I continue to be convinced there’s some sort of strange kismet linking to me to this series, because I can’t find any other explanation for the chain of coincidental overlaps between it and my daily life.  This week I attended my first enkai (a peculiarly Japanese custom already satirized in Hoozuki no Reitetsu) and it happened to be held at a sushi restaurant called “Benkei”.  The logo and the depiction of the monk in Hoozuki even looked strikingly alike – though that part I suppose isn’t surprising, given how faithful to historical representations of legendary characters this series is.

If there was any thought that Hoozuki no Reitetsu was going over all serious after last week’s episode, this week’s seems to put that to rest.  We’re solidly back in satirical territory here, and with a recurring avian theme.  The subjects were Japanese myths I was not previously familiar with, which certainly happens sometimes with this show – you just roll with it and Google it after.  I kind of like that in fact, because it cements Hoozuki’s place as a sort of cultural education in and of itself.

Rurio the pheasant gets a starring role in the first chapter, which features the tale of the demon Goddess Amanojaku and the melon-princess Uriko.  If Uriko’s tale sounds kind of familiar (as Shiro points out) that’s because it’s eerily reminiscent of even more famous Japanese legends – though the ending is certainly considerably more grisly.  Rurio may not have been the pheasant sent down to Earth as Amaterasu’s messenger, but Shiro suggests they might be related – and surprisingly, Hoozuki-sama posits that he might be correct, and that Momotaro had a gift for attracting divine animals to his cause.

As for Amanojaku, she gets the biggest laughs of the episode for me – especially with the way she addresses “Hoozuki-sam-A”.  That, and the fact that he tells us she’s found an even more powerful niche in the modern world with the rise of the internet, given that she’s perfectly suited to be an internet troll.  Never one to waste talent, Hoozuki has determined that Amanojaku supremely annoying personality is a perfect fit for Inferno Hell, where she’s woking off her karmic debt (despite being immune from Enma’s judgment as a Goddess).

The B-part stays in the bird world, as Hoouzki rescues a crane that’s managed to get itself stuck in a tree.  Apparently this too is a famous Japanese tale – that of Tsuru Nyoubou (overlapping with Tsuru no Ongaeshi), a story about a crane who repays a man’s kindness by turning into a beautiful woman, marrying him and secretly plucking her own feathers to make the cloth to sell to make him rich.  Rurio has heard rumors of this, and so has Hoozuki – and he’s on his guard when the knock comes on his door in the dead of night.

Make no mistake about it, this is some pretty hard-edged stuff here – not Hoozuki no Reitetsu in soft and cuddly mode by any means.  Hoozuki not looking to be tied down I can definitely see, but boy, does he push back hard on Tsuru’s advances. There’s also a bit of wry mockery of today’s Japanese society, with marriage (and the population) on the decline, which ends with Hoozuki dismissing the crane as an “accident faker” and a scam artist.  Once one knows the essence of the original tale the irony of this really connects – so if anything, I recommend you read up on the original tale before watching the ep (or at least re-watching the B-part after you do).