This time I’ve decided to combine my writeup for Episode 19 and Episode 20, mainly because it’s a two part episode. This time we get introduced to yet two more characters, and one has to start wondering if Airantou magically vacuums up anything and everything that is weird in the world (I mean, it already has talking animals, huge vegetables, a kappa, and magic. What’s one more thing?).
Also, an evil menace shows up and threatens to turn everyone’s trip to the hot springs into a night of frights. Can Ikuto stop the intruder?
Lots and lots of pictures this time, so it may take a while to load. I also have updated pictures from the opening sequence with Shinobu at the end.
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Episode 19 starts with Ikuto reading a series of mystery novels in Chikage’s library about a villain named Beniyasha. Chikage tells him that there are a total of 7 volumes in the series, and that they were all written on Airantou, but the author, who uses the pseudonym of Shizumaru, is unknown. Chikage’s mother then walks into the room and Chikage introduced her to Ikuto, as it’s the first time they’ve met. It starts lightening out, and Chikage’s mother tells Ikuto that he should get home, since Suzu doesn’t like storms (see Episode 10).
Back at home, Suzu is sitting inside, afraid of the storm when suddenly lighting strikes nearby, lighting up the front of her house, showing a figure standing at her front door. Tonkatsu goes to check it out, but just sees that it’s a broom stuck in a bucket, and that there is a note sitting next to it.
The next day, Suzu and Ikuto run into Mei-Mei and Tohno on their way to Tsukimi Pavilion, which is where they were invited to. The group finally gets there and Sakuya, who runs the place, comes out to meet them. Sakuya bows only to have…her head fall off! As Ikuto and Mei-Mei freak out, she calmly picks it back up and reattaches it and tells them that she’s a mechanical doll. Ikuto, obviously curious, asks when she was built and by whom, but Sakuya says she doesn’t remember, but that she was built somewhere around 130 years ago.
Inside, Ayane, Machi, Rin, Yukino, and Chikage are already taking a bath in the hot spring, and Suzu decides that it’s time for them to go in too. Ikuto, expectedly, passes but Suzu is determined to drag Ikuto in with her this time (much to the embarrassed chagrin of Mei-Mei), but Suzu’s attempts are futile. In the bath, Suzu fusses about whether there is any way to get Ikuto in the bath, and Chikage comes up with an idea: everyone will hide in the bath, and Chikage will go tell Ikuto that the coast is clear. Once in the bath, the girls can keep him from leaving.
Inside, Ikuto thanks Sakuya for inviting everyone, but Sakuya says that she didn’t invite them, and that she got a note saying everyone would be coming to visit. Chikage, coming in to trick Ikuto, overhears them, and declares it a mystery. She sees the same red stamp on the back of both Ikuto’s and Sakuya’s invitations and declares that this confirms that the invitations came from Beniyasha. Ikuto doesn’t believe it at first, but Chikage tells him that the Beniyasha novels are based on real events, but they happened so long ago that most people have forgotten about them.
Sakuya then says it’s almost time for dinner, at which point Chikage totally forgot that she left everyone in the bath. Afterwards, everyone who was in the bath too long is lounging around trying to cool off. Ikuto mumbles about Beniyasha while he’s thinking, and Suzu asks him what’s up, so he tells the whole group about the story he read and what Chikage told him.
Suddenly everyone hears a scream from outside, so they all run to see what’s going on. Outside they see Chikage (who is the one who screamed) and she points to something moving in the forest. Sakuya then goes into battle mode with about a dozen different types of weapons deployed and ready to be fired. However, Shinobu stumbles out of the forest and collapses in front of everyone. Ikuto asks her if she ran into Beniyasha, but she says that she got an invitation, but got lost on the way.
Once everyone has settled down inside, Ikuto decides that it’s his turn to take a bath. Ayane decides to take advantage of this fact, and tries to intercept Ikuto in the bath. She enters the bath and approaches Ikuto from behind, however, upon reaching him, he turns around and…it’s Beniyasha! Ayane screams, and the real Ikuto runs out to see what’s wrong. He screams and Sakuya runs out and sees Ayane covered in blood. She thinks Ayane is dead, but Ikuto just tells her that he had a nosebleed all over her.
Ayane regains consciousness and immediately scolds Ikuto for scaring her, under the impression that it was Ikuto in the bath. However, Ayane immediately starts to itch really bad. Suddenly who shows up but…Beniyasha himself.
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After a short prelude about Chikage’s mother and what looks like a boy she likes in the past, Episode 20 picks up right where episode 19 left off: Beniyasha revealing himself to Ikuto and Sakuya while Ayane is itching everywhere. Beniyasha confirms that he is the one who sent the invitations, and that he gave Ayane Ayane herbs that make a person extremely itchy. He offers the antidote to Ikuto, but only if Ikuto can catch him by the time the full moon sets. Ikuto starts chasing after him, but Sakuya arms herself again and fires at Beniyasha. However, once Ikuto and Sakuya get to where the weapons landed, they see that Beniyasha got away.
