That was quite the turn of events.
I confess I’m a bit of a sucker for misdirection in anime, as those of you who heard me discuss the topic on an RC podcast some years ago will remember. While this episode’s misdirection was relatively subtle, it was nevertheless a significant one. Gegege no Kitarou was delivering an excellent and creepy episodic story, then yanked the rug and said “Nope, that’s not what this episode was really all about”. What started out as a good stand-along ep ended up being a potential game-changer.
As ever timely as today’s headlines, GGGnK‘s theme this week is Hina Matsuri, the doll festival – one of the most famous Japanese holidays and one which falls on this very day. Yes, dolls are creepy – almost as creepy as clowns (which makes clown dolls about as creepy as it gets). As is the case so often in Japan, the degree of specificity as regards the ritual can be pretty staggering – a “proper” Hina display has seven levels, with all sorts of dolls from the Heian court displayed (ironic, as the festival wasn’t observed until the Meiji Era). Of course the Emperor and Empress dolls must go on the top shelf, all by their lonesome.
As is so often the case it’s the careless actions of Nezumi-otoko that drive things along. As he’s stealing food from a Shinto altar (which is a pretty big taboo to begin with) he decides to look inside the shrine itself for anything of value. In the process he unleashes a Mayuge (Kakinuma Shino, 1985, 1996) a youkai resembling a hair that’s known to hide amongst a doll’s hair and lives forever. To avoid being eaten Ratman offers to supply the Mayuge with tasty humans, and it’s Mana’s teacher Kotani-sensei (Kanie Shunsuke) who he lures in with his offer of deep discounts on hina dolls (I can’t blame Kotani-sensei, knowing what school budgets here are like).
The disappearance of several children, including three of Mana’s friends and old friend yokai-loving Yuta-kun, prompts her to call Kitaroutachi in for help even though she’s not sure yet a youkai is involved. And for once the enemy gets the drop on Kitarou, as the floating head of the empress doll manages to entangle him in its mane and turn Kitarou into a doll himself. I’m not sure exactly what the equation is here – the Mayuge apparently eat the humans, but they’re still able to be to turned back into people once the Mayuge is defeated. Maybe it takes a long time to digest.
Kitarou being sidelined leaves it to Neko-musume to spearhead the rescue effort, but that doesn’t go so well – especially when it’s revealed that there are actually two mayuge present, the Emperor (Shiratori Tetsu) as well as the Empress. But freaky as they are, the mayuge aren’t the headliner here – it’s how the Empress is defeated that claims that honor. One of Nanashi’s runes kicks in when Mana is threatened, and just like that the Empress is defeated and the dolls she turned return to their human form. Since one of them was Kitarou, he’s now able to step up and take down the Emperor – which restores the rest of the children.
The most interesting part of all this for me is Mana, and just how much she suspects about what’s happened to her. It’s likely she remembers the odd encounters she’s had with Nanashi, but this takes things to another level. It’s clear from her demeanor with Kitarou afterwards that she knows something happened that defeated the Empress, and it came from her – but the fact that she mentions nothing of it suggests that she suspects it’s something sinister. We’ll be seeing Nanashi next week, so it’s entirely possible we’re going to see things escalate even further with Mana then.
