This perhaps somewhat goes against what you may have been expecting, given that episode five ended with the revelation that Gin (whose body has been possessed by Enjin) is in fact Ao's brother (which I should have guessed right at the start, now I come to think of it). However, this only gets fleeting coverage here, as this chance meeting of siblings gives Enjin some literal headaches to deal with, so he sends off his subordinate to cause some ruckus while he's doing that.
Said ruckus, of course, is aimed squarely at Kotoha, as Shinozuka is also a human-demon hybrid as she is, and he clearly hopes to bring her over to "the dark side". While this conflict makes up the conclusion of the episode, we also get the inevitable coverage of Kotoha's past and origins, as well as getting to see her sparring with Hime and spending time with her friends at school.
Once again come the end of this episode I'm left a little perplexed as to why I like this series, but the fact remains that I do. I have little interest in the main Enjin storyline, the action sequences are generally rather weak, and there's nothing which should particularly make it stand out in a crowd, yet its main characters and their closely bonded relationships continues to be compelling for me - There's just something about it that's really rather heart-warming, to the extend where even cliched "happy ever after" endings to episodes become more that tolerable as you just enjoy seeing the main players in the series happy and enjoying one another's company. This series has absolutely no right to be enjoyable by any calculations of anime success I can come up with, yet enjoyable is exactly what it is, so I can only salute it for not breaking any moulds yet still proving to be a pretty tasty jelly. Or something.
One theory why I, like you, find the character dynamics so compelling: they already know each other and have worked together for some time, sparing us the trouble of introducing new characters and having them have to prove themselves or make friends, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the show is clever in how it introduces us to these pre-existing character dynamics, like the conspicuously empty stool between Hime and Akine. We know there's a reason for it, but the show just doesn't come out and say it until later. When they do, it's shown as a slice-of-life eating contest. We still don't know the details; we only know that they dearly miss a good friend.
That's apparently more important to the series than any show of super-duper demonic threats, and I approve!