Mao certainly isn’t the flashiest series going, but it may very well be the most consistent. I can’t recall a single “off” episode. Some are obviously better than others (like this one) but it avoids huge peaks and valleys. Everything is just rock-solid week after week. The plot is ever-increasing in complexity and the themes are becoming clearer and clearer. This is Rumiko in serious mode, and she’s still got it. Maybe more so than with her more recent ventures into comedy, though I did like Rin-ne an awful lot.

This was an episode that brought together almost all the Goshikido survivors that we know of – only Hakubi was absent. But the main focus was on Kamon – his relationship with Masago specifically. And it was surprisingly moving given that we’ve spent relatively little time on that thread. This is what I said on the subject last week:

We don’t yet know if Masago was summoned but the math suggests otherwise, though she was clearly a better water sorcerer than Shiranui who was. Why wasn’t Masago (who Kamon had feelings for, though he’s too much of a playboy for them to be called love) summoned?

Both sides of that were addressed here. Turns out Masago was summoned – she just chose to opt out of the Goko madness rather than participate. The Master saw that coming and Shiranui effectively replaced her – though it seems as if he had feelings for her, too. And based on what we saw this week, what Kamon felt for Masago very likely was love after all – he just lacked the resolve to face it at the time. The anger he feels towards Shiranui now can’t be explained any other way. And he’s been living with the guilt over that – and his possible role in her demise – for 900 years.

Mao has summoned Natsuno to assist in an assault on Shiranui’s undersea shrine. Kamon doesn’t trust her, likely with good reason. But he’s not in a position to turn down any help, especially when hers is the only chance they have of reaching Shiranui. Natsuno agrees to assist on the condition that Kamon “keep her nose out of his business”, but not before questioning the wisdom for Mao bringing together all these Goshikido participants.

Natsuno also says she can only make this work if Nanoka – also of the Earth element – assists her in maintaining the whale-golem submersible they’ll be riding in. Mao protests that he wasn’t planning on bringing her, which Kamon asserts is a good idea because Mao won’t be able to concentrate. “Because you’d be worried about me!?” Nanoka demands, and Mao fecklessly agrees. This is enough to ensure Nanoka’s participation whether Mao wants it or not. So down below they go, where Natsuno is able to break through Shiranui’s barrier but keeps her presence a secret.

What we still don’t know is exactly what role Masago – who Shiranui asserts has been dead for 900 years – has in Shiranui’s power. The source of the “black evil energy” he uses to attack the others seems to be Yurako/Sana, and Natsuno says she saw it on the day Sana was killed. In point of fact Kamon is very nearly killed after Shiranui traps him in coral (he only needs Mao alive) but it’s Masago’s kiss of life across the great passage that sustains him. That’s quite beautiful, really, as was the soundtrack accompanying it. And so is Kamon’s righteous rage about what Shiranui has done, even if we still don’t know exactly what that is yet.