As much as I want to nail this down, I think the best I can do with Hikari no Ou is stick with it – for now.  This was actually a pretty solid episode I thought – minimal action to spotlight the production issues, nice advancement on both fronts of the story.  I think the world-building is quite good here – I just wish the flaws weren’t so glaring.  I haven’t gotten another ep like the premiere to really engage me completely, but I can look at one like this as incremental progress.

I’m not sure what to make of that “tombwhale” sequence at the start of the episode, but I guess if it was there for Shouzou Touko’s speech scared it off.  Their party manages to make it to the capital with Shouzou barely hanging on, and heads for his house and parents.  Fire Hunters wearing dog tags is a nice touch – a reminder that if things go wrong on the job for them, what’s left isn’t likely to be recognizable.

Meanwhile, Ruroku and Koushi set off on the boy’s first hunt.  Everything about Ruroku screams “outsider” (in fact he’s referred to as “the islander” by other hunters later in the ep).  He does things his own way and categorically distrusts authority.  He also has lots to say about Yusoichi (or is it Okibi?), not least that’s he’s a “monster” who’s only interested in profiteering.  Ruroku’s endgame here is clearly to try and figure out why Yusoichi is so interested in Koushi – I’m not prepared to trust his own motives, but there’s no reason to think he’s wrong about Koushi’s benefactor.

Ruroku has some tricks up his sleeve, like beast fire grenades (illegal), and his own hunt ends rather routinely.  But when Mizore picks up the scent of blood, things are anything but routine.  A bunch of fire hunters mutilating a spider nailed to a tree hardly casts them in a good light, but there’s no direct evidence yet that the spiders are getting a bad rap.  This one more or less confirms they intend to take over the city (and that they’ve re-mastered natural fire).  But what we don’t know is that the Spiders taking over would actually be a turn for the worse.

Back in the city, Shouzou is still fighting on, the doctor (Akira is paying) proclaiming that he’ll survive but without the full use of his right arm and blind in his right eye.  I rather like this sequence with the Touko party and Shouzou’s parents.  They seem more than willing to look after the girls for the moment, and then there’s Kun-kun – they know he’s a spider, but have made no complaints about his presence in their very humble home.

The domestic bliss is sure to be short-lived, though.  On her way back from fetching medicine for Shouzou (and, notably, Akira) Touko is led by Kanata to his master’s old house.  I’m not sure why she ran when the cop approached – it’s not like she was doing anything wrong – apart from to push the plot forward.  Her getting lost and running into Kira was certainly convenient – this will surely bring Koushi and Touko together at last.  In the process it may also test the assumption that Kira is as nice as she seems – I have my suspicions…