Less is more.
It’s almost as if someone was listening. After bemoaning the almost total absence of Buchio (and his wing of the narrative building) these last two weeks, he and Takumi had the entire episode (almost) today. And it did nothing but confirm my belief that for me at least, Tonari no Youkai-san is much better this way. It absolutely felt as if a weight had been lifted from the story – all that leaden drama and navel-gazing really takes its toll. The sheer tonal chasm between the two main threads of this series is among the widest I can recall in quite a while.
As someone who’s spent his whole life fervently wishing that you didn’t have to say goodbye to cats you love, there’s a particular poignancy to Buchio and Takumi’s arc. It’s sort of a role reversal here, with the cat in the position of fretting over saying goodbye too soon – a common theme in youkai-human stories of course. It’s kind of a wish-fulfilment fantasy really – Takumi’s best friend is his beloved cat, and now they get to hang around together and talk about cool stuff. Takumi whizzes around on his bike with Buchio riding in his backpack, chasing down conspiracy theories and having a great time. What a joy that is to see.
What Takumi is chasing down this time is the Space Time Agency, back in town investigating something. That something is an incident in 1520 when a meteor crashed to Earth. And the head tengu of the time, Tengenbo (a wonderful little cameo for Miki Shin’ichirou) saved everyone by sacrificing himself. He knew his tree body was running out of time and was determined to go out fulfilling a “tengu’s duty”, which he certainly did. Reading about this starts the waterworks flowing for the extremely sentimental Buchio, which Takumi gently chides him over.
I loved the exchange those two had over Takumi’s dreams for the future. Buchio – who’s been watching Takumi closely for literally Takumi’s entire life – notes how the boy lights up when he’s pursuing stuff like this, and notes that he should do it for a career. Takumi replies that “you can’t make a career out of something just because you like it”, and declares that he’s going to be a salaryman who pursues his interests as a hobby (whee). Takumi expresses envy over how easily things seem to come for Buchio since his transformation – he’s now about to go to Tokyo for job training – though Ryou later points out that it’s Buchio’s ability to connect with people that’s allowed him to adapt so quickly to nekomata existence.
As for the science ladies, what they were investigating is something we’ve seen already, a rift in the barrier between worlds. That could be a big problem for many reasons. Buchio notes that the other world could be full of kaibutsu, and Takumi that all common knowledge could become moot. This will become a factor once the pair of them arrive in Tokyo. Takumi muses at the beginning that he’d like to come along, Buchio resists because Takumi is too young to be sightseeing in Tokyo alone, and eventually Wagen is enlisted to chaperone him.
I literally groaned when the scene shifted to Mutsumi and Jirou, but happily that lasted for only a moment or two (Ma-san has started venturing out of doors). The main event is in the big city, where there’s a “flash of darkness” (a very effective moment) and a giant crack appears in the sky. Judging how how worried Sanmoto-san looks when he sees it, it’s safe to assume this is big deal. Look for Buchio to go into protector mode with Takumi officially in his care when the shit goes down.
Nadavu
June 17, 2024 at 2:48 amI was skeptical going into this episode as the rift thing is where the show originally started losing steam and I didn’t like at all how they dealt with the alternative universe, but it went better than expected.
As for Tengenbo, while it was emotionally effective, I couldn’t stop the rational part of my brain complaining that a meteor colliding with Earth is more than a mere threat to the village but more like a mass-extinction event. So in all of Japan, in all of Earth, in fact, there just happened to be one Tengu willing to save Humanity and like 90% of all life forms? No wizard from England, no deity from India, no ifrit from Arabia thought that maybe they should do something about that lump of superheated death hurling their way?
Anyways. I feel kinda bad for being so fed up with Mu, but it really was good to get a break from her and Jiro.
Guardian Enzo
June 17, 2024 at 8:36 amWhat if the meteor happened to be heading straight for the village? Unlikely I admit, but big meteors have to be heading straight for somewhere on the globe if they’re going to hit. Call it dramatic license.
I don’t feel bad about it at all, ROFL. I was just happy for the break.
Nadavu
June 17, 2024 at 10:42 pmMy point is that it doesn’t matter where the meteorite hits, exactly, it’s still a mass-extinction event that will affect everyone about equally (i.e., wipe them out).
BBOvenGuy
June 17, 2024 at 4:45 amCan you explain why the red-faced older tengu only has one wing? That’s been bugging me for weeks.
Guardian Enzo
June 17, 2024 at 8:37 amHeh, I didn’t even notice that.
I’m still annoyed that Digimon Ghost Game never explained why Hiro had a scar on his ear.
Nadavu
June 17, 2024 at 10:31 pmI think he lost it at war; there was an early episode where they showed him going away to fight somewhere and he had two wings back then
Nicc
June 19, 2024 at 7:10 amRight, we back to Buchio and Takumi and it’s been a while since we had an episode focused on them. The sci-fi stuff comes back into play too too as the Space Time Agency is back in town to check out something. This gets Takumi hyped up and he brings Buchio along for the ride to see what they’re up to. Takumi learns an important lesson about filming others without permission. That said, the science ladies let them know why they’re there. The barrier around this area is still thin and we saw the effects of that from a few episodes back. Yuri is unlikely the only one who swapped worlds then, but it seems like everybody was returned home. If the barriers between two worlds collapse outright and the worlds merge, it’s a big problem. Indeed, we’ll get back to that later.
We also learn about Tengenbo, who was Tazenbou’s master, about an incident from 1520 (Which means it was during the Sengoku era, huh. Perhaps Nobunaga was an actual Demon King of the Sixth Heaven in this setting). He was able to destroy a meteor as final act before his life expired. It also showed that Hayachiyo has been around for at least as long as Tazenbou. Takumi is a tad jealous with Buchio about the opportunities that he’s gotten while he’s aiming to be a salaryman. To be sure, being a famous film director is a difficult road. Buchio gets a call to head to Tokyo for some training. Takumi has never been to Tokyo and so he wants to tag along. Luckily, Wagen-san volunteers to tag along to chaperone Takumi while Buchio heads to his training.
It’s not made clear exactly what Buchio’s training is about, but Takumi gets in some sightseeing. We do very briefly jump back to Jiro and Mutsumi. It seems that Ma-san is now taking walks outside and that his ego still hasn’t awakened yet. Buchio completes the training session and is about to meet up with the others when the screen suddenly goes black. I thought that my stream bugged out, but it was apparently an in-universe event. Then, the sky split open… Yep, that doesn’t look good. Soo… Superheroes should exist in this setting, right? This would be a good time for them to show up.
Guardian Enzo
June 19, 2024 at 7:17 amOr giant robots.