Kamisama Dolls actually pulled through this week. However, before you break out the champagne and start the celebratory Bacchanalia-esque debauchery, it still hasn’t quite worked out a winning formula. So did the introduction of an extra character flop? No. Could it have been better implemented? Most definitely. Just as a commenter or two of mine have said, she does indeed play a large role. However, the focus on bringing Aki back seems to be lost amidst the ever growing collection of discarded plot threads, and that’s the thing that Kamisama Dolls most needs to bring out of the scrap heap at this time.
So in the previous episode, after a tense if pointless standoff between Kyouhei/Utao and Aki’s pursuers, a girl from the village assaulted the group and gave Kyouhei the closest thing to sex he’ll likely ever receive.
Rather than dropping her after a terse confrontation, the plot saw it fit to have her stick around and utterly tear through the cast like a Mongol through a tissue paper replica of the Great Wall of China. Not only this, but the flashback in the very beginning of the series, which now seems utterly pointless, is explained through her return.
Mahiru, it turns out, is the heir to the Hyuuga clan, and the inheritor of a kakashi that traps and negates control over anything in a field that it projects. Why I saw fit to explain this, I’m not sure. I guess I just needed something to fill up space. Kuuko and Aki make a return as well, and actually play a decent part in the episode until they’re both incapacitated by the somehow-crazier-than-Aki Mahiru.
There’s a reason why Mahiru’s so attached to Kyouhei, for all two or three of you out there who were wondering, yet haven’t seen the episode yet. And, I assure you, it makes almost no more sense in context than it does without. Basically, as kids, Aki and Kyouhei found her pinned under her kakashi by an old cave. When the two save her, all three decide to venture into the cave to wonder why they were feeling such ominous vibes coming from the entrance. Hey, they’re kids, they have a right to be stupid to an extent.
Inside, they find a long dormant kakashi under a heavy layer of moss. It tries to possess Aki, or steal his soul or something, before all three realize that they shouldn’t be in there and leg it. Kukuri saves Mahiru from being crushed, and all three somehow make it out alive. Unfortunately, this has absolutely no context with the rest of the series, so it isn’t quite as effective as it could be. Even though it’s part of the flashback in the beginning, it just doesn’t feel like it’s an important part of the story.
Which brings me to my next complaint: What the hell is the point of this plot? Is it a search for Aki, coupled with an effort from Kyouhei and Utao to prove him innocent of his crimes? Is it somehow reviving an ancient evil to give the mad Hyuuga head unlimited power, Emperor Palpatine style? There are a million different plot points going on at the same time, and none of them seem to have any bearing on the story whatsoever. It’s an aimless tale, one that wanders endlessly in a sea of clichés and substandard animation.
Still, despite my complaints, I’ll confess that Kamisama Dolls works this episode. It may not have a point, but Mahiru isn’t a liability on the cast. All she does is take development away from characters that really wouldn’t benefit from it, and turns into a somewhat effective villain, only operating on the motivation to stalk Kyouhei relentlessly. The plot may move along quicker in the next few episodes, or it may continue to meander about without a goal.
Well this is a rather anticlimactic way to end my 100th post, but this was an anticlimactic episode that didn’t really do much to advance… anything. I have a feeling that you could’ve skipped the past three episodes and not have missed much. When a show does that, you know something’s completely wrong.
Congratulation on your 100th post. :]
Mahiru is so damn scary and cute at the same time…>_<
I wouldn’t call her scary, but she definitely has quite a few screws loose. At the very least, she’s somewhat unpredictable.
Oh, congrats on the 1ooth post.
Mahiru from what I seen in the manga isn’t all that bad as she is now. Just can’t believe sweet Kana Hanazawa is voicing her ^^