One of the amusing parts of reviewing episodes on an individual basis
rather than four episode discs or full on collections is seeing how they
handle their episode summaries. Some tease, some spell out every plot
point. Some phone it in like this one where it basically says, 'expect
some action, folks. It's gonna get messy.' And admittedly, that's
something that's really needed at this point after so much setup and
missed opportunities, Nura has needed something big. But can that simple
summary express what is really here with Inugami cutting loose and
giving the audience what it needs?
It does start off well with a
brief bit of back story for Inugami as we see him as a troubled yokai
who has been unable to fit in with society and has been lashing out ever
since. It's surprisingly well animated compared to a lot of the series
so far as it has some very appealing character designs for background
characters and the settings are spot on. It's a very short piece but
it's so nicely moody and atmospheric that you can almost forget what
show you're actually watching. And even when it does shift to the
battle, with Inugami transforming into a wolf creature who them has his
head separate from his body to go wild in the main room, almost bouncing
from place to place to attack, it's just as well done for the most
part. It's a short burst of much needed action with a dark feeling to it
that you really feel like we're dealing with a potentially dangerous
yokai.
With the mild exploration of Inugami's past, we do see
some of how he was manipulated by Tamazuki, but it's quickly apparent
that it was all willing on Inugami's part simply because he was looking
for a place to belong. It's hard to turn Inugami from this position
based on how his life has gone and it's completely understandable, but
everything with him is just prelude for what's to come from Tamazuki.
He's laid an interesting trap for Nura and the others by using him since
he's the literally exploding with anger which causes his transformation
to be even bigger than before. Inugami may not be the most interesting
of characters, but he's brought a real sense of danger and excitement to
Nura with his arrival and bloodlust that has him tearing up the
residence. It may all be fairly goofy plot oriented stuff at this point,
and it's hard to see Nura and the others really treating it seriously
since they're trying to reason with him, but for the most part this
manages to be a very exciting episode because of Inugami.
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