Nah, I’m still happy it’s over with.

There was much comment here last week – both in the post and in the comments – about the fate of Neko-musume.  And of how fast it would be resolved, since it seemed pretty much certain that it would be.  Well, we got our answer quickly and decisively – she was restored.  It happened quickly, and it happened (in on-screen terms) all at once.  Hell (pun intended), I even got a scene where she got all tsun regarding the stuff she said while she was Cat-chicklet.

Some questions do remain, mind you.  If this is all we see of a settling of affairs with Mana, that will be a bit of a disappointment.  They’d certainly reconcile, but I would think some clearing of the air between them should be needed.  I’d also be a little disappointed if indeed Neko-musume has forgotten everything she said and did as Chicklet – it would be interesting to see her character try and process all that.  But I’m not prepared to say either of those things are a lock yet – this was a very busy episode with a lot of plot to deal with, and it seems as if things are going to return to episodic normal for a while starting next week.  Perhaps there’ll be time for some post-mortem then.

Even if that doesn’t happen, on balance I’d still take the trade-off of getting Neko-musume back that much more expeditiously.  And indeed, the means of her return in the first place seems likely to have repercussions on the story for the foreseeable future.  Sunakake-baba was right to suspect, as Medama-oyaji and Kitarou did indeed strike a deal not with the devil, but the King of the Underworld, Enma-daio (Ootomo Ryuuzuburou – 1996, 2007).  As you’d expect the price for getting Enma to violate an inviolable law of nature was pretty high – Kitarou had to promise to capture the escaped four traitorous generals, staking his own soul as collateral if he failed.

I liked how the series tied the escape into the change of era names, which is a monumental event in Japan (which Abe managed to turn into a nationalist political statement).  So far we’ve met one of those escaped generals – Nue, who’s set his sights on a feast of souls in Tokyo, which makes sense given that he needs places where folks stay up late.  If it were just a matter of taking down Nue and the other generals, you figure Kitarou and his allies would get it done fairly quickly one way or the other.  But the complicating factor is Isurugi Rei, who will be with us for a while and who I’m desperately hoping doesn’t turn into another Backbeard.

Rei has his own reasons for what he’s doing, at least.  He’s a Kidoushuu, an ancient clan of human magicians who use onmyou and other powers to fight and seal youkai.  His personal stake in the current plot comes as a result of one of the generals – not the Nue, but which one we don’t yet know – went to the Kidoushuu village after escaping the Underworld and killed everyone there (including Rei’s family).  So yeah, I get that he’s irked – but clearly his goals and Kitarou’s don’t match up here, as they have different intentions for the souls of the vanquished generals once they’re subdued.

I guess we can hope that the Rei arc turns out to be more interesting than the Western Youkai arc, since at least here we have an unusual situation – Kitarou facing off against a powerful human whose beef is with youkai exclusively.  I suspect like Nanashi (who I already miss) Rei will be an intermittent factor in the narrative, popping up at the end of stand-alone episodes and occasionally having the spotlight to himself.  Let’s hope he does enough with it to keep the second year of Gegege no Kitarou on-track.