Episode 8 of Kuragehime, “Million Dollar Babies” (ミリオンダラー・ベイビーズ), begins with Kuranosuke ransacking a storage room for stuff to sell. Considering the sort of people the Amamizukan caters to, it’s no surprise that the particular room in question is full of the same stuff collected by a fetishist: cups of all sorts. While everyone else thinks the newer and cheaper looking cups are cute, Kuranosuke focuses on the older antique cups that might fetch a high price at the flea market.

Meanwhile, Keiichiro notices how his son Shuu is distracted, and orders the driver Hanamori to reveal what’s going on. Hanamori refuses to divulge any information out of loyalty to his friend: until Keiichiro bribes him with the Bentz cars, and an offer of adding a new one to the retinue of cars has Hanamori eagerly offering the services of his friend Sugimo-chan, a private investigator, to find out everything going on between Shuu and Shouko. Sugimo-chan follows the two everywhere in plain sight, but it takes a sneeze-induced misdirected call from Hanamori for Shuu to figure out that they’re being followed.

At the flea market, it turns out that Kuranosuke’s reading of the market is wrong, as people are more interested in the cute jellyfish dolls that Tsukimi made on a lark rather than the antique cups. At least he’s flexible enough to go with the flow, so he recruits the rest of the Amars to help out make more jellyfish dolls. Incidentally, the Amars couldn’t recognize the dressed up Tsukimi either, so Shuu shouldn’t be blamed too much for being unable to recognize her. Anyway, Tsukimi’s design inspirations and Chieko’s superior sewing skills results in an unexpected windfall.

Back at the Amamizukan, Tsukimi remembers how her mother would say that she would make a wedding dress for her when she grew up while browsing the leftover cloths from the jellyfish doll making sessions. The memories prompt her to put on some of the lacy white cloth as a pseudo-wedding dress, but Kuranosuke witnesses this, taking his breath away. Unfortunately, Tsukimi can only imagine herself in a very unflattering light and goes into a panic. When Kuranosuke hears Tsukimi’s story about her mother’s dream, he thinks of his own mother’s dream of filling a closet clothes from all over the world, and he is motivated to create jellyfish-inspired wedding dresses for the public with the Amars’ help.

Tsukimi's reality

Tsukimi's imagination

Incidentally, Kuranosuke had also collapsed out of lovesickness for Tsukimi that he doesn’t realize is lovesickness after seeing Tsukimi in the pseudo-wedding dress. The Amars besides Tsukimi discover that Kuranosuke has fake breasts while trying to figure out what’s wrong, but their conclusion is that Kuranosuke is just using fake breasts, not that he’s a man. While some might think that this points to their general cluelessness, I wouldn’t use this as an example of cluelessness: the Amars are outcasts that would be rather sympathetic to a flat-chested woman trying to fit in using fake breasts, and they would be the last ones to think less of anyone for trying. OK, so it’s something they make fun of, but it probably endears Kuranosuke to them as being more like “one of the Amars”.

Finally, the title of this episode is obviously a reference to the American movie Million Dollar Baby.

Episode 7 of Kuragehime, “Unemployed Financial Islands” (金融無職列島), starts off with Kuranosuke reminiscing over his closet, remembering a closet full of his mother’s clothes and the time he first arrived at the Kuboichi home with his mother, when Kuranosuke seemed to be about ten while Shuu seemed to be close or at college-age. Meanwhile, Shouko is annoyed that the purchase of the Amamizukan has still not been finalized: the owner of the Amamizukan, Chieko’s mother, doesn’t spend enough time inside Japan to sign the contract, even though the decision to sell the place has already been made.

Hoping that it might speed up the process even by a little bit, Inari Shouko decides to pay a polite visit to the Amamizukan. Normally, this would have the Amars scattering in fright in the presence of such a stylish person, but they can’t resist the temptation of the sweet macaroons that Shouko brought as a gift. It is just way too easy to sway the Amars towards a non-antagonistic stance with food. It’s also a chance for the show to have a bit of product placement for Le Pommier. Tsukimi is the only one to be strongly antagonistic towards Shouko when she discovers Shuu’s glasses in the bag with the macaroons and Shouko talks about having spent the night with someone, although no one realizes what Tsukimi is really angry about.

It takes the arrival of Kuranosuke to remind the Amars the threat that Shouko represents, turning them all properly antagonistic. Unfortunately, Shouko points out that it’s practically a done deal since the owner has already agreed to sell the property. Kuranosuke just declares that they’ll buy the Amamizukan themselves; the Amars are all too aware how unrealistic this is, while Kuranosuke is overly optimistic. On the other hand, Shouko is totally pissed off at the treatment she got at what appears to be a person who might threaten her own supremacy in fashionable style. It’s going to be fun seeing how she reacts when she learns that Kuranosuke is male and is actually a member of the Kuboichi family instead of being an Amamizukan resident.

