OP4: Ainii (アイニー)” by CreepHyp (クリープハイプ)

Kyoukai no Rinne is my only carryover series from spring, which I guess goes to show that the age of the one-cour adaptation is truly upon us.  I hated to delay this post for as long as I did, but with Anime Expo and a weekend full of both premieres and finales, I just didn’t have much of a choice.  But as always, Rinne is ready to deliver whenever you call on it – it’s one of those shows I could watch and enjoy if my hair was on fire.

The final cour (presumably) brings with it a new OP and ED (the latter of which is one of my favorites of the year so far) and a new character, Shima Renge (Shizuka Ishigami).  She’s a transfer student who shows up with what looks to be a spirit cursing her – a spirit re-enacting the subway grate scene from “The Seven Year Itch”, in fact.  But when Mamiya Sakura realizes she can see that spirit inside her house (where the hourglass should still be in effect), it’s obvious something suspicious is going on with Renge-san.

Renge is just the latest in a long line of antagonists who have basically the same relationship to the story – Rinne’s dad screwed them over and they blame Rinne.  In this instance Sabato caused the honor student Renge to miss the entrance exam to her shinigami school of choice, and she ended up having to accept his offer of a “school” affiliated with the Damashinigami company.  Her job?  The High School Girl division – sucks the souls out of hapless schoolboys with her Marilyn Monroe pheromone trap.  Among the ones who falls into it is Tsubasa, who continues to try and make up for all that lost time when he was mysteriously in another dimension or something.

All in all this was a pretty classic Kyoukai no Rinne comedy of errors episode, but Renge is one of the more genuinely nasty opponents Rinne has run across.  Tsubasa ends up with a rude awakening after his soul returns to his body (thanks to Rokumon – who’d figure the soul vault would be right next to Rinne-kun’s “apartment?”) , but all’s more or less well that more or less ends well.  Except it doesn’t seem to have ended, because Renge is sticking around and she’s pissed at having all her plans (including recruiting Mamiya Sakura as a soul collector) foiled.

ED4: “Beautiful Life” by Shiggy Jr.