THAT Animeblog

Oh, Guardian Girls just wanna have fun.

It turns out that Reverse Circle won’t be our golden ticket to Wagaya’s backstory after all — at least for the time being. Episode 10 ties the latest arc up into a neat little package and kicks it aside to make room for the next sub-plot, so there isn’t a whole lot of action or character development to be seen here. Nevertheless, Episode 10 is still rather enjoyable; the plot direction makes a few deft feints towards the sinister before delivering the final blow. And it was definitely worth the wait to see Kou-chan drunk!

The ‘Mubyou incident’ picks up where it left off in Episode 9, with Tohru-kun grilling Mubyou, and Kuu-chan and Ebisu trying to figure out why the hell there are two Mubyous on the scene. Setting aside my incessant, ‘next-big-thing’ hankerings for plot development, I have to admit that I am impressed at how the director wound so much tension around what would ultimately prove to be a nonevent (more on this later.) For the time being, I’ll turn a blind eye to some obvious inconsistencies surrounding Mubyou’s puppet-hands.

Lies, all lies! Don’t you believe her Tohru-kun!

Oh really.

It isn’t long before we know which Mubyou is the fake and which is the real one. Seriously, it would be a sorry state of affairs if an emotionally-unstable brat like fake-Mubyou could become the ruling god of a district. (Notice also, the connection between fake-Mubyou’s hand-puppets and her true identity.) What remains to be seen is a conclusive explanation for all this madness. Little Tohru-kun gets awesome points for putting up with psycho-Mubyou for as long as he does, but his actions don’t quite convince me that he is beginning to break his lemmingesque tendencies.

Not always, just sometimes!

Might I recommend counseling?

Meanwhile, the fireworks party rages on. Much to the chagrin of our dear Saku-chan, Kou-chan assumes the added responsibility of meeting Wagaya’s newly instated boob-shot quota… (Apparently Kuugen is too busy fighting at the moment.) If Sakura wasn’t clawing Noboru-kun’s eyes out, she might notice that he’s not exactly worried about the Guardian Lady’s chest — hell, they live together in the same apartment after all! It might help, too, if Kuu-chan stopped MIBing Sakura after every magic battle. I’ve actually been looking forward to Sakura permanently joining the Mizuchi brothers in their supernatural misadventures, but whether or not that will actually happen is another question.

Smashed Kou-chan keeps the party going. No episode of Wagaya is complete with Kou-lulz.

And we all know what comes next…!

Notice the impassive look on Noboru’s face.

“Eyes on the prize.”

Our token conflict finally rolls around when Kuu-chan discovers that Tohru-kun has been taken hostage by the doppelgänger and gallops off to kick some ass. We have yet to learn what exactly about Kuugen’s past keeps her so fixated on protecting Tohru, but at least the answers will be coming soon, now that the series has broken into one of its lengthier story arcs.

“I use Crest Double-Whitening.”

*Sigh* Tohru-kun, when will you ever learn?

I’m… not exactly sure what she was trying to prove by having Kuu-chan fight the real Mubyou. …Yea, not quite sure, there… Actually, I was thinking that maybe she would try to get real-Mubyou in a pinch and then rush in and save her, and then finally real-Mubyou would notice how valuable she was — except, that does not explain why fake-Mubyou tried to have one of her guardian-beast hand-puppets eat real-Mubyou for dinner at the beginning of Episode 9.

“Crazy like a fox.”

Kuugen’s cunning once again pays off as she bluffs puppet-Mubyou and manages to reflect the fire spell. In the process, puppet-Mubyou’s dirty little secret is revealed…

The cat is out of the bag: fake-Mubyou is actually a body-double/stand-in puppet for real Mubyou, the “Wandering God” who travels from district to district. I’ll spare you the details behind puppet-Mubyou’s plot to disobey her master and do… something… in order to win her praise. Let’s write it off as low self-esteem. As for where and how she was created, and why she is the way she is (emotionally-sensitive, unreliable, impulsive) — who can say? Let us not so hastily forget past references to the ‘God of Gods’; perhaps explanations will follow as we learn more about this individual.

I’m sorry, but puppet-Mubyou got off WAY too easy.

Concluding this little mystery was not half as exciting as the roundabout route the past few episodes took to get here, the sort of skillful plot manipulation that will lull viewers into a false sense of security with a series of tidy conflict/resolution tradeoffs before it lays a real problem on the table. The Reverse Circle may have been a red herring, but there is no guarantee that the next major sidestory will end just as harmlessly.

“Not so loooud…”

“Get with it!”

Kou-chan sobers up, the power returns to Ebisu’s district, and the Reverse Circle winds up in the hands of the Mizuchi clan. All is well, for now. ^^

Episode 11 Preview: Oinari-sama. Goes into Service

Episode 11 will feature more of Kuu-chan and Kou-chan’s struggles to adapt to modern life with the Mizuchi brothers. I just hope Kou-chan doesn’t break any more dishes. Raws are out for those who want more info!