Uchouten Kazoku S2 – 10
Hawaiian shirt dude is already wasted and the celebration just started
Well now that I’m done writing about 2am raves at anime conventions, it’s time for some Uchouten Kazoku. Unfortunately, things are a little less upbeat.
Since becoming disenchanted with how this series loves to throw in ultimately disappointing cliffhangers, I kept my expectations low for how the face-off between Nidaime and Benten would go. In fact, I even suspected Benten would simply float off into space instead of engaging in a fight. That’s…exactly what happened. Why set up a cliffhanger if you’re not going to follow through and then continue to mess with my heart every single week? That shit ain’t right! Anyways, the fallout from this key moment does happen, it’s just later in the episode.
If Nidaime says there’s no problem, then there’s no problem. Everyone go home now!
There’s a lot to consider when looking at this whole mess Yasaburo has gotten himself into. First of all, there’s the motive. I thought he was genuinely doing this as a sensible solution to the problem at hand. Akadama wouldn’t do it, and Benten was a horrible volunteer, so the only other tengu in power who might agree was Nidaime. It was risky plan, but Nidaime was (and is) the best willing tengu to fill the role. However, Gyokuran questions whether Yasaburo was doing this to help his brother at all. He loves causing trouble, and this may have been him finding a way to continue his reckless streak as the rest of his family is all srs bsns. He did make this decision soon after holing up in the forest for days on end, so he wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind. He runs away immediately after too, which goes to show just how much he thinks he can escape from his responsibilities no matter how far he goes.
Another possibility is that he wanted to purposely provoke Benten. It’s no secret that he likes her, but she’s been completely fixated on Nidaime. He seems perceptive enough to notice something underlying the hatred between the two – something special that happened in London. Maybe he wants to figure that out. But the sad thing about this is that after Yasaburo snubs her, she drops a hint that she did kind of like him. She’s basically saying Yasaburo is dense for thinking her kindness towards him was without reason. Whether it’s love or a deep friendship remains totally ambiguous, but it shows he at least had a shot with the woman he adores.
Now, she has to eat him.
Literally a cold-hearted women. Is this why she’s so comfortable commuting to Hell?
That icy scene was apparently a dream, but Yasaburo and Kaisei seriously get captured by the end of the episode…likely for a tanuki hot pot. Why two whole tanuki? I’m not sure, but if Benten requested it, I’d see why she would want to make Yasaburo suffer more by also eating someone he cares for. It was a shocking end to the episode, even if it is kind of the same thing that happened at the end of season 1. Tanuki hot pots are always the main villain here, huh?
Well, this should be an interesting way to get Yasaburo to start liking Kaisei more than a woman who is now actually acting out on her threats to eat him. Hopefully. I’m sure we’ll get some very…special…conversations when Yasaburo wakes up and sees his captors. These sorts of unique back-and-forth talks are done so well in this series. The writing is honestly top notch. I loved seeing the flashback of Yaichiro talking to his dad as well as that new tanuki girl proclaiming her love for holes and frogs as Yajirou tried to keep up with the conversation. There are so many delightful conversations and such great chemistry, even between characters who are meeting for the first time. Plus, where else do you get to see a frog go on a soul-searching quest and then follow a hole-obsessed girl into an ever-shifting underground society? Uchouten Kazoku makes the extraordinary seem normal, in the best way.
Now, at the end of this labyrinthine underground society of tanuki is a clan Yajirou set out to meet. They have some ominous things to say about Kureichiro, which is doubly confirmed by Kaisei’s suspicions later on in the episode. At first I thought maybe Kureichiro was another, more malicious tanuki in disguise. Then I figured it’s more likely that it really is him, and he’s plotting something evil on his own. Murdering Yaichiro would sound about right, since he’d be literally following in Soun’s footsteps. The two families seemed to reconcile a little too quickly and conveniently, so this makes sense. This may explain why Kinkaku and Ginkaku were so obedient. They knew they only had to play nice for a short while before the ultimate revenge would be exacted. However, I don’t think these two are malicious enough to wish for the death of the Shimogano family, so perhaps Kureichiro isn’t telling them the whole story. There are so many what ifs at this point, it’s probably better I just wait to see what happens next. There’s a lot of excitement to come.
Don’t even try to tell this guy that fur is murder
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think that the one interacting with the Kyoto tanuki is actually Kureichiro. He’s the one who showed up at the end of the scene with Yajiro meeting the other tanuki (looking slovenly, like Kaisei described). So there’s bad news afoot with Yaichiro. I don’t really know if Kinkaku and Ginkaku are in on it. I could go either way on that (they’re too stupid to execute a plan, but they’re all in on a plan to get back at the Shimogamos).
