The ball is back in Kemono Jihen’s court as it and Kai Byoui Ramune continue to furiously rally like Federer-Nadal for the top spot of the season.  The difference here, of course, is that we don’t know what the future holds.  With Ramune it’s telling a complete and self-contained story – sadly short, but allowing for closure.  Not so here, where the adaptation (remarkably faithful thus far) is just barely breaking the skin on the custard.  It’s great to have the manga out there whatever happens, but the anime has really elevated the experience.

In point of fact, the anime did skip a chapter for the first time this week (ch. 16 if you’re interested).  I kind of expected it, because it’s a light-hearted side story in no way essential to the character origin arcs that bookend it, but I’m still bummed because it’s extremely amusing (it would make an excellent OVA or Blu-ray bonus episode, so there’s always hope).  The plus side I suppose is that it gives Fujimori-sensei and his team enough time (more than enough, really) to tell Akira’s origin story before the season ends.

Akira has always struggled with his job at the agency in a way Kabane and Shiki haven’t, because he’s just not temperamentally suited to it the way they are.  Shiki of course wastes no opportunity to point this out, but it’s Kabane’s innocently-intended words that cut Akira to the quick.  Kabane has no filter whatsoever – he’s pure honesty, and that’s not always the best policy.  After a particularly rough streak of dojikko incidents, Akira decides to run away – accompanied  by Nii-san – not his actual brother but the plushie he claims resembles him.  And Nii-san has been equipped with A.I. (among other things) by Mihai during a supposedly quick sewing repair after it mysteriously burst open.  Beware genius immortals with time on their hands.

As it happens, the real Nii-san is in town – Yui (Ishikawa Kaitou).  He may be Akira’s twin but there’s not much resemblance either physical or temperamental – Yui is strong, dark, and brooding.  As we knew, these two are yuki-otoko – boys born to a yuki onna village somewhere in the frozen north.  What we didn’t know is that boys are born to this village only once a century.  And while their presence is vital to the village’s survival, it’s pretty obvious that boys in this village have an ominous future to look forward to.

The instrument of fate here is a magazine left behind by a careless human traveler, which the brothers find on one of their (forbidden) walks outside the village.  The wonders of the mysterious “Tokyo” call to them, and Yui is smart enough to realize that staying in the village is a bad idea.  He’s calculating and tough, but Yui seems genuinely devoted to his brother (who’s decidedly neither).  At some point (we don’t know exactly when) they fled, headed south – and were eventually split up, with Akira ordered to head to Tokyo and find the mysterious kemonoist Inugami the women of the village spoke about.

In actuality perhaps the best part of this episode is the goings-on at the agency, where Akira’s absence has proved an unexpectedly major disruption.  Watching Kabane try to stumble his way through his emotional education is never less than endearing – this lad gives earnestness a new meaning.  But he never stops trying to understand, and in his peculiarly innocent way he can be a sort of savant.  He sees to the truth of the matter – Akira is the oil running through the group’s social engine, and without him it grinds to a halt.  Equally charming is watching Inugami watching his boys at work – his affectionate bemusement is obvious, and he continues his strategy of letting them figure stuff out for themselves rather than holding their hands at every step.

Just what’s happened to Yui isn’t clear, but this isn’t the same brother Akira knew.  He’s still (over) protective and solicitous of his brother’s desires, but he also freezesmashes Akira’s smartphone and locks him inside the ice castle he builds for him.  A giant ice castle in Meiji Jingu is going to attract some attention (it’s kind of cute that Yui is enough of a bumpkin to think it wouldn’t) – attention from the locals, from the TV news, and from Inugami and the boys (who have Mihai’s GPS inside Nii-san to confirm Akira’s presence).  Somehow Yui has acquired the Nullstone – a cousin to Kabane’s Lifestone, but one with a seemingly darker purpose and power.