Wagaya no Oinari-sama - Episode 4

While its past couple of episodes have focused more on wringing comic value out of its storylines, episode four of Wagaya no Oinari-sama takes a bit of a different approach. While it once again tries to carve an episode neatly into 'slice of life segment' and 'action segment', the everyday part of this particular episode tries to take on more emotional overtones, discussing Miyako with her husband as well as the differing relationship the two boys had with her and why. While I can't say that it does a bad job in this field, and at least we get some flashbacks which allow us to build an idea of what Miyako was like as a person, we still don't really 'know' her enough to do much more than shrug our shoulders.

Similarly, the action portion of the episode is passable but without ever being intriguing (we never get a true feeling for who their opponent is) or particularly exciting - It all just washes over you like a rather weak water-based attack from Kou (who incidentally gets quite a lot of focus this episode, which also happens to be handled okay without forcing me to break out the superlatives).

The fact that I can't actually find much to say about this episode speaks volumes of its middle of the road blandness - The action isn't exciting, the emotional moments are devoid of feeling, and the comedy has been done so many times before that it never really becomes amusing. Of course, looking at it from a 'glass half full' perspective, that means there isn't much wrong with it either, so as mindless entertainment to kill twenty-five minutes it does okay.

I don't see the series breaking too far out of its slice of life / action mould as it progresses though, so if you haven't found enough to keep your interest yet then I doubt you will going forward. Even Kuu, who should be centre stage, has become a rather lifeless character, a far cry from our last wolf girl outing with Spice and Wolf's Horo.