This season for Benten has been pretty consistently against the trend that she had in the first one. First season, she was the ideal, above all, looked up to by everyone, and everything she did was beyond reproach. Now she’s being second-guessed and had them go behind her back, and lost her status with the Nidaime showing up. I think that part of her is more upset that Yasaburo is pulling away from her than that he helped the others try to get her out of the spot officiating the election. But I don’t think she’s ever loved Yasaburo. I think that Benten is, really, just a shallow person, and she wants attention and adulation. I think it’s interesting that she always flies in and out of public places, while the Nidaime, far more comfortable with who he is, walks places.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I agree that the Kyoto “Kureichiro” isn’t the real one.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Benten does often come off as shallow and wanting attention and adulation. But I don’t think she’s really as shallow as she seems. In the first series there was a brief scene where she seemed to be mourning the loss of the high school girl she once was before Akadama carried her off. And she’s been called a half tengu in this series.
I think at heart she’s a lonely person who no longer fits into human society but who also can’t fully fit into tengu society. So she’s carving a path for herself where if she can’t fully fit into any society she will be one who lives on her own terms and will be someone others must respect and even fear.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think that’s what she turned into, I think that’s what she was, or at least felt she was, before she started with Akadama. And that became her path to not being someone who doesn’t fit in, or at least to not caring that she doesn’t fit in. Whereas she didn’t have anything before, at least now her carriage demands fear, if not necessarily respect.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
True, I can see Benten just wanting attention…be it fear, admiration, lust or whatever. Just as long as she’s in the spotlight. So being shunned by the whole tanuki world (led by Yasaburo’s actions) is rough.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It seems there is a concentrated plan to get the Shimogamo out of the way, and anyone sympathetic to them. It’s always made me wonder what sort of power they have other than being protagonists. The big mountain thing was always a legend?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think they kinda have the “More tanuki than us” rep locked down, and that’s why the others look up to them. More willing to go out on limbs, more willing to stir up shit, more willing to follow their muse. They may not be objectively successful via wealth or holdings, but they have that joie d’vivre and je’ne sai quois that I think the tanukis mostly want to aspire to.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…they also have sauce shabu shabu...
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It seems the more likely you are to foolishly end up in a hot pot, the better tanuki you are! Maybe more delicious too…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I was trying to play with HWY’s use of French. But the inclusion of a Japanese term, and the word sauce being just as English to English speakers, the joke rather failed.
But the more foolish the tanuki, the tastier the hot pot it seems. The mindset of a tengu is terrifying…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Nooo it works just gotta imagine that french accent
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Does Shabu Shabu work with a French accent?
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I liked the hole obsessed girl who also likes frogs. Has Yajiro met a potential wife for him? Sure, she looks fairly young here, but that’s her human form and the Shimogamo mother in her human form looks pretty young to have a couple adult sons and a near adult one. Besides, any potential marriage probably isn’t imminent.
I have a hard time believing Benten just meekly yielding to the Nidaime or that she’s going to go through with eating Yasaburo and Kaisei. For the latter I think she’ll go along with the hot pot until the last minute to punish Yasaburo and teach him that she is not someone he can treat cavalierly. For the former she might be waiting for her chance while setting things up in the background.
Just my two cents worth and two cents isn’t worth much anymore.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
See, I don’t think that Benten would actually stop short of killing Yasaburo and eating him. I get the idea that she’s kinda got the mindset that “The reason you’re interesting is because you can get out of this situation.” If he can’t get out of that situation, he ceases to be interesting.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Hole girl (I think they said her name was Seiran in the next episode…which I’m about to get to work on lol) is pretty amazing. I feel like they’re trying to set up that couple too but I really do hope she’s not as young as she looks because Y I K E S.
If Benten says she’ll eat you…she’ll eat you.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
With all the suspicious abound, I hope Kureichiro isn’t really seeking revenge. Because doing so despite knowing what his father did would be ridiculous.
Some insight into Benten’s thoughts would serve to make the show better than it already is. We see her throughout the series yet still have no idea what makes her tick. That’s rather bothersome given she’s the most enigmatic character around. Nidaime is a close second since we still know next to nothing about him.
My disgust of Tenmaya increases every time he shows up. This con artist douche needs some comeuppance, and quick.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
A real dick move, right? All the guys in that family are nuts.
I actually like that she’s such a mystery. If we learned too much about her, the mystique would be gone. It’s a big part of her character. I wouldn’t be so opposed to learning more about Nidaime though.
Ugh Tenmaya. Any dude with chesthair more prominent than a fur coat needs to go