Episode 04 is really two half-episodes put together, both kind of exploring the, imperfections shall we say, of Suzu. Also, unless I missed it, this is a nosebleed-free episode, I think the first one of the series.
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| Don’t East the Cookies. -Machi | |
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| Carrying giant radishes is hard | Are you embarassed that I’m on your lap? |
The episodes starts out with Ayane peacefully eating cookies while taking a break from sweeping the yard of her temple. When she’s done, she sees a note - saying not to eat the cookies, from her older sister Machi. Oops!
We then cut to Suzu and Ikuto carrying huge radishes up a huge hill up to the shrine. The climb completely wipes Ikuto out, who sits to take a rest once he gets to the top. Suddenly Machi drops on Ikuto’s lap (literally) and starts flirting with him.
Suzu asks Machi if her mother is home (so she can take her the radishes). Machi says yes, but that she’s making Mame Daifuku (from what I can gather, a Japanese sweet which one website described as “basically a rice dumpling”). Not only that, but apparently Machi’s mother’s Daifuku is extremely delicious. This news causes Suzu to start going all blurry eyed and to start drooling (she loves Mame Daifuku. We’ve seen her eat it at least once before).
So Machi has an idea. Since she’s looking for Ayane (but she’s not around - think hiding due to eating the cookies), Machi tells Suzu that if she finds Ayane for her, she’ll give her 20 freshly-made Mame Daifuku. Suzu immediately agrees - anything for a Mame Daifuku, much less 20 of them…
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| Mmm….Mame Daifuku | Do you want this? |
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| Suzu has a plan… | What did you say!? |
Suzu proceeds to set a multitude of traps. Ikuto tells Suzu that he doesn’t think that she’ll be able to find Ayane so easily. But Suzu has a plan! She goes to the top of a tall rock and yells out as loudly as she can that…Ayane is flat chested! This causes Ayane to immediately show up to confront Suzu about her accusation.
Then, upon seeing Ikuto, Ayane rushes to him, asking him that her chest may be small, but it definitely isn’t flat, right? Having Ayane around now, Suzu attempts to capture her. Just as it looks like Ayane is captured, her ostrich Monjiro comes to save the day (and to run off with Ikuto on top of it).
While riding the ostrich, Ayane explains to Ikuto that Suzu has a soft spot for sweets, and a Suzu bribed by Mame Daifuku is like a wild beast. Suzu catches up quickly however. Ayane is prepared with her own plan this time: She’ll give Suzu 30 Mame Daifuku if she helps her find Machi’s weak point. Suzu immediately agrees. Hey, it means 10 more Mame Daifuku doesn’t it?
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| Just get in the sack and those Mame Daifuku are mine! | Why am I here? |
While Suzu goes out in search of Machi’s weakness, Ayane decides to ask the other people in town about it as well. Rin says that she thinks she might be afraid of a creature known as Ooushigaeru, which lives in the south. Rin then remembers that she thinks it eats anyone who comes near it, but only after Ayane has left to fetch one. Ayane arrives back, halfway in the mouth of one…
Ayane then asks Chikage about the topic. Chikage thinks that Machi may be annoyed by pretending that one isn’t bothered by the things she does. Ayane thinks about it and then concludes from her own experience that this isn’t the case, at least with her.
Suzu then arrives back (with Machi hiding behind her) and says that if a sword or arrow pierces her heart, she will die, and that’s her weakness. Machi, obviously frustrated with this obvious non-answer, yells out loud if anything will affect that “out-of-fashion old hag.” Suzu then notes that saying that will make Machi sad, and for Ayane to see for herself (since Machi was standing behind her).
Ayane demands whether Suzu has betrayed her. Suzu says no, she thought that they should reconcile, and besides - Machi offered to give her 50 Mame Daifuku if she brought her to Akane.
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| That old hag! | Mmm….50 Mame Daifuku |
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| Machi gets her revenge | |
Ayane then notices that Machi is on the ground depressed. Ayane then realizes that Machi’s biggest concern is about her age, and starts taunting her, and taking away Machi’s voodoo doll that she’s used to harass Ayane with in the past.
Machi has the last laugh, however, when she summons a spirit of her which apparently takes Machi’s revenge out on Ayane.
Part 2
The second part of the episode starts out with Ikuto and Suzu walking along a cliff side carrying wood when Suzu slips and falls. After Ikuto helps her up, Suzu notices that, when she felt, she broke the statue of Ojizo-san. Suzu is terrified by this, since there is a legend that if someone breaks the statue, that they’ll be cursed. Ikuto blows it off as superstitious stuff.
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| Ojizo-san go boom | |
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| Peek-a-boo | Suzu doesn’t like the “boo” part |
As the pair is eating dinner, Suzu spots a ghost looking into their house from outside, goes pale, and goes wild.
The next day, still wrapped in her futon, Suzu clings herself to Ikuto. Ayane decides to torment Suzu by continually saying that there are spooky things around Suzu, causing Ikuto great grief. However, Ayane pushes it too far, finally being flung away by a distressed Suzu.
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| He he he…revenge time | Ikuto gets taken out |
Suzu is still hiding that evening when Ayane, apparently not having learned her lesson, shows up at Suzu’s house with further plans to torment her. Just as she’s about read to scare her again, she gets to meet face-to-face with the real ghost herself.
Ayane’s screams freak Suzu out and cause Ikuto to rush out to see what the fuss is about. When Ikuto gets to Ayane, she’s nearly passed out and pale. Ayane tells Ikuto that there really was an evil spirit there just now.
Suzu then screams again and Ikuto runs in to see a ghost (with a very large tongue) wrapped around Suzu.
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| Time to trick Suzu again! | Boo! |
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| Who’s scared now? | It’s Big Boo |
Ayane comes in, and attempts to use her special training as being descended from a priestess to get rid of the ghost, but gets slapped down by the ghost’s giant tongue. The ghost then starts to go after Ikuto, but he lets the ghost have it, punching it, then stepping on it until it surrenders.
Of course, Ikuto still doesn’t believe that it’s an evil spirit, causing the spirit to become depressed that it’s very existence is in denial by Ikuto. Ikuto then asks the spirit to stop being mean to people, and the spirit becomes grateful for his forgiveness.
In the end, the ghost goes away happily. Ayane and Suzu remain freaked out by the obvious fact that it’s a ghost, but Ikuto is still in denial.
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| Big Boo Surrenders | Existence Denied! |
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| Shouldn’t it be the other way? | |
In the end, this was an interesting look into some of Suzu’s quirks, but I’m not sure I really found this episode terrible exciting. The lack of coherence due to it being really two mini-episodes I think was a part of that.
I’m glad that this series isn’t basing it’s entire existence, at least to this point, on fan service, but I think it still has a long way to go before it becomes truly entertaining. We still have 22 episodes to go, and we’ve seen the equivalent of one US DVD release-worth of episodes, so it’s still early, but I’m so far rather unimpressed with what I’ve seen so far.
