I gotta be honest, the “Western Youkai” Arc isn’t doing much for me.  These last two episodes have been my least favorite of the series for any number of reasons, and I don’t think there are any guarantees the ship is going to be righted while this arc is ongoing.  Was I less favorably disposed towards it because of the cultural ugliness in last week’s episode (no need to rehash the specifics, once was enough)?  I won’t deny it, certainly.  But the issues go deeper than that in my opinion.

Let’s start with starters – the “us vs. them” tone set last week lingered in the air like a bad odor in a closed room this time.  It’s disappointed to see even something like a youkai war in a fantasy series like Gegege no Kitarou framed this way – snarky comments by the gaijin about decimating this “protected little island” are certainly dog whistle phrases, and – while I admit I may be projecting – it doesn’t strike me that Mizuki Shigeru would be especially proud of that.  It’s easy, sometimes, to forget how deeply isolationism is encoded in the psyche of Japan, more so by far than with any other industrialized world power.

Setting that aside (which is not easy) the dark and drear of this arc so far feels oppressive in a way earlier arcs of GGGnK have not.  This is just unrelenting brutality so far, with no relief from any source.  There’s no comic relief from Nezumi-otoko (or anyone else), no hopeful innocence from Mana, no positive underlying message.  It’s just a bloodbath, a foreign invasion of fire and freaks and explosions.  Even the allies among the Western youkai are hard to like – Agnes takes it on herself to almost kill Kitarou by supercharging him so that he can destroy the ring (he still can’t) and her general attitude is one of entitlement without a trace of gratitude (no comment, but then one shouldn’t be necessary).

Not even the arrival of Tanaka Hideyuki (who’s now appeared in no less than five separate incarnations of this franchise) as Backbeard can breathe much life into the proceedings.  He’s a Sauron-like figure thus far, only showing one all-seeing eye (maybe that’s all there is to him) that could use some Systane.  The preview suggests we may get a bit of a break last week, as the episode seems to focus on Agnes trying to fit into Japanese life and the enemy of choice is Frankenstein, who seems to at least have some comic potential and is played by the wonderful Shirashi Ryouko.  Here’s hoping.