Make no mistake about it, Gegege no Kitarou 2018 is a frustrating series sometimes.  Why?  Because it periodically shows us what it’s capable of, which is anime of the highest level of sophistication and cultural relevance.  But it does so relatively rarely, and what’s most frustrating for me is that it doesn’t try more often than it does.  A show which airs on Sunday mornings for two years is obviously not going to be high art every week, and no one has any right to expect otherwise.  But damn, it sure can be a tease.

Not that there was anything wrong with this episode.  And in fact, while there have been some clunkers in general the baseline quality level of this update has been remarkably high.  It’s true, though, that the bar was set so high with the stunning Episode 89 that the last three weeks have suffered a bit by comparison.  Last week’s ep was a classic ghost story which was solidly above-average, and this was another fairly serious episode that was right in the series’ wheelhouse.  But it was too broad to be really impactful – when a series has shown such dexterity with a scalpel, it’s hard not to feel let down when it uses an axe.

The target this time is reality television, and like most of the more inane aspects of modern culture which this reboot targets it’s much in need of lampooning.  Japan in particular seems infatuated with this sort of humiliation genre (it was memorably parodied on SNL some years ago).  Nurarihyon is involved this time, but only in the sense of stirring up trouble.  He and Shu no Bon free a sealed youkai named Ama-no-Jaku (Kusumi Naomi, a regular on the 2007 but making his first appearance here), but quickly leave him to his own devices as “this one doesn’t like taking orders”.  The goal here is to mess with the hoomans, that’s all, and it’s certainly one that’s met.

Ama-no-Jaku, it seems, is a youkai who thrives on the misfortune of humans.  After a chance meeting with Nezumi-otoko, the latter decides to hook Ama-no-Jaku up with an old acquaintance named Okuda (series stalwart Numata Yuusuke), a struggling TV director on his last legs with his psychotic boss.  What follows is pretty predictable – the three of them basically embarrass and abuse people on camera, and draw big ratings in the process.  Okuda feels badly but enjoys the accolades; eventually his son gets in trouble for bullying when he imitates what he sees his father do on TV in school.

In principle this is all well-placed – this sort of TV is pretty disgusting and reality TV in general an affront to human dignity.  But as I said, this is pretty broad stuff – borderline preachy – and it’s not like there’s any question of what’s right and what’s wrong here.  In a sense Gegege no Kitarou 2018 is a victim of its own success, because if it hadn’t shown us how subtle, daring and biting it was capable of being it wouldn’t stand out so much when it isn’t really any of those things.  I will say this, though – it’s certainly no more than a hunch, but the preview for the next episode looked especially promising.