Inukami! – 10

Summary:
Hake shows up at Keita’s apartment to give him an invitation to his grandmother’s birthday party. He finds Youko bent over with Keita looking for a flea in her tail, which she somehow got from a neighbor’s cat. Hake leaves them the invitation and returns to the family home, where Kaoru’s Inukami are taking care of party preparations. On this night before Kayano’s (the grandmother’s) birthday, Hake remembers a scene from years ago when a desperate girl visited the Inukami’s mountain and had asked to contract with someone. She needs help fighting a death god. When none of the Inukami wanted to go with her, Hake had followed her when she left the mountain. Seeing her determination, her vow to become an ally of justice, and how she charged into battle regardless of how the odds were against her, Hake had decided to join her. He asks for the purple beads around her neck as the contract item and says that if she releases him from his eternal boredom, he will serve her wherever she goes.
Back in the present, the day of Kayano’s birthday arrives, as do all the guests including Keita and Youko. That night, Hake wanders around and finds Keita dining with all the monsters and hitting on a girl with no face. He then sees Youko spying on some of Kaoru’s Inukami inside the kitchen. Tayune is complaining with Imari and Sayoka about how Youko doesn’t have to work while the rest of them do. They notice that Youko is standing behind them, but she’s crying because she realizes that they’re right about her not working. However, as she’s crying to Tayune, the flea that was on her jumps onto the other girls. Hake sees this and hurried runs away. Outside, he tells Tomohane, Nadeshiko, and Sendan about what happened during that battle against the death god all those years ago. Before it had started, Kayano had remembered that today was her birthday. She had said that they should celebrate after the fighting is over, and Hake had agreed. Kayano landed several hits on the death god, but it countered by smashing her into the house. Hake had protected her against the follow-up blast, and she had gotten up and charged again.
Hake concludes his story, saying that various things happened afterwards and they had lots of happy times. He wonders about why humans have such a short life compared to the Inukami. Hake knows that eventually the time will come when he has to be separated and knows that he’ll be sad. But Nadeshiko thinks that there’s always something left behind. At this point, Kayano comes out and brings the rest of the party to enjoy the falling sakura petals. Hake comments that Kayano is still energetic as usual, and she replies that she’ll live another 50 years. Hake smiles at the statement, seeing the resemblance to her younger age. The two then notice Keita harassing the no-face girl from before, except now Youko has gotten involved and she’s not happy. Kayano wonders who the crude, reckless, and foolhardy Keita resembles. With a smile on his face, Hake agrees and wonders just who Keita could possibly resemble…

For once, we actually get a pretty serious episode. You could even consider this back-story, exploring Hake and Kayano-sama’s past. You can really see how devoted Hake is to Kayano, just like how devoted all the other Inukami are to their masters. And the parallel extends further with Keita resembling Kayano when she was young. So I thought the episode was pretty well done, one of the better episodes so far, though obviously light on the comedy side. The fight scene was actually kind of cool, though I wish they had actually shown the end of it. And it figures they’d give the budget to the episode that features the falling sakura petals (why do those type episodes of any series always look better…?).
Next week, harem time!