I notice in looking back over my posts that I haven’t had a comment on Gegege no Kitarou in a month.  That’s not surprising in certain respects – this show was on hiatus last week, and this is generally the “season of lost weekends” anyway, as my Saturday-Sunday series rarely draw much discussion (Gridman being the lone exception).  And to be honest this series has rarely generated many comments anyway, apart from the amazeballs WWII episode.  But the somewhat dreary run of episodes that it’s only of late broken out of certainly isn’t a non-factor either.

Make no mistake, though, Gegege no Kitarou has broken out of that malaise, and found its form.  Why the dark times happened I don’t know, because it genuinely seemed like a different show there for a while both in terms of storytelling and worldview.  But it’s back to its old self now in both respects, casting off the cloak of xenophobia that it inexplicably seemed to slip on for a while, and at the same time finding a resonance in the “Western Youkai” plotline that was missing before.  And thank goodness for it, too, because I was really missing the Gegege no Kitarou I’d grown so fond of.

Much of this episode centered around Agnes, who’s emerged as something like the main protagonist of this arc.  The true depth of the deep shit she and her clan find themselves in is brought home as she relays her story to Mana (who once more proves the shining light of decency and innocence at the heart of darkness that is this mythology sometimes).  The Ring of Arcana, it seems, draws its power from the sacrifice of a witch’s life – one which supposedly brings great honor to their clan.  Agnes and Adele’s mother went this way, and now we know what it means for Agnes to be the “core” of the Brigadoon project.

The irony here is that Agnes was always jealous of Adele, the older sister who always seemed much more adept at magic than she.  But it was young Agnes’ innocent use of a spell that caught Backbeard’s attention, and the implication is certainly that she has much stronger natural magical ability than Adele.  Now as Adele hunts for the ring and agonizes over her sister’s unwillingness to take one (the big one) for the team, Agnes retreats from Kitarou and the Gegege bunch for fear of drawing them deeper into danger than they already are. But Backbeard’s goal is to turn Japan into a nation of youkai as a part of his empire – and the power of Brigadoon is to turn humans into youkai (Lerner and Loewe must be turning in their graves).  It seems as if Japan is already involved whether it wants to be or not.

I couldn’t help but notice the long, lingering closeup of Mana’s sweet face as she said humans turning into youkai was impossible, but for now what’s most relevant is that Mana convinces Agnes to go to Kitarou for help – showing faith in both his character and his power.  She runs a gamut of hostility when she does, but return to Kitarou Agnes does (after embarrassing Mana to an adorable degree with a maidenly kiss of gratitude – on the hand).  That Kitarou – and those close to him – would do the right thing here was never really in doubt, though I admit I was half-hoping that Nezumi-otoko would have had a change of heart and returned home rather than flee.

The big, scary wild card in all this is Nanashi, who’s still (partly thanks to Ginga-san) the creepiest (and one of the very few original) characters in the 2018 anime.  I don’t think he’s working with Backbeard, I know he’s not working with Kitarou, he has an unhealthy interest in Mana – and now he has the Ring of Arcana.  Nanashi is trouble all day long and twice on Sunday, and with his deepening involvement things are surely going to hit the fan in a big way now.  It’s awfully nice to care this much about Gegege no Kitarou again, and next week’s episode can’t come soon enough.