Mikakunin de Shinkoukei – 07

Oh God I just love Niko.

The moral of the story is that people from the mountains and countryside aren’t human. All of them.

 

 

Kindred Beings

Konoha comes in a close second for best facial expressions.

This week’s Mikakunin takes a step back from Kobeni and Hakuya’s relationship, and takes a larger focus on the characters of a “different breed.” Since they don’t really have a formal name and trying to describe them in a roundabout manner is awkward, I shall just dub them “extra-humans.” So the big reveal of the episode is that Konoha, the blond Benio fan we previously saw in the premiere, is one of the same kind as the Mitsumines. Good to know that it’s not just that one family, I suppose. So far, we don’t know all too much about Konoha, but there are a few facts dropped here and there. She’s from the countryside, which is given away by the accent she relapses to when upset. And she’s allegedly the eldest daughter of her family. Now, I opened with a joke about how all people from the remote areas aren’t human, but this kind of setup does make sense when you think about it. A family or “clan” living isolated from the rest of society would certainly go unnoticed much easier. At least, they could go about their lives more or less unrestrained by human conventions and ways. Though I suspect that they still try to act as human as possible in their own hidden villages so as to better integrate with society if and when they go into town.

Approaching Storm?

Niko is now my favorite character in this show.

Anyway, back to Konoha. Initially she’s set up as just a silly girl jealous of Mashiro and Kobeni for being so close to Benio (I’m sure Mashiro would gladly trade places). But now that she’s had the sleuthing fiasco with Niko, a newly introduced classmate and school newspaper reporter extraordinaire, it seems she might be more interested in Hakuya. And that can have some serious complications. The start of it all is her realizing while talking to Niko that Mashiro has been using some sort of hypnotism to blend in with the rest of highschoolers despite just being grade school age. I’m not even surprised at this point that the extra-humans can use hypnotism. One wonders though, why Konoha didn’t “sniff” them out as Hakuya and Mashiro did to her. But perhaps extra-human powers vary slightly on an individual basis. More to the point, I’m thinking the obvious that Konoha is now going to be interested in Hakuya for… to put it bluntly, mating purposes. It seems that extra-humans have no problems with getting together with regular humans, but perhaps it’s preferable for them not to mix so as to preserve their kind or something.

Konoha sets her eyes on Hakuya.

And actually now that I think about it, it’s not necessarily true that extra-humans are completely compatible with regular humans. Perhaps Kobeni and Hakuya are an exceptional case since the latter transferred half of his powers to the former? So it’s possible as I’ve previously speculated that Kobeni might no longer be completely human and more extra-human. Which would certainly eliminate any issues with incompatibility between species. Though the idea of changing one’s species so easily due to a simple “endowing” of powers is pretty ridiculous. But then one has to remember that the entire premise is pretty ludicrous to begin with (super-powered, shape-shifting beings hiding amongst us) so perhaps such technical details are besides the point. What matters in the end is that for one reason or another, I foresee Konoha attempting to get in between Kobeni and Hakuya. Which she clearly won’t be successful at in the end because those two are more or less OTP, but it’ll definitely make for some interesting dramatics.

Mikakunin made a bold move by adding supernatural elements to what was a seemingly ordinary slice-of-life-styled romcom in my eyes. But that move has paid off by actually making the show so much more addicting without coming across as a messy mashup. That’s not to say that romance can’t find its place in a supernatural story or any other kind of added premise (for instance Inari Konkon is doing a fine job as well). But there certainly was the potential for the show to become overburdened with excess baggage and become incoherent. I for one would have been completely skeptical about the need to introduce the extra-humans if that revelation hadn’t established itself as sort of “just a circumstance” instead of some kind of game changer or genre shift. The show in the end remains a high school romcom at its core, and that’s what I expect to see when I sit down for it every week. So thank you Mikakunin for not ending up as another Samumenco. So far, at least.

Mashiro has found a new natural enemy.