Kyouran Kazoku Nikki – 04

Summary:

Interested in advancing her relationship with the manly side of Ginka, Chika gets the idea for a trip to Hawaii and makes the suggestion to Kyouka by reminding her of a potential honeymoon. Kyouka decides to take the entire family along and calls up the travel agency where a woman named Sakurai Chieri works. Since she can’t do all the stuff that Kyouka wants, Chieri invites Kyouka to the agency to help her decide. Chieri is actually quite popular and a good saleswoman, but her boss the branch manager hates her for it and attempts to use curses so that he can take Kyouka as a customer. Kyouka and family show up at the agency the following day and after Kyouka wreaks some havoc, Chieri tries to take them to a meeting room. However, each room she goes to is already in use, leaving her no choice but to settle for the room at the end of the hall. Chieri realizes too late that the branch manager is inside practicing his cursing voodoo, but Kyouka actually finds it interesting because she thinks it’s a welcome event thrown for her.

The branch manager Doinki tries to act normal and receives Kyouka as a valued customer once he changes out of the tribal costume. He gets Chieri out of the picture by first sending her to get some tea and then sending her out to get some documents. Both times, she almost gets knocked down or tripped by someone in the shadows, and Ginka and Chika save her. Since Kyouka wants Chieri around to talk about the trip, Doinki tries to divert their attention with a machine that simulates the trip location. He sets up Hawaii and Paris, but Kyouka then takes the remote and tries out a whole bevy of places like Egypt, India, and Russia. The machine eventually breaks, and Kyouka goes back to wanting to hear Chieri explain the trip. Since Chieri isn’t around and since it’s now lunchtime, Kyouka decides to take the kids home and vows to return in the afternoon. In actuality, Doinki has made the men under his voodoo control capture Chieri, and he curses her too as part of his quest to get the Midarezaki family to sign a contract with him.

Back at home, Kyouka and the others tell Ouka about what happened and about their suspicions of Doinki, and she decides that the entire family will participate that afternoon. When she returns to the travel agency, she crashes through Doinki’s window and kicks him in the head. Chika does the same when she arrives, but Doinki has a trapdoor ready that sends both girls back into the room with the machine from earlier. This time, Doinki is with a cadre of his branch’s men ready to represent whatever Kyouka wants in order to get her to sign a contract. Kyouka thus names things like the Japan Trench, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Bermuda Triangle, and Doinki’s men use their bodies to act out those places. Chika, however, still refuses to let Kyouka sign the contract because she doesn’t want a trip that’s devoid of love since she believes the fun is in the planning. Since he only cares about the contract, Doinki sends his men after the two girls, and it is at this point that the rest of the family arrives ready to fight.

Ouka quickly puts Doinki under arrest for his illegal use of sorcery, and Ginka then locates Chieri, but they notice that she’s acting a little abnormal. Under Doinki’s control, Chieri threatens Ginka’s neck with the jagged end of a broken stick so that Doinki can get away, however Kyouka stops his escape by throwing Hyouka at him. This in turn frees Chieri from Doinki’s control, and when she realizes that she almost hurt a customer, she’s ready to quit her job. Kyouka, however, makes her remember what she’s been working so hard for, and so Chieri regains her desire to help her customers.

ED Sequence

ED: 「ボクハ更新サレマシタ」 (Boku wa Koushin Saremashita) by 広橋涼 (Hirohashi Ryou)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
Another “new” ED this week (new to the tvk broadcast, not to some other stations), this time Hyouka’s. It’s very very cute in both song and 3-D animation, and I like it best out of the three so far.

Preview

It figures that for a family like this, even the planning stage for a vacation/honeymoon is insane and filled with crazy travel agency people. But then again, this is probably what happens whenever Kyouka puts herself in charge of anything. I assume the Mu continent she keeps referring to is the lost continent of Mu, though lord knows why she wants to go there.

With Chika’s addition to the family, I got the odd feeling that each non-family character they focus on from now on will be joining the family, such as Chieri this week. I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen, if for no other reason than the fact that Chieri wasn’t on the original cast of characters like Chika was, but I still found it a little weird that the writers chose to do this stuff at this point in the story. It probably stems from how, after the Yuuka and Chika episodes, I thought they were just going the route of focusing on a separate family member every week. That’s not necessary a bad thing though since I still enjoyed this episode, and it looks like next week won’t be about anyone in particular either.