplights have manual switches, well at least in Japan, I don’t really know about the rest of the world.

The first episode deals with a search and rescue, seems an old man has gone missing while picking berries, thankfully all ends well and they were able to find him, however, one important note to mention from Seiko and Mei is that they pulled an all-nighter and now were forced to participate in the search and rescue almost against their will. It even brings Mai to tears, but for another completely different reason. As it is normal with search and rescue they bring out a trained dog to help with the investigation. And the name of the episode. The dog needs its trainer and two other people to be its escort. Unknowingly to Mai the dog is let loose and is allowed to roam free, which is not a method I had seen before as most of the true-crime shows I’ve seen, not that it’s any sort of reference, always have the dog on a leash, or well maybe this is the Japanese version of doing things and I’m just unaware.

After some time Mai breaks out in tears because she can’t take the running anymore, and Seiji and Mai are reunited with Seiko and Takeshi.

They get a call on the radio and are informed that the old man has been found, oinu-sama lets out a howl to let them know which way to go, and at least he was useful for something. All is good and the old man is safely back with his son. All thanks to the work of the medium. Salutations oinu-sama!

Then over some beers Seiji and Seiko meet up with Todo-chan, who I’m not sure if we have seen before, it doesn’t matter as he’s quitting soon but his childhood dream is about to come true and that’s the reason why he’s quitting I think. What’s his childhood dream you ask? Well, apparently it’s being a patrol to a marathon. The day off comes in a jiffy, and in the meantime, Mai is sent off a guy with a mohawk, or more as she volunteered for it because she thought controlling the stoplight would cause a major traffic accident. Such a worry wort. And she ended up running more than she intended, in fact, she ran a lot in this episode.

In the end, she couldn’t catch the guy, but not to worry they’ll put out a warrant for his arrest and catch him soon enough.

Honestly, I thought it was a pretty bland episode, nothing really to dissect or talk about, although, the comments the firefighters gave to Mai and Seiko picked my interest as I thought I could grab a thread from there, but I guess they were just being nice. So for now I’ll let it pass as nothing but that. What can I say, it was what it was. I’m glad the animation is staying consistent though, even if for some reason it dipped to 5 fps during both of Mai’s chase scenes with the mohawk guy and the oinu-sama. The scene with the mohawk guy I distinctly recognize it being the opener for the live-action. So maybe that had something to do. I did notice those little dips in quality, but I am a mere ghost on the wall so I can’t say for certain why this was.

Before I let you go, I would like to dedicate this meme to oinu-sama!

Full-length images: 36.

7 Comments

    1. I can relate to Seiko and Mei not wanting to participate in a search for an elderly person. But at the same time I understand the son of the elderly man. No one wants to endure the thought of seeing their parent become lost. Searching becomes hard, those who are lost can wonder or worse injure themselves.

      Considering how my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s and lived alone in NYC. One day I found myself participating in the search for my grandmother who was lost in the big apple. Police were involved, strangers involved, and relatives involved in this search.

      …no one in my family ever found my grandmother. Someone else did.

      Renasayers
      1. oh man! I meant to respond to your previous comment about this but I just didn’t know what to say, I feel you though, losing someone like that is bound to cause lots of stress and will inevitably leave some type of emotional scar. Here if you need a friendly face to vent 🙂 Not that it’s anything similar but my friends and I. When we were around 16 or 17 went on holiday for spring break (with adult supervision) and one of the girls from the group decided to go with one of the boys to the beach when we came back to the apartment we noticed she wasn’t there. Same deal the police got involved and a missing person’s reports had to be filled, the whole ordeal. Eventually one of the cops found them frolicking on the beach, and well the rest is history.

        1. In that scenario Seiko and Mei are not in the wrong, in one way it’s not their parent and they worked late. But at the same time being the family member you’re seeing a disaster unfold.

          Renasayers
  1. Here in Portugal most (if not all) traffic lights have no manual switches. Were there’s some sort of parade, we’ve got cops blocking intersections, but the lights retain their red/green cycle.

    ruicarlov
      1. Every set of traffic signals has a box at one intersection and the box contains the controller, which has manual controls and a logic board that can be programmed. More advanced systems also have a wireless communications system for remote programming and controls. A series of traffic signals along a street could also be linked together.

        Bakapooru

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