It’s interesting to look at Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin in the context of other manga and anime which deal with the troubled interface of the human and faerie worlds. Most obviously at the moment we have Gegege no Kotarou (Mizuki Shigeru does so about as thoughtfully and with as much detail as any writer ever has), but also stuff like Natsume Yuujinchou and even Mushishi. I tend to be a pretty skeptical person, but the Japanese fixation with this subject sort of makes you wonder if there isn’t something to it.
I think, in fact, that Mushishi is actually quite a good comparison – especially in an episode like this week’s. We very often saw Ginko thrust into situations where he was forced to be both Arata and Kanoichi, and weigh what course of action to take. The forces Ginko dealt with were often elemental, but there were times when they came very close to being human in form and substance – and the difference was perhaps not so great or obvious as it appeared. Ginko was a man whose loyalties were often divided by necessity, but it’s worth remembering he had a world of experience beyond the likes of what Arata has.
If there’s a singularly unlikeable character in this season of anime, Kanoichi may just be it. Sakurai Takahiro gets cast in some frankly pretty awful roles, but that makes it easy to forget just how great he can be with the right material – great and possessed of a decent range. He can do arrogant and slimy as well as anybody, and he makes Kanoichi a throughly infuriating presence (indeed, I kept fantasizing that Arata was the sort of person to lose it and punch his lights out). Arata takes some solace in the comfort zone of his own team, but even there it’s clear that the mainstream of government thinking is closer to Kanoichi’s perspective than to Arata’s.
All this comes to a head when Kanoichi invites Arata to “help” on a big case city hall is working on – in truth not to help at all, but to have his nose rubbed in the fact that he’s helpless. In the under-construction Olympic Stadium, an Another is laying thousands of eggs – and this presents quite a problem for the bigwigs in the city, as they’re causing problems (and injuries) for the workmen who can’t see them. His solution is pure Kanoichi – burn them all. Nothing Arata did or said was going to sway him from this course of action, but the fact that Arata is unable to speak with the babies inside the cocoons (and indeed they are babies and cocoons) just adds to Kanoichi’s sociopathic smugness.
Do I care that Kanoichi has a painful personal history, including a father who was apparently driven mad by an Another and gave the young Satoru his scar? No, not really – we all have choices, and he’s made his in the way he’s chosen to deal with his pain. His cousin Akane tries to steer him off the path to Hell, citing her own experience with Suzu the zashiki warashi – an Another as human as it’s possible to appear, but one whose ability to feel or communicate Kanoichi still chooses to deny because it conflicts with his worldview. But Kanoichi is beyond salvation – and frankly I hope Mayonaka doesn’t try and salvage him.
Not surprisingly, Kanoichi’s plan is big trouble. As it turns out the cocoons are silkworms, an important part of the buildup to the Kaminary Matsuri in Izumo – when all the Gods go to Izumo during October for their massive festival. They have to look the part of course, and they need silk to weave their gowns and robes. The Silkworm Goddess (of where there are several versions in Shinto) is none too happy with this development, and predictably takes matters into her own divine hands. Naturally it’s on Arata to swoop in and save the day – and I suppose he has no choice, because the poor saps who were just Kanoichi’s shock troops deserve a better fate than this. But in truth this episode is just more proof of how foolish Kanoichi’s approach is, and whatever risks are attendant to Arata’s, it at least allows the possibility of avoiding conflict altogether.
animealex
June 11, 2019 at 2:11 amHeh, I got pretty mad about Kanochi too when it became apparent that his question for help was just another way of mocking and antagonizing Arata. What a swell guy! And then his cousin warns him, that he knows exactly what those eggs are and that it would be foolish to try and burn them, but he goes for it anyway? Well, to quote the funniest mummy in Egypt: “You made your sarcophagus, now go and lie in it!”
But what I found most fascinating this episode, was the comments of Arata’s boss. What the hell did he mean, when he said “you’re such cute team” and than hastily changed the adjective? Should we take this at point value, or does he look down on them (if only a little) from a much wider and older perspective? This last interpretation resonates with his closing words on the matter, which where prophetic: “Sounds like the guys in central got arrogant. And that means someone is gonna get hurt.” I must confess, I wasn’t thinking about this character very much and now I ask myself many questions about him. For shame, that there are only a couple of episodes left and I’ll likely never get an answer.
Oh well, at least Kohaku is having fun with this whole debacle.
Scampi
June 11, 2019 at 3:02 amKanoichi’s father is the one in suits standing with the zashiki warashi. The one who cut him was a random kidnapper who tried to coerce his father into handing her over.
In episode 1, Theo blurted out that you can’t talk with Another like you can’t talk with dogs or cats, and it still bothers me. I’m positive that cats and dogs are intelligent enough to communicate with us even without words. Individually that is. When things get out of hand we still resort to extermination like culling of the wild cat population in Australia. Yet in Mayonaka things escalate very quickly despite the fact that communication gap with Another should be smaller than with animals. Have they never tried communicating with writings? Kanoichi should be find his job in pest control instead, seriously.
Guardian Enzo
June 11, 2019 at 6:24 amI dunno… If the spoken language is indecipherable to the other side, why would they be able to read each other’s writing?
Scampi
June 11, 2019 at 3:50 pmI dunno either, if Shinto gods follow the Kannazuki tradition, it stands to reason they’d be able to read Japanese? Their shrines would have wishing ema…and Azazel’s lover is a type of Another born from normal human, so if her memory remains intact like Pandora she should be able to write in her mother language if circumstances allow?
Guardian Enzo
June 11, 2019 at 4:08 pmI suppose it’s possible, but you’d think if that was true they’d understand spoken Japanese too (since that’s how most prayers come in). Most of them aren’t Kami of course – maybe there’d be differences based on what level the Another is at?
aay
June 11, 2019 at 6:35 pmAre we sure that Another don’t understand human languages? To me it seems more like they have given up on communicating with humans since answering is useless. Arata doesn’t unconsciously speak a different language, does he? The Another are surprised to be understood by him but are not surprised to understand Arata.
Another act superior and Japanese people are very very proud so…
Guardian Enzo
June 11, 2019 at 6:58 pmYeah, I suppose that could be possible.