Back at the inn, Suzu laments that the day is over already, but Machi tells her that she’s naive and that the fun starts at night. Machi goes on to say that the night is for making out with and sleeping with Ikuto. Of course, everyone (except for maybe Suzu and Mei-Mei) want a piece of Ikuto, so Chikage has a plan: everyone will go back to their own rooms, but they’ll leave a note telling Ikuto to go to the room of the person he wants to spend the night with. As a percaution so that Ikuto must choose a room with a girl in it, the girls leave various things in the empty rooms (like Kuma-Kuma or Machi’s shikigami). Beniyasha spies in on this conversation and decides on his next plot.
The first one to fall victim is Shinobu, who finds a modern recliner sitting in her room. Suddenly, claws come out of it and restrain her to the chair and the chair tickles her. Chikage, Ikuto, and Sakuya run to see whats happened and find Shinobu passed out from the tickling. Upon investigation, Chikage finds that the chair was controlled by a person inside of it.
The trio then go attend to Ayane, who has since gone into her own fantasy world due to the itching when they hear a scream from Mei-Mei’s room. Once they get there, Ikuto goes to check on Mei-Mei, but she suddenly climbs on top of him and starts stripping. Beniyasha pops up and tells everyone that he applied the famous “Horny Mushroom potion” to Mei-Mei, which causes one to want to do perverted things.
Beniyasha then enters Yukino’s room, but Yukino is asleep. Beniyasha wonders if he should wake her up and give her a laughing potion when Ikuto rushes in. Beniyasha drops the potion (making it look like Yukino wet the bed) and escapes again. He suddenly hears a scream from Rin’s room, but once he gets there, he sees that it’s just Mikoto molesting Rin as usual. Ikuto decides to search the rooms one by one, and as a result, get assaulted by all the traps the girls set up as part of their plan.
Meanwhile, up on the second floor, Suzu is half asleep when Ikuto enters the room. He tells Suzu that Beniyasha is around, and Suzu becomes disappointed that he didn’t come because of the letter. He then makes a very un-Ikuto like face and then tells Suzu that she’s the one he loves the most. Suzu gets flustered when and Ikuto tells her to close her eyes. This is when we see that he is holding another potion, showing that it is Beniyasha disguised as Ikuto. Suddenly the real Ikuto enters the room and is immediately shocked to see a second Ikuto already there.
Ikuto chases after the fake Ikuto, who rapidly changes back into Beniyasha and escapes to the roof. Ikuto tells Beniyasha that he’s cornered, but Beniyasha helpfully reminds Ikuto that he’s afraid of heights. Ikuto becomes so frightened he can’t move, and Beniyasha tells him that at least the last guy he messed with was fun, and that it will be impossible for Ikuto to be like him.
Of course, saying “impossible” to ikuto will give him determination like nothing else, and he charges Beniyasha. However, Beniyasha tosses the antidotes to the potions he gave Ayane and Mei-Mei and gets away as Ikuto lunges for them and falls off the roof as he catches him (with his fall being partially broken by Sakuya’s arms, which fall off in the process).
Beniyasha then laughs and tells Ikuto that he’s looking forward to their next meeting and flies off on a kite, which Ikuto chases after. However, on the roof, Beniyasha is still there, having sent off a decoy. Then suddenly Chikage shows up on the roof, and starts talking to Beniyasha like she knows him, and then reveals that Beniyasha is…her mother.
Afterwards at Chikage’s house, we find out that Shizumaru has now written an 8th volume in the Beniyasha mystery series…
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As much as I’d like the show to start wrapping some of the things up that I’ve talked about in the last couple of episode reviews, this pair of episodes was entertaining in it’s own way. It kind of combined all the different types of episodes that we’ve had and combined them into one: the girls chasing after Ikuto; Ikuto’s attempt to protect the girls; plus the island’s penchent for having unusual occurances.
I’m kind of glad that the girls failed in their plan to lure Ikuto to the bath, though. He may have really bled to death if he was being confined there by 6 or 7 naked females. I’m surprised we didn’t see more Suzu jealousy in episode 20, though, as the girls planned out on how they were going to bed Ikuto. She showed nervousness over whether Ikuto would choose her, but no real jealousy over whether he’d choose one of the other girls. Shinobu has shown herself to be even more clueless about such matters than even Suzu, if that’s possible.
For some reason, I found Sakuya hilarious. Maybe it was just Ikuto’s and Mei-Mei’s reactions whenever she had body parts falling off and just the ridiculousness of all her weapons (and how, exactly, does she rearm herself?)
If there was something I didn’t fully like about this episode, it was that it was made apparently too early that Chikage knew or at least had an idea of what was going on, though in a way, that helped her lead Ikuto around a little bit.
In any case, back to wrapping up the series, we now have only six episodes left by my count. If this series is to have any real ending of any time, we’re going to need to start wrapping things up soon…unless they plan on season 2 (and this doesn’t seem like a series that would have a second season).
New Opening
Shinobu is now entered into the opening. I just hope Sakuya isn’t too resulting in me having to do this next week too:
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