Season Two Ep 5 review

Ep 5 is out, but so sorry that I am late with this review. Been super busy at work...

Having said that, I actually like this episode! Unfortunately, we cannot see Ōdanna-sama’s jyaki form, not even his jyaki shadow, but we see his astral form – more on that later. This episode is also important for other things, including Aoi’s great grandmother’s, a chance glimpse of Zakuro and of course Aoi’s bonding with Takechiyo. The cliffhanger is great too!

Also, as some fans already mentioned, the animation is getting better (starting from Ep4 last week, actually). Aoi's kimono emon are drawn more correctly in many scenes. The background music (particularly when Aoi was shopping with Sasuke-kun) was very nice with plenty of Japanese tones. The pacing is also not as fast as I feared (well, in my prediction, I overshot because this production team has been running like the Flash trying to wrap everything in one cour), hence we might have 13 episodes instead of 12. Yay?

This episode covers Vol 7 Ch 3 and early Ch 4. Let’s begin chronologically.

We have Aoi as expected trying to feed Prince Takechiyo, who refused Aoi’s offers, including pudding. Pudding!!! How come anyone refuse a Japanese pudding?!?! Give it to me instead, Aoi! Kocchi ni moratte!

But then as Aoi explained that her name is Tsubaki Aoi, Takechiyo commented that her name sounds like Tsubaki Shirō’s name. When Aoi confirmed that Shirō was her grandpa, Takechiyo became interested. Shirō is his hero, hence he wants to grow up strong like Shirō. Aoi used this point as a leverage to coax Takechiyo to eat food that Shirō likes, and the boy took the bait!

Hence Aoi, Takechiyo and Ritsuko-san went shopping. From Ritsuko-san, Aoi got a new blue kimono – very winter – because they’re shopping at the Tsuki-no-me District. Later in Vol 7 Ch 7 (which I am transcribing at the moment), Aoi commented how Tsuki-no-me District is the closest district to the Palace. Here, Ritsuko-san explained it as such. By the way, Tsuki-no-me 月ノ目 means “The Eye of the Moon”, but I’m glad that the translator kept it as Tsuki-no-me, because it would be a bit weird to translate it to English. It’s like translating Ocha-no-mizu, a district in Tokyo as “the Tea Water” District…

Anyway, while shopping, Aoi et al saw the Silver Pigeon Squad, which is the elite troop of Kakuriyo, akin to the personal troops for the King (the other troop is the Wild Boar Troop). In Vol 7 Ch 6, Sasuke-kun said that the Silver Pigeon Squad protects the Palace, and like any Palace guard, they are very dangerous. In the same chapter, Sasuke-kun was actually quite nervous of the prospect of being caught by the Silver Pigeons while infiltrating the Palace (although he actually beat some of them in Vol 7 Ch 4 when he tried to rescue Aoi).

Very happy to see Aoi's kimono emon drawn correctly here!

I need to also comment that the way Aoi et al wore the masks during shopping is a bit weird. I mean, their faces are still seen, right? In S1E3, Aoi had to fully wear the oni mask to disguise the fact that she was a human. I guess we can deduce that the masks that Aoi et al wore this time can still render them incognito despite only being worn like a hat. It might also be a poetic licence so that the animators can show their facial expressions better. I do prefer Aoi’s half-mask in S1E3 though.

So, after shopping, we have Aoi, Ritsuko-san and Takechiyo making and eating lunch. The lunch menu was like the novel Vol 7 Ch 3 (mustard green pilaf then, with Chinese cabbage filled with meat and stewed in tomato sauce, yam mochi stuffed with daikon, and mandarin mikan for desert). 

We even have a video of how to make the stewed cabbage! 

Anyway, so Takechiyo started to plaster himself to Aoi. He even lent Aoi his very important book titled Shirō’s Adventure! It’s basically a Momotaro-like adventure of Tsubaki Shirō in Kakuriyo. I think there’s a grain of truth here with Shirō befriending a silver pigeon (must be the commander of the Silver Pigeon Squad?), an iron boar and a copper bear. The Iron Boar must be Kurogai Shogun who captured Ōdanna-sama in Vol 9 Ch 6. Not sure about the Copper Bear, but he might also be an important person in Kakuriyo. Most importantly, the book mentioned how Shirō gave a strange snack to the silver pigeon, the iron boar and the copper bear, and they became friends. The strange snack is called makkoron, and Aoi deduced that it was macaroon. 

Perhaps because Aoi was reading Shirō’s Adventure before she slept, she dreamt of Grandpa Shirō. It was when Aoi was still a child, perhaps 1-2 years after she ate the fateful meal that changed her fate. It’s interesting that, although Aoi’s curse was already broken by then, the curse was still able to infect other people. In this case, Shirō’s mother herself was affected; she died of a sudden illness. Some fans have commented on how Aoi looked like her great grandmother, and I agree. 

