Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 11

What not to do if your life is in danger

Wow. This episode certainly doesn’t waste any time in getting straight to the point. I’m almost worried that, since Yakumo’s pace has been quite slow, that now it’s moving too fast. That aside, there were still some questions left to be answered by the end of this episode.

Turns out Yakumo can drive! And we see later that he really shouldn’t. But anyway, he and Haruka say goodbye to Isshin before heading over to the hospital to investigate. Isshin shared a few criptic words with Haruka, telling her that Yakumo will be alright now and that’s she is to watch out for him. He’s really not being subtle about the fact he’s not gonna be around in the future, is he?

At the hospital the two meet up with Makoto to begin the investigation. Though while they are in the hospital they have to turn their mobile phones off. Gotou and Ishii are racing to the temple after hearing the warning from Nanase Miyuki, angry that they can’t seem to get a hold of Yakumo or Isshin. They are still trying to figure out what Yakumo’s father is. I mean, he can manipulate objects right? So that’s…like a poltergiest. But then he can be seen by normal people, too. He’s definately not normal, at any rate xD

Back at the hospital the three are scouting around, but Yakumo seems distracted, he’s not speaking or paying attention to where they are supposed to be going. Haruka thinks it’s because he’s still thinking about the photo album they received from her mother. Isshin and Nao return home to the temple after going out for dinner to find Gotou and Ishii waiting. Isshin is very cheery about the whole situation despite the threat of imminent death that immediately I think he’s going to do something stupid.

And lo and behold, he does! While Ishii looks after Nao in the car, Gotou and Isshin encounter Yakumo’s dad. And before Gotou can act Isshin punches him in the stomach, knocking him out. Lets put a tick in the box for the stupidest thing you could have done in this situation. Isshin expresses his hatred to Yakumo’s father, and says that even though he serves Buddha, he is the cause of all the dark emotions in his heart. Yakumo’s dad understandably gets bored of Isshin’s babbling and stabs him.

Whoa, where’d that knife come from? We were just having a friendly chat!

The team in the hospital come across the ghost of the little girl bothering a patient. Yakumo sees some strange blotches on her with his red eye, but she leaves before they can talk to her. The patient tells them that she apparently apologized for what she said to him the other day. The whole “when will you die?” paranormal questionare. Gotou wakes up back at the temple to find Isshin wounded by still alive, they quickly call an ambulance to get him to hospital.

Yakumo and co. Are now in an area of the hospital that mermits the use of mobiles. Haruka turns on her phone on to receive the knews about Isshin. The three of them rush off to the scene, though how they survived Yakumo’s reckless driving is beyond me. Anyway, they find out that Isshin is being taken to the hopsital they were just at so they turn back as the ambulance crosses paths with them.

They all worriedly await the news of the surgery, but the doctor tells them that Isshin lost too much blood and that he’s now brain dead. Gotou threatens to arrest him if he doesn’t get back in there and re-do the surgery, while Yakumo remains silent, only telling him to calm down. Nao doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on so Gotou offers to look after her for the time being. He and Haruka go to his home where Gotou’s wife is waiting. Haruka stays to help out while Gotou returns to the scene of the crime. Nothing is found, literally, highlighting the point again that Yakumo’s dad isn’t human. Guys, geeze, we get it! He’s not normal!

We see him visit Nanase Miyuki and it’s implied…I dunno what’s implied actually. Does he posses her? We see him a few moments later standing on a rooftop. Oh well, either way it looks like it was just a ploy to get her to hospital.

Gotou returns home and is surprisingly good with Nao, he makes her laugh and plays with her. It was such a sudden departure from the reguar Gotou, I was caught off guard. But it just shows he’d make such a good dad. ;_; Haruka is doing her bit as well, not leaving Yakumo’s side. The doctors hand her Isshin’s red contact lense which she gives to Yakumo, inspiring pretty much his only line in the entire second half of the episode; “Thank you.”

Extra Screenshots:

Who ya gonna call?

Ghost sex: sure it’s fun, if you don’t mind a broken spine

*Tumbleweed*

Last one: Nao’s drawing of Gotou~

End Thoughts: There was a lot of subtley going on in this episode. The best example of this I can think of would be Gotou’s interaction with Nao. It’s like he just slips into a completely new persona, and while I think he slips back a little too quickly (on the balcony he’s immediately gruff and tortured again) you suddenly care a lot more about the fact that him and his wife can’t have children. It just seemed like a random sympathy ploy early on, but to be justified later, when you’ve almost forgotten about it… I just love that, it screams of well thought out story telling, and is made all the more impactful because you really get just how tragic it is. Because these two would be good parents. If we’d never have seen it in context it would have mattered a lot less.

We saw a more scatter-brained, reckless Yakumo in this episode too. It’s kinda fun to see him lose it a bit (I’m evil, I know) but it’s far more interesting that his usual cold facade. His dad is really starting to annoy me now, though. I just want to know what he’s doing xD It’s so frustrating. JUST TELL US ALREADY. Urg. I’m so impatient. He’s awful quiet as well, he was in this episode quite a lot and yet he didn’t say a word. It’s suspicious ¬¬…

Oh, don’t even get me started on Isshin. I might have just seen too many illogical injuries in anime but – and I’m going on the lack of on-screen blood here – but there’s no way he could have lost enough blood to render him brain-dead in the time it took him to get to hospital. I’m guessing the male doctor, the one we saw Yakumo’s father confront previously, sabotaged the operation. I actually hope he did, otherwise I’m calling shenanigans.

Preview: Answers, damn you! Give us answers!