I’m fully aware that Tsukumogami Kashimasu is very much a “targeted audience” sort of anime – and that I’m a part of that small target audience.  I also don’t find it to be jaw-droppingly great or anything after two episodes, though I am enjoying it.  But one thing really does stand out for me, and that’s how quintessentially Japanese this series is.  This show has an odd, quirky sensibility and is built upon singularly Japanese mythology, and the end result is something that seems to really capture the endearing weirdness of this place.  And for that, I have a little more of a soft spot for it.

There’s something quite romantic in the notion that an inanimate object can take on not just life but divinity based simply on being cherished enough by humans.  And that romanticism is very much at play in this episode, which finds the Izumoya caught up in another mystery (as a result of a referral they get from solving the last one).  This time around an antique dealer’s wall scrolls are mysteriously changing during the night, with figures like Genji Hikaru and Kiyomasa Katou winding up in the wrong pictures when the owner arrives at the shop in the morning.

Being a mystery involving wall scrolls, this one naturally falls under the purview of Tsukuyomi, clearly the patriarch of the Izumoya tsukumogami family.  The basic strategy here seems pretty consistent – loan out the tsukumogami to whoever’s having the problem, let them play researcher for a bit, and Seiji will come up with a brainstorm based on what they turn up.  What they turn up this time is the heroes of the owner’s scrolls competing for the attention of a lovely female tsukumogami, so fiercely that they lose track of time and must hightail it back to the nearest painting when the owner arrives at the shop.

It’s not the world’s most compelling mystery, though it is cute, but I really like the subtext of Tsukoyami feeling underappreciated as a full moon scroll.  It’s odd to hang such a scroll during the day, and with the real moon in the sky at night, that’s no better.  But the female tsukumogami turns out to be the Princess Kaguya, who knows a little something about the moon, and Tsukuyomi performs a service for her (thanks to Seiji) that only he can.  It’s a really lovely finish to the episode, one which doesn’t bowl you over with its brilliant but leaves a rather pleasant aftertaste with its wistful charms.