Funny thing. This episode of Kai to Otome to Kamikakushi reminded me of Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge. And the funny part is, I don’t remember ever saying that about another anime. Like, not once (though maybe I have and forgot). Crime Edge is such a deeply weird series that – while it does have a lot of old Gainax aura (and Gainax staff) in itself, there’s just not much that’s anything remotely like it. Crime Edge was a series that was broadly disliked but which I loved, so coming from me this is a compliment. I don’t find Mysterious Disappearances to be on the same level, but it’s certainly interesting.
It’s still hard to tell exactly what’s going on here, but the picture is being filled in at least in outline form. The third key figure introduced is Oto (Yukimura Eri). Ren refers to her as his little sister but I don’t take anything at face value here (especially as her name could be short for “imoto”. The whole thing with “a ticket to Yami Station” has something to do with her (the station attendant is played by 87 year-old legend Nozawa Masako). Ren refers to helping her go “back where she belongs; she notes they should go together. The “curiosities” he collects are seemingly to try and get her a ticket, but he lies to her and says this time he didn’t have enough.
Curiosities are almost certainly the major MacGuffin with Kai to Otome to Kamikakushi. There are apparently a lot of them around, and something is willing to pay for them. And those “!” street signs are what Ren calls “markers” – left behind as a symbol of wrongness whenever a curiosity appears. Oh, and not everyone can see those markers – the Adashino siblings (if that’s what they are) can, for example, but Ogawa Sumireko cannot.
The terminology is flying thick and dense in this ep, and speaking of Sumireko, she’s now what Ren calls a “bearer”. As in she bears the curse she invoked, and now she can transform at will. Which seems very convenient, to be honest. Especially since she can even pick the age, for example high school – which is the age she has to be to infiltrate Oto’s school. Which Ren is asking her to do because there have been strange incidents at said school, a prestigious all-girls combined JHS/HS, and he believes them to be connected to a curiosity.
Once things go to school, the story pretty much descends into camp, though not in a bad way. Sumireko is thrilled at the idea of voyeuring a bunch of nubile young girls all day, but Oto – who’s irritated that she seems to be stealing Ren’s attention – tells her to hide in a toilet stall all day. Eventually she winds up in an empty classroom with a bunch of Oto’s horny middle school classmates, who instantly start pumping her for explicit tales of her sexual exploits (worth remembering that she confessed to being a virgin in the premiere). And Oto trots out an insult I’d never heard before – “danchizuma” (apartment wife). And apparently it’s a common thing here, because there seems to be a series of porno films bearing the name…
As for the mysterious events at the school, that’s girls turning into “dribblers“. They start slobbering and pass out, and only recover by getting out of the school. The dojikko teacher is the one behind it (apparently because she likes to lick up their drool?). This all gets pretty surreal and absurd (again, more than a whiff of Crime Edge to it) but pretty entertaining if you don’t get analytical about it. If I’m honest this sort of show isn’t normally my thing, but I find myself enjoying the craziness so far – we’ll see if Mysterious Disappearances has the legs for the full marathon, though.
Nicc
April 19, 2024 at 7:44 amIt’s onward to the second episode and we are introduced to Oto, who seems to be Ren’s little sister. You’re right that it’s not made that clear if they’re actually siblings (And you can’t read the eyes as everybody has got weird eyes in this series). It’s also a question of whether or not they’re from this world as those “curiosities” can be traded for tickets for a destination that’s probably not-of-this-world. That particular cursed novel is good for a ticket to a “Yami Station”. Ren does indeed lie to Oto about it when asked later. He’s either looking for two tickets or a different station where Oto can go. In any case, they have to do something about Sumeriko, who seems to shrink again when she’s asleep. She’s taken to their home, which seems to be an abandoned station.
It seems that there’s a case to be solved at the school where Oto attends. There are no disappearances, but there have been some strange incidents of students getting sick and not coming back. As it’s an all-girls school, Ren cannot take point this time. However, it seems that Sumeriko has absorbed the essence of the curse and to become a “bearer”, which allows her to transform at will. Right, that does seem convenient and along with having spare school uniform that fits her. Transforming into a teen appears to be easier on her physically as there isn’t so much cramming, I suppose.
Sumeriko is thrilled at the prospect of entering this cloistered flower garden (And probably thinks she can get lots of good writing material too) while Oto is more concerned about a new student suddenly showing up. Along with what Oto believes who is stealing Ren’s attention, she’s also jealous of Sumeriko’s physical assets. Also, Sumeriko is locked away in the girl’s bathroom for the entire school day and so she misses out on talking to school girls. Well, at least she didn’t come across the resident Hanako-san. This is also where we learn about those markers that we’ve been seeing at certain places. It shows that something supernatural has occurred, but they’ll have to figure out the rest. Only certain people can see them, such as the Adashino siblings. It’s also after school where we see Oto’s friends again after a brief introduction from before school.
That’s where they talk about the “dribblers”, called as such because of their uncontrollable drooling. They recover when they head home, but it reoccurs when they come back to school. This causes them to not come back to school. That’s all they’ve got to work with and the meeting seems to have been busted up by the teacher who we also met earlier on. Right, she’s a dojikko and seems to mean well. She asks the teenage Sumeriko if she’s being bullied, which later turns to be an important question. Oto’s classmates still want to fish out romance stories from the teenage Sumeriko when they become dribblers right in front of them. We then found out who did it; the teacher who I first thought was a red herring. She’s also licking the drool on the floor for some reason and her shadow shows horns… She’s definitely had trauma about bullying in the past and she seems to have gained powers to correct it, though it’s apparent she casts a very wide net on what she considers as bullying. I’m on board for at least a third episode and to see how Oto and Sumeriko solve this mystery.