Like the other Saturday “S” series, this one is trending in a positive direction. The last couple of episodes have been quite good, effectively fleshing out the premise and bringing a little more weight to the proceedings. Shabake – despite its rather dark premise – is taking on a bit of that warm and comfortable vibe that only Shinto-themed series really seem to pull off. It’s a curious effect, not wholly explainable in intellectual terms, but unmistakably real if you ask me.
In addition to being quite murder-y, another factor cutting against the grain is Nikichi and Sasuke are real assholes. It’s not just the way they treat Nozoki-Byoubu, though they’re certainly nasty to him. They’re arrogant and imperious fellows, and there are times when I find them quite unsettling. They’ve been tasked with a big job, I admit, and you can’t deny they take it seriously and always have. Even when they were first called in, wearing the form of boys. They disliked each other then – the Inugami thinks the Hakutaku (I’d be lying if I said I remember which is which) looks down on him (he does), and the Hakutaku looks down on the Inugami and considers him a brute (he is).
Their relationship changed when the 5 year-old Ichitarou disappeared (they wrongly blamed Nozoki-Byoubu, naturally). He apparently wandered off after a bubble seller (I’m not entirely clear on what they actually sell) shows up. But when the bubble seller can’t be found, the Hakutaku assumes youkai are involved. The Inugami, meanwhile, is confident in the collective deviancy of humans. Complicating matters is the arrival of four Bake-Gitsune from the shrine, who look down on both guardians equally.
The interesting takeaway here is that even at 5, the supposedly frail and feeble Ichitarou was a bold spirit and a handful. Turns out he went out to help Shogoro, the kidnapped son of another merchant family. They wind up in the care of a couple of kindly kappa, who agreed to take Shogoro from his kidnapper in exchange for 5 cucumbers and a watermelon. They got snowed – as did the Kosamebou who helped in exchange for two rice balls. The kidnapper was an employee of Shogaro’s father who’d embezzled 50 ryou, and he handed the boy to the youkai under they assumption they’d eat him or spirit him away or something.
That all ended well enough – Sasuke and Nikichi took out the villain, the kappa got their cukes and joined Ichitarou’s youkai friendship train, and the two guardians saw past their mutual dislike and distrust. Once more we get a reference to Madame Ogin, with the guardians noting that Ichitarou reminded them of her. At this point I’m wondering if the two of them were brought in not because Ichitarou was frail and helpless, but to try and keep him out of trouble.
