I was going to say Rinne Sabato was the worst father of the year, but – well…  Stannis Baratheon has pretty much redefined that title.

It’s the nature of Yamaguchi Kappei’s talent that once you hear him in a role, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing it.  Scenes like that bit with the Rokudou puppet…  There just aren’t many seiyuu who can bring that kind of comic energy to the moment.  Yamaguchi-san specializes in playing roguish sorts who you kind of can’t help liking anyway, but Sabato really puts him to the test.  This guy is scum incarnate, pretty much – about as opposite from nice guy Rokudou as you can imagine.  It really makes me curious to find out more about the mother.

While the grudge match between father & son is the meat of the episode, it seems as if its real purpose may just be to fan the flames of shipping between Rinne and Mamiya Sakura.  Sabato’s plan to hard-wire Rinne into the Damashinigami LLC’s future is to get him to commit to a marriage contract with one of the many young damashinigami ladies present at the party, which if you look very, very carefully almost seems to cause a ripple in Mamiya Sakura’s expression.  It could just be a trick of the light, though…

Sabato’s weapon of choice is the “Blood-sucking Fire Wheel” – a nasty toy which converts everything it touches into its commensurate monetary value (which I assume means Tsubasa’s love pendant would be immune).  Yes, Rumiko is definitely observing on the whole “money makes the world go ’round” thing with this series – sooner or later everything seems to boil down to it.  Things are bad enough that even Tsubasa decides to try and help Rinne out – though his offer of plates and cutlery isn’t exactly effective.  The other aspect of Sabato’s long game is to get Rinne’s thumbprint on a marriage contract, which gives Rumiko a chance to use the banana peel gag for the 2nd time in the series.  Can’t go wrong with the classics.

I wasn’t sure whether we were going to get a “presidential seal” gag before things were done, but no – that was played straight more or less.  Grandma Big Sis is clearly under no illusion about what sort of boy her son is, and it’s with her help that Mamiya Sakura is able to break into Sabato’s safe and steal back not just Rokudou’s ¥5000 scythe, but his thumbprint (remember, this is a country where people don’t generally have signatures) and a fair amount of cash.  But it’s telling that even when presented with all that money, Rinne-kun is only thinking about the “lie” that helped turn the tables – that he and Mamiya Sakura are dating.  It may not be technically true (yet) but sadly for the delusional Tsubasa, it’s pretty clear both of them are on the same page whether they’re ready to admit it or not…