And so, the fab four is finally complete.

It’s rare to have a season blessed with two “healing” shows as deft at the art as Gakuen Babysitters and Miira no Kaikata.  The good thing is that they’re quite different stylistically, which means that for me at least they complement each other rather than conflict with each other.  That being said, though, this was possibly the edgiest episode of Miira no Kaikata so far – certainly it was the darkest in tone, though that’s a relative term with a series as unapologetically warm as this one.

We’ve seen hints (not just through the OP and ED, but in-scene cameos as well) that there was a fourth member of the main cast here – or rather 2 fourth members, one human and one magical.  The human is Tachiaki Daichi (Yamashita Seiichirou), a tall, blonde third-year whose seen as rather frightening by his classmates as a result of his habit of falling asleep and lashing out violently while embroiled in nightmares.  Not only that, his lack of sleep and the resultant social outcasting has left him a surly and unpleasant fellow even when he’s fully conscious.  Heck, Daichi has even been kicked out of the nurse’s office by this point.

If we’ve learned anything about Sora-kun at this stage, it’s that he’s quite the meddler when it comes to anyone or anything in trouble.  He’s definitely a nurturer, this boy – another of those “comfy” types referenced in this week’s Gakuen Babysitters – and a chance encounter with Daichi in the hallway is enough for Sora to see that Daichi is in pretty bad shape (even before Daichi collapses and pins him).  Sora princess-carries Daichi up to the roof and introduces him to his little circle of friends (Mugi-chan is a lot stronger than she looks, by the way), but that’s not enough – he takes it upon himself to go to Daichi’s house and give him some paranormal coping advice, and give him his phone number with instructions to call him if he ever needs anything, at any time.  You’re right. Daichi-kun – Sora definitely is a good guy.

The exact nature of what happens in the rest of the episode is a bit unclear – apart from the fact that another enormously kawaii mystical beast is added to the mix.  That would be this guy, who eventually gets named “Mukumuku”.  He’s a baku, a very famous Japanese youkai that devours nightmares.  Sora has advised Daichi that by putting up charms to ward off baku (among hundreds of others) he may in fact be freezing out his only protection from bad dreams.  In fact Sora draws a baku and tells Daichi to put it under his pillow, and indeed it works – Mukumuku arrives and starts devouring (though for Daichi this seems like a bad dream in itself).

There are a number of mysteries here, starting with what’s causing Daichi (who lives alone after having been kicked out by his parents) to have nightmares and sleepwalk in the first place.  Sora intimates that Mukumuku may in fact be causing them – in order to have more to eat, presumably – but that may just be a new development.  In any event there’s yet more Miira no Kaikata adorableness here – stuff like Mii-kun playing peacemaker between Daichi and Tazuki (having very awkward alone time), and Mukumuku bonding with his new friends.  But there’s a bit of an underlying sense of mischief to this scenario that’s absent from the other three, and Daichi and Mukumuku’s arrival adds an interesting dimension to the story.