Loli Service at last

Only three more eps to go – presumably – and we still seem a long way from the real conclusion here. Another ep passes by with Night Rikuo pretty much in charge, but this week belonged mostly to Yuki-Ona’s awesomeness and Tamazuki’s wimpiness.

With Grandpa and Natto Kozo presumably steaming along somewhere in the Kansai plain, it’s up to Youkai Rikuo and the “Next Generation” Night Parade to take the battle to Tamazuki and his minions. Gozumaru and Mezumaru join the fray hoping to impress the honchos, but end up undercover as serving girls to Tamazuki’s army. Their espionage bid is flushed out pretty quickly, though, and it looks for a minute as though they might be toast. In fact, they survive an attack by the Devil’s Hammer, though we aren’t really told how or why.

Meanwhile, things are going pretty well as Rikuo shows his true weapon – fear. His presence is so overwhelming to his enemies that he becomes invisible to them. Tamazuki appears content to let his subordinates do his fighting for him, but they don’t seem to be making much headway till he unleashes his secret weapon, Yosuzume. She’s a winged demon whose feathers cause blindness to her enemies – and her attack leaves Rikuo blind and helpless. Things look pretty bleak until Yuki-ona savwa the day by freezing one eye to protect it while feigning blindness, and her surprise counter freezes Yosuzume and restores the sight to Rukuo and the others.

I presume we haven’t seen the worst Tamazuki has to offer yet – I hope not, because he was a bit of an anticlimax. He was content to let his minions try and finish Rikuo, only attacking when he knew Rikuo was blind – and then didn’t seem able to do much against him. I know the sword is badass and all, but what of the youkai himself? On the plus side, we learned that Yuki-Ona is pretty GAR, even though she even seemed surprised herself by her prowess in battle. We also learned via flashback that she appeared exactly the same when Rikup was five or six, so who knows what her real age is. We also had a gratuitous but welcome bath scene with Kana and Yura, where the latter warned the former than demon boyfriends are bad news for 13 year-old girls.