That was certainly eventful.

We’re just one week away from the end of Gegege no Kitarou’s first year, which I assume also means the end of Nanashi’s storyline for good.  That leaves me with mixed feelings, because I really love Nanashi as a character and the job Banjou Ginga is doing with his voice.  It’s much easier for morally ambiguous, charming antagonists like Hisoka to be engaging characters, but for someone to be this memorable just through being totally and abjectly evil?  That’s pretty rare.  The contrast between Nanashi and Backbeard in terms of stature is as stark as it gets.

If it’s evil you want, Nanashi (and Ginga-san) are certainly delivering in spades.  Mana, of course, is caught up in that more than anyone.  It’s hard not to feel genuinely awful for her – she’s just annihilated her best friend who just attacked her mother, who appears to be dying.  Mana is in a very dark place, which is exactly the point – and so is Kitarou, who’s seen the viral video that OMEGA TALK has made sure is making the rounds.  This is a test of everyone’s ability to move past their own prejudices, and frankly, the early returns aren’t very encouraging.

That something weird was up with Mana has been obvious almost since her introduction.  Nanashi clearly chose her as a vessel for a reason, and when the pack of jackal reporters descend on Inuyama-san’s hospital room the secret appears to be out.  Something is up with Mana’s bloodline, and when she confronts her father he finally tells Mana that her mother’s grandmother was a powerful spirit medium and exorcist, an ogamiya – and that it was she who insisted Mana be given that name.  A name which Medama-oyaji later speculates may mean “true name” when the Kanji are written out.

That still doesn’t tell us everything of course – why would Mana’s great-grandmother make such a demand in the first place?  What’s crystal clear is that the hate OMEGA TALK is stoking is manna from Heaven for Nanashi, who grows stronger and stronger as he feeds on it.  OMEGA’s cute mascot tells the humans that a “Hyakki-yagyo” – a youkai infiltration of the human world, which otaku will certainly know as the “night parade of 100 demons” – is beginning in (naturally) Chofu (Mizuki-sensei’s hometown).  The youkai, under the leadership of Hata-onryou (Ikemizu Michihiro, veteran of the ’85, ’88, and ’07 versions) are itching to fight back, and miasma is flowing skyward at an alarming rate.

If there’s anyone standing between this terrible situation and outright disaster, it’s Medama-oyaji.  Even as Kitarou loses his perspective in light of Neko-musume’s death, Daddy Eyeball keeps his wits and keeps thinking.  And it says something about his outsized stature in the youkai world that his words are enough to convince Hata-onryou to stand down (for a short time, at least) and give Kitarou and his father a chance to defuse the situation.  The problem is, there’s no easy path to doing that at the moment.

The showdown in the hospital corridor between Kitarou and Mana is terrible (in a good way).  As her mother starts to flatline inside her room (she appears to be dead, but I’m skeptical that this is Nanashi distorting perception and not true reality), Kitarou and Mana both declare that they can never forgive the other for what they’ve done.  Kitarou’s questions are especially pointed, and their implication unmistakable.  I blame him far more for the way this turns out that Mana, who can hardly be expected to do better under the circumstances.  Nanashi gathers the dark energy, plants his final symbol (“water”) on Mana, and seems to fuse with her, the pentagram of the elements complete.  The tongue-lashing Medama-oyaji gives his son is perfectly deserved.

As to what happens next, well, it’s certainly unexpected.  Giant baby Nanashi is… different.  And while undeniably creepy, it’s kind of ludicrous enough to suck just a bit of the menace out of the air.  That said, the demon tyke is formidable, immune to any 0f Kitarou’s attacks.  Once more it’s Medama-oyaji who rises to the occasion, doing something he’s clearly very reluctant to do – use his finger guns.  And they prove to be far more powerful than anything we’ve seen from Kitarou, which makes one wonder how freakishly strong Medama must have been back when he was truly himself.  But the respite is temporary, and things go from bad to worse.  We’ve seen what Mana is capable of what the loss of a parent causes her to lose herself – not, perhaps, we’re about to see the same from Kitarou.