The parade of finale posts during the last couple of weeks of a season can be a bit soul-crushing sometimes – it’s always bittersweet writing those about shows you like.  So it’s always nice when you see the pattern broken up a bit – sometimes it’s be multi-cour series (though that hardly ever happens anymore), and sometimes by shows like this one which end a week later than most.  Plus, of course, it’s just nice to get one more episode of Hoozuki no Reitetsu – this series is a flat-out gem, and we had to wait too damn long for this sequel as it is.

• We pay a visit to a new level of Hell (the fourth) this week, the realm of King Gokan (Wuguan Wang) – though the most notable character here is (again) the chief of staff, Shikimi (Sakamoto Chika).
• If I’m not mistaken, this is the only Jigoku in the series where the King – or chief of staff – has been a woman.  I don’t think that’s the case in actual Buddhist mythology – at least not as far as I can tell – but dramatic license.
• I was thinking for a long time that Nishiki really should have been in Heaven, but then the spanking started.  Of course for Karauri, that probably would be Heaven.
• Yes, those scales are a fixture in afterlife imagery across many cultures – though I suspect Anubis (Taniyama Kishou) may be the most famous example.  He and Shiro certainly make for an entertaining odd couple.
• There’s a certain irony in Jigoku being the home of onsen, given that the accepted phrase when sinking into a hot spring bath in Japan is “This is Heaven”…
• It’s definitely not a compliment for Shiro to tell Karauri and Nasubi that they could “just about get away with” going into the women’s bath – especially since they corrected his misapprehension a few episodes back by informing him that they weren’t children but, in fact, imps.  However – if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
• I suppose it doesn’t mean so much given that until a few decades ago most baths in Japan were mixed-gender, but it’s definitely true that children of a surprisingly high age go into opposite-gender baths with their parents in Japan all the time.  I’ve seen older than nine, for sure.
• It is nice when onsen “mix it up“, so that both genders can experience each bath on different days.  But then again, this is Hell…