It’s pure coincidence that I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha yesterday (their annual matsuri kicked off), and then it turned up on Hoozuki no Reitetsu this week.  Though as I’ve noted the strange sort of kismet that seems to link me to this series, I do wonder about that stuff.  I’ve never felt quite so in-tune with the sensibility of an anime comedy – and it’s comedy most of all where sensibility really matters.

Inari, for those of you that may not know, is the most popular and widely-worshipped Shinto deity in Japan.  The Fushimi Inari Taisha (shown briefly at the start of this episode, famous for its thousands of vermillion tori gates and apart from too many tourists, the coolest place on Earth) is the head Shrine for all of the thousands of Inari Jinja across Japan.  Inari is originally the God of rice but has come to be revered as the God of business, and thus the Inari sect is the richest of all Shinto societies in Japan.

For all that, though, all that I kept thinking through that first part was “all this talk about Dakini has to be getting Karauri pretty worked up”.  Because as we know, he’s an “M” of the first rank.  And sure enough, as soon as we segued into the cafeteria there he was, looking slightly sheepish (Nasubi and Hoozuki certainly know his secret).  Also, Hoozuki’s tempura was highly disturbing.

Speaking of highly disturbing, any chapter involving the screaming goldfish (which are so bizarre not even Hoozuki-sama knows what they really are) is bound to meet that description.  Especially when you loop the Zashiki-warashi twins into the mix.  Momotaro’s beasts being the curious innocents that they are, Hoozuki suggests a trip to the hell botanic gardens to study more interesting plants (after a short discourse on inoculations, where Hoozuki seems about as normal – and compassionate – as he ever gets).

That is, until Shiro gets a little too snarky with Kakisuke, dredging up painful memories of “The Crab and the Monkey” after he rails at Shiro for assuming he likes bananas just because he’s a monkey.  Hoozuki shows his teeth with Shiro here, that’s for sure.  The real payoff, though, is the revelation that Ichiko and Niko have actually mastered the language of the goldfish – though I’m happy they’re keeping their secrets, because I’m guessing whatever those guys are wailing about has to be profoundly disturbing.