Urara Meirochou – 09

“For the night is dark, and full of terrors”

Koume is no Red Woman that much is for sure, right? But this one was pretty much all Chiya, let’s see what she get’s up to…

Urara commandment forty-five: always kick ass with a stylish accessory

I genuinely love how the very first scene set the tone and the meter for the entire episode. Our new supporting character, Tokie-san arrives just like a character out of a tokusatsu performance – thou not a kotatsu, or tonkatsu, but the three are easily confused with one another I’m sure. She’s very much the arm of justice during a rather chaotic situation, and she wastes no time dispatching the opposition, all the while living up to the urara commandments. If we consider that searching the town randomly for her lost mother has become such an observable habit, then Chiya was bound to find both trouble and help. I love how the interloper probably could have easily given Chiya a clue or two for her quest, but the price she asked was very steep. I’m pretty sure that none of that is foreshadowing, but as I said before it sets the tone rather well.

I never would have taken Tokie for a navel gazer…

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Mama stands tall

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Tokie is a good character to introduce at this point, and the not-surprise of her being Kon’s mother was a neat touch. She lays down the law like a good teacher and rewards when the student understands, and abashes when the lesson is lost. She’s also good for that next step the character are going to undertake. But while her uttering of the commandments could have gotten really “much“, I’m glad they kept it all in check and show that it had immediate benefits. This is pretty obvious stuff, and it’s surely about time for some of Chiya’s rougher edges to be smoothed out here and there. The new set of clothes does take her a long way, but really you can only go so far to dress her habits away. You can take the child out of the wild, but be patient and the child will let go of the wild soon enough. Besides, what is more compelling is the mystery behind that darkness that keeps creeping up. When put together with Tokie’s past familiarity with Chiya, it all spells something worth looking into later.

But this was all a test, all things consider, and a stark contrast to the interloper that opened the episode. We learn that the best and truest test for an urara is not on the book or field knowledge they have of their craft or of prophecy, but how they would use it for others, not just themselves, or even for themselves. Fortune telling is a power, and it can be abused if not diffused somehow.

Next time

About skylion

All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion