天下制覇

Luckily, this was so delayed that the wait for “next week’s” episode shouldn’t be so bad.

I’m not certain I’ll stay with this posting style, but I’ll try it for a day or two and see how it feels. If you especially like it or hate it, just leave a comment here or back on where I was ruminating on updating the layout.   

Impressions:

Talk about a setup episode. Almost nothing of particular value happened this episode except Kaguro taunting Gen to the dark side more and Kokuboro making their way to Karasumori and until the last five minutes of the show, it did so very very slowly. I admit to wandering off to stir my carbonara more than once when they started rambling on. The next few episodes should be shit hot though, as the preview shows them finally throwing down with Gagin, the giant horse demon thing from the OP as well as Gen once again transforming into his full demon form.

When last we left our crew, Gen was having an illicit encounter with Kaguro hen Yoshimori walked in on them. Yoshi runs forward, and Gen pushes Kaguro back, then transforms his hand and takes a few swings. Kaguro easily hops back and then flips away to a rooftop, running off. Yoshi asks Gen what was going on, but Gen yells at him to shut up and slashes at him before realizing what he did and then running off in shame.

At the Yukimura’s, Tokine’s grandmother is heading out to carry a message personally. All her Shikigamis that she’s sent have been destroyed before they got far. They need help to deal with Kokuboro. The others are a little worried that her absence will be noticed, but she’s left a Shikigami clone to take her place. As she waves goodbye, Tokine realizes that she’s late for school and goes running off.

Kokuboro is having a meeting to discuss what’s happening with the princess. Some want to just throw themselves headlong into the battle, confident that they’ll win. Byako says to leave it to him for now.

Masamori and Shige are on the phone while Masamori is packing and sorting a ton of crap using all his Yagyou cronies. Shige is worried, but Masamori says to leave it to Yoshimori for now.

At school, Yoshi is in his gym clothes since his uniform was slashed up by Gen. Yuri senses that something was wrong and imagines him getting into a fight with a monster, then putting down his jacket for a beautiful woman as ways to ruin it.

Gen is standing on the rooftop, looking at his hand and thinking about attacking Yoshi. Kaguro starts talking to him through the egg again, reminding him of attacking his sister as well. Gen raises the egg to crush it, but it starts shaking and his body trembling while Kaguro says that’s a bad idea. Gen relents and lowers it.

After class, Yuri decides to talk to Yoshi, but he’s already gone. He’s talking with Tokine about seeing Gen with Kaguro and Gen then attacking him. Tokine wonders if her grandmother is okay since she went out on her own. One of Tokine’s friends calls to her and they part.

Gen is walking alone through town. He bumps into some punk who yells at him, but he glares and the punk just runs off. Gen keeps thinking about how it’s right that the humans run, he is just a monster afterall. Kaguro starts taunting him through the egg again.

At Kokuboro HQ, Byaku and Kaguro are having a conversation. Byaku reminds Kaguro that he’s the master and Kaguro is his. Kaguro reminds him that it’s only because he has the bug inside of him. The conversation turns to the brats protecting Karasumori, but Kaguro thinks that it’s just a joke. Byaku says that it could become a concern once the Yagyou get involved.

Masamori is having his own meeting with the huge guy in the Urakai about different kinds of very dangerous monsters. It wasn’t particularly interesting or enlightening, but Masamori does tell him that it concerns Karasumori.

Gen’s sitting alone in a playground when his phone rings. It’s Atora, who wants to chat with him about Karasumori. Gen gets sick of her pretty quickly and hangs up.

Gen suddenly raises up on the seesaw thanks to Yoshi stepping on the other end. Yoshi yells at him for ruining his uniform, but Gen says that he’s lucky that he’s uninjured and walks off.

Aihi is leaving Byaku’s office. Kaguro falls in step behind her and tries to get her to talk to him about what she reported to Byaku, but she refuses to say a word. Elsewhere, Byaku summons a small swarm of giant insects and prepares to go somewhere.

After dinner, Yoshi is cleaning up. His father asks how Gen is doing. Yoshi replies “not too well,” and his father picks up a bowl with three legs and compares the three legs to the three of them. Tokine is also cleaning up at her place. She’s still pretty worried about her grandmother, but thinks that it’ll be okay to leave things to her, Gen and Yoshi for now.

As Yoshi prepares to head to Karasumori, he’s thinking about Gen and Kaguro again. Tokine gets ready to leave too, but her sandle string breaks as a sign of bad luck. Byaku has also assembled his insect swarm into kind of an airship for the princess.

The princess is waiting inside and hugs Byaku as he comes in. They’re preparing to head to Karasumori finally. The princess can’t wait, and thinks back to when Byaku attacked her and she defeated him and won his loyalty.

All the rest of Kokuboru is ready to go, and the insect army heads off while Byaku gives his speech for their great victory. There’s some great music playing through this scene. Also funny, Kaguro is in his human skin for some reason. The dark cloud of insects begins to move. 

At Karasumori, Yoshi tells Tokine that he’s going to track down Gen and have a man to man talk with him. Gen is lurking in a tree while the egg starts to convulse and seems near ready to hatch. His phone rings… it’s Masamori, calling to check in on him.

Masamori is keeping watch high in the air. Around him, minor demons are being attacked and killed. There’s one insect and a bird, so it doesn’t look like it’s Byaku’s swarm, but he does tell Gen that something big is going down. He hangs up and then yells at his minions on the ground as some giant demons move towards them.

Kaguro talks through the egg again, this time a demon fetus being visible through the shell. Yoshi yells at him from the ground, but Gen runs off. Yoshi gives chase, calling him an obstinate monkey.

Yoshi loses him, so uses his barries to head up high to try to find him. He yells as loudly as he can, telling Gen that he doesn’t care about the uniform at all, but if there’s something going on, Gen needs to talk with them. They’re friends and allies after all. Etc etc etc.

Gen is thinking about what Yoshi is saying when Kaguro starts taunting him again, saying that a monster is always a monster. Gen struggles with himself while the dark cloud moves ever closer to Karasumori.

The dogs pick up the scent and realize that they’re here. Byaku sends whose her face, the spider woman to deal with the homes of the Kekkaishi. She lets down threads and her puppets crawl all over the Sumimura and Yukimura houses. Nobody wakes up at all.

The massive dark cloud has reached Karasumori and demons begin raining from it, all attacking Karasumori at once. Kaguro says from the egg that they’re Gen’s true companions as the egg convulses more.