Kyouran Kazoku Nikki – 03

Summary:

Yuuka gets roughed up again on the way back from school one afternoon and ends up crying to Ginka when she gets home. Kyouka is furious when she finds out about it and wants to blow up the entire class, but Yuuka calms everyone down and claims that she’s fine because she knows that she can’t keep depending on everyone forever. The following day, however, she runs into Himemiya Senko, her former sister, who is behind all this. Senko tries to convince Yuuka to return to the Himemiya family, but Yuuka knows better after all the beatings that she suffered in the past and refuses to believe anything that Senko says. This in turn causes Senko to grow ever more desperate because the situation at home is worse for her with Yuuka not around, and she starts to strangle Yuuka. Fortunately, Ginka suddenly shows up and gets Senko to let go of his sister using his tough guy voice. Senko refuses to give up on Yuuka, and when she mentions the Himemiya name, Ginka recognizes it. He also figures out who she is, and Senko eventually realizes who Ginka is too after he reveals his real name is Kizakura Ginichi.

Ginka spends the rest of the day eating and having fun with Yuuka, and that night, he dreams of when he first met Senko back when they were young. At the time, he had found Senko crying and had comforted her, telling her that she could depend on him if she needed to. Ginka now wakes up to find Kyouka sitting on his bed wanting to know who this Senko person is since he had been saying her name in his sleep. He admits that he had been dreaming of a girl he had promised to save but couldn’t, so Kyouka suggests that he go to apologize and atone to that person. Meanwhile, Yuuka is getting beat up again under the watch of Senko who is channeling all of her feelings of abandonment into ordering her underlings to hit Yuuka. Ginka once again arrives to put an end to this, and when he questions why Senko is doing all this, she doesn’t answer him. Instead, she suddenly begins to get tormented by a female voice in her head, and even Kyouka – who had followed Ginka out – claims that she doesn’t know what’s going on.

After losing consciousness, Senko finds herself in a watery world that contains a coffin and her dead body. Senko doesn’t want to die, and the voice lets her live, though it mysteriously wonders to itself if it is the one thousand years or the family that has made it lenient like this. When Senko then wakes up, she finds herself in the Midarezaki house being threatened with death by Kyouka. Ouka, however, takes a much kinder approach because he realizes that Senko is a Himemiya victim, but he thinks that there’s no chance that they’ll be able to take down the Himemiya family like Kyouka wants to do. Kyouka nevertheless argues that their opponents are just lowly creatures with money, and she prepares her family for war. The actual assault on the Himemiya house goes off without a hitch, with the various members of the family each taking out their share of Himemiya guards – especially the surprisingly strong Kyouka. She uses what appears to be the real Mona Lisa painting to beat up the guards and destroys the painting afterwards because she feels that it’s only a painting. For her, money and paintings are worthless illusions, but there are artificial things that aren’t illusions such as their family’s happiness.

Afterwards, they blow up the Himemiya house, and Ginka apologizes to Senko for not saving her sooner. Senko, however, is just happy that he remembered the promise he made with her. The following day, Ouka and Kyouka take Senko to the Paranormal Phenomena Bureau of measures to have her tested. Even though the DNA test turns up negative, Kyouka uses her powers to make the doctor think that Senko really is a child of Enka so that she can join the family. Before Senko officially does so though, she apologizes to Yuuka because she realizes now that she was jealous, and Yuuka just smiles. Kyouka then changes Senko’s name to Midarezaki Chika, and Chika moves in with the family. She only realizes it sometime later that it was Gekka who had telepathically communicated with her.

ED Sequence

ED: 「我輩は守護獣である、か?」 (Wagahai wa Shugojuu de Aru, ka?) by 安元洋貴 (Yasumoto Hiroki)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
As some of you may already know, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki actually has seven different endings (so far), each airing on a different channel and sung by a different cast member. The endings are apparently cycling, and since I’m following the tvk broadcast, the new one is by Teika’s voice actor. Teika’s song isn’t the kind that appeals to me, but I do have to say that it’s fun seeing a new ending and I look forward to the others.

Preview

The first thing that hits me about this episode is that it’s quite a contrast to the first one, especially when you consider something like this to the wackiness that was in beginning. I don’t see it as a bad thing though – more as a sign that they can pull off both comedy and drama, and do it well. They managed to wrap up Yuuka’s back-story, introduce Senko/Chika, and throw in some hints to both Gekka’s past and Kyouka’s past. Out of all that, I find Gekka the most interesting. Prior to this episode, I had been wondering if Satou Rina was going to do anything in that role other than make noises. After watching this episode and seeing her telepathically communicate with Senko/Chika, it all makes sense now. As I’ve said before, Gekka was one of my favorite characters already, and this just makes me even more curious what kind of storied past the jellyfish has had. Next week, however, looks to be focused on Kyouka and a trip somewhere.