Episode 12 of Nurarihyon was very much like episode 11. The new villains, the “88 Demons of Shikoku” continued to have their arc introduced slowly, while the best moments of the show were comedic ones surrounding Nurarihyon and the three girls in Rikuo’s harem.

Nurarihyon and Yura were great together once again. The old geezer showed one of the wind youkai that he was no mere old geezer – easily dispatching him on the rooftop after the demon had trounced Yura and her shikigami. She, of course, continues to think of him as a harmless and feeble old ojiisan – a misconception he’s only too anxious to foster. When she gets a little too enthusiastic at having “saved” him and invites him for dinner, the old youkai discreetly makes his exit, teaming up with Natto again and heading for an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, the apparent leader of the invading clan is a boy not much older than Rikuo, with a sidekick that has obviously seen too many Gene Simmons videos. There’s a fairly good confrontation where the invaders introduce himself and Kana is ingloriously licked on the cheek by the sidekick, but all that rather pales next to the proceeding moments, when the budding jealousy between Yuki-onna and Kana began to boil to outrageous and adorable heights. Seriously, Yuki-onna’s cuteness quotient went off the scale this week – her smug taunting of Kana was a joy to behold. Of course Yuki-onna has her own worries, as she still believes that something happened between Kana and Night Rikuo – mostly because Kana is getting all mushy about demons in general and one special demon in particular.

Oddly, we appear to be having a recap episode next week – recounting the Gyuuki arc, which only ended a few weeks ago. Hopefully it wasn’t a representative PV, because otherwise we’re going to be in for a rather boring episode.