Well, this has been a disastrous day in terms of blogging anime, I can say that for sure.  I’m cat-sitting at my sister’s place and for whatever reason my Macbook (maybe because it’s old, though it still does the job and if it were a Windows PC it’d be a doorstop at this age) decided to stop connecting to the internet.  I give Apple credit for having really good chat support and even helping me by phone, but even a re-install of Sierra didn’t fix the issue (which I only just now managed to unravel for the moment).  An entire Saturday offline is a nightmare this season, to say the least.

That leaves me with a mountain to climb, so I figured I’d start with a series that’s a breeze to enjoy and doesn’t demand a thousand words of analysis (as subtle as it usually is).  That would be Hoozuki no Reitetsu, which for the first time this season gave us an extended check-in at Momotaro’s place.  I don’t believe we’ve met these two members of the Shishin yet – Kirin (who’s taken the form of a dignified old man) and Byakko (who’s taken the form of a little boy).  These two are of course colleagues of Hakutaku from ancient China, and they talk about each other like amicably abusive old curmudgeons at a card game.

What’s interesting here is that, as Momotaro points out, despite their differences in physical appearance all three of these dudes are immeasurably old men.  One has chosen the form of a bishounen to chase skirts, one has chosen the form of a regal Jii-san to garner respect, and one that of a child in order to get half-price movie tickets.  But both Kirin and Byakko have physical problems like back pain and enlarged prostate (as demonstrated in Byakko’s case with the Mannekin Pis) – which is exactly why they’re visiting Hakutaku (one wonders whether he suffers from the same age-related annoyances).  Kirin also spills the beans that Hakutaku was forever being rejected by girls who favored a “Hoozuki type”, and rained (black cats and broken sandals) on the festivities marking Enma-Ou’s reign in Hell.

Part II turns the camera on the two little whirligigs that have been zipping through the background all season, the Zashiki Warashi.  These two have pretty much mastered the art of being cute and terrifying (especially when they laugh) at the same time.  The natural affinity they and Hoozuki have for each other is quite amusing, as are their musings on adapting to life in the modern world.  At the moment their concern is that they’ve decided they’ve need names – and they take none too kindly to Momotaro’s suggestion of “Zahiki” and “Warashi”.  I don’t personally think Hoozuki’s suggestion – Ichiko and Niko – is all that much better, but he can do no wrong in their eyes so Ichiko and Niko they are ever-after.  Given their usual response to maters of the house who slack off, here’s hoping (for his sake) they don’t decide to leave Enma-sam’a house any time soon.