I’m not going to sit here and say Dekin no Mogura is the best show of the season. But I would certainly say it’s the most underrated by a wide margin, and it may just be the most interesting too. There’s an awful lot going on here with an awful lot of thought behind it, a story operating on multiple levels. I should have had more faith in Eguchi Natsumi, but that’s on me. I was thrown by the lack of fanfare this series seems to receive even in Japan, but the evidence from Hoozuki no Reitetsu is unambiguous – Eguchi is an exceptional writer and artist.

At one point in this episode Momoyuki tells Magi-kun “there’s way more strangeness around you than you ever realized”, and that’s very much the feeling in watching this episode. The world we’re living in is the tip of the iceberg, and what seemed like a strange little pocket with Mogura-san in it is actually much deeper and wider than it first appeared. And that applies to Mogura himself too – there’s more to him and his situation than he’s letting on. It’s complicated and so is he, and trying to understand him in human terms would clearly be a dangerous mistake.

The corner of the world opened this week mainly involves the Nekozuku family of exorcists. I’ve been saying their are two cat anime this season but I have to amend that to three now, as neko are important to The Earthbound Mole. Specifically bakaneko, the cat youkai of folklore. Each member of the family is possessed by one, including high school senior Kyoushirou (Murase Ayumu). Our trio runs into him while fleeing Shio’s stalker spirit, which is certainly fortunate timing (though I’m not prepared to call it a coincidence). Exorcisms are really expensive (a million Yen a pop) but Kyoushirou is still a trainee, and will exorcise for free.

Kyoushirou is a very interesting addition for multiple reasons. He gives us a look inside how exorcism (for his clan at least) works. Basically, he goads the giant cat youkai into using the spirit as a cat toy, or a meal (we are told that his father is more delicate about it). He also speaks disparagingly of Momoyuki, most suggestively referring to him as a “sub-human creature”. Nothing good can come of associating with him, Kyoushirou warns the kids, and the mole tells everyone he can pigeonhole about his woes. For his part Mogura protests the harshness of the lad’s words, but never tries to refute any of them on substance.

As it turns out (indeed, Nekozuku is not a common surname) Kyoushirou’s father Toushirou (Takeuchi Shunsuke) is one of Yae and Magi’s professors at college, and a fantasy novelist to boot. Momoyuki finds this amusing, as these “fantasies” are probably closer to memoirs. We get a look at his bakaneko (Ikebukuro) during a Zoom lecture Magi takes in at the candy shop. Interestingly I noticed immediately that Yae-chan had a red panda in her cam shot, a red panda popped up later in the episode, and the next ep is titled “The Mystery of the Mad Dog and the Red Panda”.

Why is Magi-kun taking in the lecture on Drawer Street – especially after being warned by Toushirou to stay away from it? Because the 100 Yen shop is troubled by spirits – as a result of spirit-magnet Inukai-san buying her snacks there now – and the customers (and home office) are complaining virally. Kyoushirou is underage and can’t exorcise as a business transaction. This leaves a theoretical opening for Mogura – he could do it, accomplish little but still get paid – but he declines to take advantage. But Toushirou can certainly do the job, and he’s hired much to the delight of the unhinged shop manager Sukekiyo (who’s played by Mafia Kajita, a well-known Japanese multimedia personality).

One of the things we learned from Kyoushirou’s introduction is that being possessed by a bakaneko is no bargain – it “drains his nutrients” and prevents him from growing. And we once more flash back to the war, where it’s revealed that Mogura has a long-standing connection to that family – and that those possessed rarely live past 30 because of it. Once more we see Momoyuki’s kindness, even when it’s at his own expense. Just what sort of being is he, and what was the crime so terrible as to prevent him from “returning” (as Mugi notes he says) to the afterlife? I’m starting to wonder if it might not have been extending compassion and aid to those he wasn’t supposed to interact with.