Kamisama Dolls - Episode 5

It's amazing how quickly centuries and generation upon generation of secrecy can go up in a puff of smoke, isn't it?  Then again, I suppose that's what you get when you let kids "drive" their so-called dolls around Tokyo at break-neck speed...

Given her inflammatory meeting with her hitherto unknown "twin brother", it isn't really surprising to se Utao lose her cool in the face of his provocations - however, her actions coupled with said newcomer's intention not to stand down means that there's little other choice than to take the battle using their respective kakashi into the middle of Tokyo, allowing all and sundry to see their destructive power at close quarters in the process while doing rather a lot of damage in the process.

Given Utao's difficulties with handling Kukuri, her opponent and his own kakashi, Takemikazuchi, seem set to make short work of putting the former out of commission, literally knocking chunks out of him in the ensuing battle and leaving him missing an entire "hand" as a counter-attack from Utao goes awry.  Somehow though, in that classic anime style, the tables are turned for some unexplained reason as Kukuri seems to deflect his rival's final "killer blow" back onto itself to win the day - a Pyrrhic victory given the damage suffered on both sides.  So, it's back off to their home village for both Utao and Kyohei (with Hibino in tow, I assume only to keep the show's ratings up) to get Kukuri fixed - it appears that they may well find themselves mired in the midst of other events while there however.

We haven't really seen Kamisama Dolls do all-out action before this point, so it's probably fair to say that this episode made a reasonable fist of it - nothing jaw-dropping, but the kakashi felt solid and "real" enough to impress as they zoomed and crashed and stumbled their way around Tokyo's streets.  Beyond that, the removal of a lot of the fat from around the series continues to pay dividends in both making its moments of comedy feel sharper and giving more time to "the important stuff".  Exactly where the bigger picture of the series is headed is still shrouded in mystery however, although I do get a feeling a lot of that might be because the original manga was making things up as it went along.... We shall have to wait and see if it has something suitably interesting in store once our main trio make it back to their home village I suppose.