Obviously, it’s awfully nice to have Gegege no Kitarou back and firing on all cylinders writing-wise.  There was nothing revelatory or especially unexpected in this week’s episode, but it continued to unspool the conclusion of the Western Youkai arc is highly satisfying fashion.  The dark days of this arc’s middle period are but a memory now, but no less inexplicable for that – we’ll probably never know why things went all cattywampus there for a while but in the end, as long as it was temporary I guess it’s best just to let it go.

What really stood out to me this week, though, was the animation and art.  It’s certainly not the first time that’s been the case, but it just goes to show you how commonly accepted perception can be hilariously off-base.  Toei, in the eyes of most Western anime fans, is a hack studio that’s only good for cheaply-made long-running productions.  Ans since most of them would never even contemplate watching this show, they can safely putter along in their misapprehension – which was demonstrably not true in the first place (as anyone who watched Kyousougiga could have pointed out).

Yes, there was some serious sakuga this week – and some tremendous voice work again by Banjou Ginga, who continues to own every scene he steals as Nanashi.  He’s a truly terrifying character, and I don’t say that lightly – I get more genuine menace from Nanashi than any villain in recent memory.  The fact that we still haven’t actually seen him do much of anything evil himself just makes it worse – he hovers like a spectre, usually right over poor sweet Mana’s shoulder.  His role in Brigadoon – what connection he has to Backbeard, if any – is the great mystery of this otherwise pretty straightforward storyline.

Nanahsi’s main role here is to get the ring (literally) into – and onto – Mana’s hand.  Why Mana – why is it always Mana with Nanashi?  Mana being the innocent she is can’t resist putting the ring on her finger, “just for a second”, but as soon as she does the eye of Sauron immediately knows where it is and soon, the full legion of Backbeard’s minions (headed by Adele) set off after it.  Team Kitarou springs into action too, and arrives just in the nick of time – setting off a series of skirmishes between the members of both groups.

I feel as if I pretty much knew where things were headed with Adele and Agnes – the older sister was going to try and surrender to “a witch’s fate” and spare the younger from having to do that.  But Backbeard was never going to allow it – Brigadoon needs an Evo 10, not a Prius at its core.  Agnes’ attempt to rescue Mana by air also goes haywire, and Backbeard himself steps in to take down Kitarou (who’s no match for him in terms of magical power, it seems).  This definitely has the whiff of a “Shaka, when the walls fell” moment.

Again, the big curiosity factor for me comes down to Nanashi.  We know what Backbeard wants – to use Brigadoon to turn Japan’s humans into youkai and turn it into a slave state.  We know the dynamic of Agnes and Adele’s family history, and we know Agnes has finally accepted the friendship of the Gegege youkai.  But what’s Nanashi’s endgame here?  I don’t think he’s working with Backbeard – I don’t think Backbeard is even aware of him, if I had to bet.  In alignment terms it almost seems as if Backbeard is Lawful Evil and Nanashi is (the much more dangerous) Chaotic Evil – but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as Nanashi seeing Brigadoon as a tool to rain chaos down upon the land.  Once more Gegege no Kitarou leaves us anxiously awaiting the next episode in the hope that it will provide some answers.