Anyway, Aoi then decided that she would make macaroon for Takechiyo. The morning after, Aoi left the Nui-no-in Mansion with Sasuke-kun to shop for ingredients for the Nighthawk food truck and also for ingredients for macaroon. She did promise Takechiyo that she would return in two days with the macaroon. Takechiyo was very excited and hang on to that promise (although later in Vol 7 Ch 6, he couldn’t really get the macaroon at the mansion because he would have been whisked back to the Palace without his consent). 

By the way, “the strange snack” is a pun in Japanese! The strange snack in Japanese is “okashina okashi”, though it’s written differently like this: 可笑しなお菓子. 

So, Aoi and Sasuke-kun (wearing a nice kimono set) went shopping. Aoi asked if Ai-chan was doing well; Sasuke confirmed it. However, he didn’t know anything about Chibi. I guess in Ep 6 or 7, Aoi would find that Chibi was sulking that she left him behind (Vol 7 Ch 5). 

After purchasing ingredients for the Nighthawk business (including some produce, fish and tofu), they went down a set of stairs to buy almonds for macaroon. When I translated this scene in Vol 7 Ch 4, I thought they did go down stairs, but I didn’t realise that Yōto is very hilly, thus there are shops that are located below other shops and you can reach them with stairs. Anyway, I didn’t catch that because I skipped the macaroon part, which also had the explanation about Shirō’s Adventure (and very likely the scene about Aoi’s great grandmother). Sorry! 

So, things got interesting because Sasuke grabbed Aoi suddenly to hide her because the Southeastern Land flag airship was passing by, with Zakuro at the helm. Zakuro is the proprietess of the Daikokushi (the Great Lake Skewer) Confectionery, and aptly, the mon (crest) of Daikokushi is three beans, hahaha!

Sasuke explained that Zakuro hates Ōdanna-sama for being an oni, and she has been trying to make business difficult for Tenjin-ya. According to Byakuya, Zakuro would be one of the Hachiyō who would vote to replace the Master of Tenjin-ya.  By the way, Sasuke didn’t say “jyaki” here, but he clearly said “oni”. It means that at this point Sasuke wasn’t aware about Ōdanna-sama’s secret as a jyaki.

Anyway, I don't’ think that Aoi was jealous with Zakuro here, for she didn’t know that Zakuro used to work with Tenjin-ya at this point. She might be jealous when Hatori tells her how close Zakuro and Ōdanna-sama were back then… but we may have to wait until Ep 7. 

Zakuro, art by Laruha

By the way, Zakuro’s aloofness is faithful to the novel. Ōdanna-sama explained to Aoi in Vol 9 Ch 2 that Zakuro was always sharp-tongue. In Vol 7 Ch 6, Hatori explained that she was nice to begin with, but then she withdrew and became cold and distance. I think it happened after Zakuro somehow found Ōdanna-sama’s secret as a jyaki. However, to her credit, Zakuro never leaked this info out, so I wonder how Raijū was able to obtain this info. I bet he tricked Zakuro into telling him about Ōdanna-sama’s secret.

Anyway, after the South-eastern airship passed by, as Sasuke was explaining about Zakuro, Aoi heard her name being called. She then saw a shadow and some gold glitters (which would belong to Ōgondōji-sama). Thinking that Ōgondōji-sama would be able to tell her about Ōdanna-sama’s whereabout, Aoi ran towards the gold glitters downstairs, towards a red door. She then opened up the door with the Obsidian Key and then found a very large obsidian monument. This monument must be the monument of the King of Setsuki who once ruled Kakuriyo. 

This is where we saw Ōdanna-sama’s astral form, telling Aoi that he couldn’t return to her in that form. That was really sad. Konishi Katsuyuki’s voice really conveyed how sad Ōdanna-sama was for not being able to truly show himself to Aoi. The way he said “konna sugata” (or “my current form” or "looking like this") is really heart-wrenching… 

Faithful to Vol 7 Ch 4, Aoi then screamed and searched everywhere, including opening another door, blue this time, which would lead her to the Yōto cemetery. The episode ends with Raijū tapping on her shoulder. 

A perfect cliff-hanger.

Ep 6 thus would have Byakuya and Sasuke rescuing Aoi and Byakuya teleporting them to Shimon’s place at the Yōto underground. Not sure how it would end, but again, I hope Ep 6 or 7 would include Aoi realising that her camellia hairpin has now bloomed. 

By the way, about Ōdanna-sama’s astral form, Vol 7 Ch 4 said that the form was more of a shadow (kage 陰) instead of an astral form. It does look human, according to Vol 7 Ch 4 (i.e., no mention of a horn at all). A Sprinkle of Anime deduced that S2 team purposely hid Ōdanna-sama’s jyaki form for cliffhanger, i.e., showing the jyaki form in the latter part of the season so that we are more curious. 

I guess, that strategy works. I am indeed curious!