Wagaya no Oinari-sama - Episode 21

After an interminable episode last time around, episode twenty-one of Wagaya no Oinari-sama at least brings us back to the start of a new story arc, and what I'm imagining will be the final arc of the series. Of course, a new arc means a new threat to Tooru and (more importantly on this occasion) Noboru, and this time that threat comes courtesy of what seems to be a werewolf on the loose, creating urban legends and chaos as it goes.

The good news (for me at least, smitten that I am) is that this episode manages to mix said werewolf story with plenty of screen-time for Sakura - While Kuu gives her a potion under the pretence of it helping Noboru to fall for her, it is in fact something put in place to give her the ability to protect him if need be. Thus, when the werewolf comes calling for Noboru, Sakura is on hand to... well, be athletic and awesome and stuff. I'm probably just easily impressed, but it was one of the best things about this series so far if you ask me.


Almost inevitably the werewolf incidents aren't exactly what they seem, as it turns out that it's neither a single werewolf at all, nor is it an actual werewolf - Rather, someone is infecting people to turn them into werewolves for their own ends. If you can't guess who is responsible by the end of this particular episode then I'm guessing you never will, but I'll keep quiet on the subject for now anyway.

After that poor filler episode last time around, it certainly feels good to be back to business in this instalment, and to be fair it holds some early promise as another reasonably decent arc, even if I put aside my obvious Sakura fanboy tendencies. There are plenty of mysteries still waiting to be solved in the final few episodes of the series, so hopefully Wagaya no Oinari-sama will do a good job of tying them all up to at least leave us with a respectable ending to a series that's blown hot and cold, but has at least warmed up during its second half.