I am the bone of my sword…

Whoo, finally we get some back story to all this randomness. This episode used some flashback exposition to show how exactly Shinkurou became connected with Benika, Yuuno and Ginko. Also, the mystery behind Shinkurou’s breakdowns into writhing agony while clutching his arm is partially explained, seems like he has the anime equivalent of adamantium for bone.

Picking up from the Yayoi -> Murasaki -> Shinkurou stalking trail we had going at the end of the previous episode, Shinkurou arrives at the location of his next job with Murasaki right behind him, managing to slip into the building, Yayoi not so fortunate. Shinkurou approaches the boss of the gang about his proposed dispute mediation, he presents evidence that he is trying to attain the land rights to a kindergarten school and sell it for profit. In return for disposing of the evidence, Shinkurou asks that he cease all ties with the school.

Suddenly, one of the boss’s lackeys knocks on the door and walks in with Murasaki, putting Shinkurou in an awkward position. While trying to calm down Murasaki, he keeps going with his negotiation, but the upper hand he had seconds ago is most apparently gone. The boss shoos Shinkurou away, saying he agrees to the deal, Murasaki calls him on the obvious lie, but there’s not much Shinkurou can do about it, so he apologizes and leaves.

As the elevator door opens Shinkurou is attacked by another one of the boss’s subordinates, at first Shinkurou avoids fighting and tells Murasaki to run, but when she’s held at knifepoint, Shinkurou’s violent side takes over and he starts laying the beat down on everyone in sight. And for the first time, he uses the power he’s been trying to suppress in all his other fights, a protruding bone from his shoulder forming itself into a spike which he uses to both attack and defend, strong enough to deflect bullets. Hearing the gunshots, Yayoi arrives on scene to shield Murasaki while Shinkurou goes wild.

Benika shows up in the aftermath of the shootout to drive Murasaki and Shinkurou home, Yayoi lecturing him about the danger he put Murasaki into as a result of his reckless actions. After dropping them home, Yayoi argues with Benika that Shinkurou isn’t fit for this job, but Benika maintains that she chose her on her instincts, instincts that have led her through this business until now.

The next morning, Murasaki assures Shinkurou she’s not hurt and goes as far as to apologize for getting in his way the day before, she tells him to take it easy while she tends to breakfast.

At school, Shinkurou reports to Ginko that the job is done and that the kindergarten school is most likely safe for now. Ginko accidentally bumps into Shinkurou’s arm causing him to wince in pain, correctly guessing afterwards that he must have gotten into a fight. What’s more, Yuuno doesn’t even need a sign to see that Shinkurou got hurt, she somehow picks up on it and tells him she’ll bring by medicine her grandfather made for inexperienced users of “the horn”, and advises him not to take any jobs in the future that rely on such a power.

Meanwhile, Murasaki has spent the whole day cleaning the room to make it up for the previous day. Shinkurou comes home to find the futons airing out and when he makes it to the room, finds Murasaki has tidied things up quite a bit. But she points out that there’s still something that’s dirty, pointing straight at Shinkurou himself. The two find themselves in the bath house again, this time Murasaki managing to get through half of the hair washing process before she blinds herself, and trying her best to stay in the hot bath for as long as Shinkurou does.

When they get home, Murasaki asks to hear about Shinkurou’s past, combining with Benika getting the same request from Yayoi sends us into flashback mode. When he was a child, Shinkurou lost his parents in an airport bombing and hostage situation. While being held, the hostage takers decided to pick on him, holding him at gunpoint threatening to kill him while a young Ginko pleaded they stop. He was rather apathetic about living at that point, given that he had just lost his parents, when suddenly, Benika and her mediation team stormed into the room and took out all the hostage takers in mere seconds. From then on, he began to follow Benika, he was taken under the care of Yuuno for a while and spent eight years learning Houzuki-ryuu, giving him the strength to do what he does today.

Continuing with stories from the past, Benika goes on to tell Yayoi about the request Murasaki’s mother made to her, to one day get Murasaki out of the Inner Sanctuary. Benika knows that acting as her bodyguard is a lot of responsibility and perhaps even a bit overwhelming, but in the end he will benefit from the experience. Yayoi accepts her decision, but can’t help but continue worrying, so she heads back to resume her post sitting outside his apartment.

Thoughts

First off, I want to comment on the balance of Kure-nai. I’ve seen scattered complaints saying that watching Kurenai is like “going through 15 minutes of Lucky Star for 5 minutes of Darker than Black” and suggests the ratio be reversed. First of all, I’m sure there’s a law against comparing series of this caliber to Lucky Star, so don’t. Secondly, I don’t think the current slice of life : action balance should be reversed, but perhaps a 50:50 split would be more appropriate.

Of course, I stand by my words in saying that even if Kure-nai was nothing but the day to day lives of Murasaki and Shinkurou, I’d still watch it. Murasaki is one of the most endearing loli characters ever, her often naive innocence and well intentioned outbursts amidst a society she knows very little about is incredibly entertaining to watch. Also, the way she’s portrayed is something I find myself perplexed over, while it’s undeniable that there’s some measure of “fanservice” regarding Murasaki, it’s not really having the effect you would think. Despite seeing her naked quite a bit and the inclusion of an unmistakably tsun tsun element in her personality, I don’t find myself drawn to her as I am other lolis. While in many other cases it’s a poor attempt at justifying loli urges, this time it really is cute, not pedo.

Aside from Murasaki, my favourite character continues to be Ginko for pretty much no apparent reason. There’s just something about her I like, I can’t put it into words. Perhaps it’s because it’s like looking into a mirror, her stoic, recluse shut-in, emotionally distant and inability to express her true feelings ringing a little too close to home.

The mystery behind Shinkurou and Yuuno’s relationship is also revealed this episode, it’s no wonder they’re close, they lived together. It also explains the whole deal behind Yuuno knowing the Murasaki family, no doubt that the Houziki school of martial arts has some standing within their inner circle.

All that makes me wonder about Shikurou’s bone/horn thing though. Is it something that one is born with, or is it possible you can train your body to drag it out. In either case, it might be that Yuuno can use it too, which would be awesome, I’d love to see her kick some ass at some point.

Speaking of kicking ass, we catch a glimpse of Benika’s former combat glory, one hell of a roundhouse kick. Nothing compared to Spinzaku and his 720 degree aerial ending in a roundhouse kick and spanning about 5 meters in horizontal length, but there aren’t many that can boast that much hax. I hope we get to see more Benika action as the series progresses.

Actually, on that note, I just want to see more fights that involve more than Shinkurou with a dead pan look wailing on a bunch of weakling subordinates.

And…having just watched the preview, looks like my wish is going to be granted, as it features a scene with Yuuno and Shinkurou going at it in a dojo. Ten bucks on Yuuno.

Man, I haven’t touched my DS in ages. I should load up Tsukihime on it for plot with porn on the go!

~ Shirukii ~