After Tsukimi gets a bit of comfort from Kuranosuke over what she thinks is a lost chance of love with Shuu, Kuranosuke leads the Amars in figuring out how to gather enough capital to actually purchase the Amamizukan. The total savings of the Amars is unsurprisingly of no help, although Kuranosuke is disappointed that they don’t reach even his low expectations. That means searching for yet other ways, and the first victim is Chieko: upon learning that one of Chieko’s kimono-clad dolls can go for an equivalent of thousands of dollars each, Kuranosuke tries to force Chieko to sell them off. Chieko needs to grow up, though: doesn’t she know that the proper course for any parent when facing financial difficulties is to sell off their children? Unfortunately, the Amars don’t believe in child slavery even for dolls, so Kuranosuke is convinced to abandon the plan to sell the dolls.

In Tsukimi’s room, Kuranosuke has taken off his feminine attire due to his frustration at how things aren’t going as well as he hoped. This paralyzes Tsukimi, not to mention her glasses falling off, which gives Kuranosuke the chance to try to kiss her. This is interrupted by a panicking Mayaya, who barges in about having to fax Mejiro’s manga drafts before the deadline. And apparently Mayaya was too distraught to notice that the topless “Kurako” didn’t have feminine breasts. As Kuranosuke is bewildered at why he almost kissed Tsukimi while faxing the draft sheets, he learns that they generate quite a lot of income, which gives him the idea to ask funds from Mejiro, who has enough money saved at least for a down payment.

As for Shuu, he encounters Shouko yet again, who arrived under the pretense of returning his glasses, which he didn’t really need anymore since he had just fitted a new pair. He has his doubts that he had intercourse with Shouko, but the picture on Shouko’s cellphone removes all doubt. Of course, this is all a deception by Shouko, and given the personalities involved such as Shuu and Kuranosuke, the way Shouko is going about doing things makes me think it will all blow up in her face.

At home, Kuranosuke is having his own problem; whether he thought it was his trump card or just a one-in-a-million chance worth trying, he tries to blackmail his father into providing funds for purchasing the Amamizukan with the knowledge that Shuu had witnessed the father cheating at the age of nine. The father dismisses the threat, stating that Shuu only witnessed them reaching second base. I would have expected the father to use a more traditional form of saying “kissing”; apparently he is not totally ignorant of modern expressions. Considering his younger son’s hobby, maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

At the end of the episode, when Kuranosuke goes to college dressed like a normal guy (even he doesn’t go so far as to cross-dress during exams), while being surrounded by fawning girls (probably following him around because he’s a good-looking rich guy; he wouldn’t be bored with them otherwise), he notices a poster for a flea market. This gives him another money-making idea that he pitches to the Amars, whose biggest problem is that the flea market will be held in Harajuku, the deadly fashion capital of the world. In preparation, he starts looking for abandoned stuff around the Amamizukan that could be sold.

Given the obsessiveness of the Amars, they would probably be highly ranked experts in their respective fields (if anyone were ever to rank such fields) at the national level at the very least. Given a good public relations manager and a good business manager, I wouldn’t be surprised that their fetishes could somehow be turned into a quite respectable source of income. After all, just look at Mejiro. Just imagine Kuranosuke being the PR agent and Shuu managing the business side … Of course, this is all irrelevant since such a respectable income level would still fall far short of getting enough money to purchase the Amamizukan in the short time before Chieko’s mother comes back from abroad.

Finally, the title of this episode is probably a reference to the Japanese series of novels Rotten Financial Islands (金融腐蝕列島).

Episode 6 of Kuragehime, “Night of the Living Amars” (ナイト・オブ・ザ・リビング・アマーズ), begins with Kuranosuke finishing the transformation of all the Amars except for Chieko, who looks like a rich lady among the transformed Amars with her kimono attire. Kuranosuke hasn’t quite thought through beyond dressing up the Amars, however, so he suggests going to a cafe for “training”. Incidentally, a cafe is the Amars’ number one heart rate raising location (by now, I want to see a “number two” something).

Meanwhile, Shuu meets Shouko, whose pretext is that she is returning an umbrella. Shouko soon invites him to a bar, where she promptly roofies Shuu. Dragging him to a hotel room, she takes incriminating pictures, although she doesn’t actually do anything to him. By the time Shuu wakes up and finds himself naked in bed next to a scantily dressed Shouko, he goes into autopilot and gets out as fast as possible. Shouko is indignant about how Shuu pretty much brushed her off, but she gets Shuu’s glasses in return as Shuu was not at all in a proper state of mind to pick them up on the way out.

At the cafe with Kuranosuke and the Amars, the Amars are nervous to the point of petrification. The fashionable people around are the number one reason for their nervousness, but the high prices that they’re not used to also bothers them. No worries: Kuranosuke has a golden credit with virtually no limit from the perspective of the poor Amars, and they shamelessly take advantage of his generosity. The outside view from the terrace is also an enjoyable experience for the Amars, especially with how they manage it to tie it with their own fetishes. The whole experience must be endearing the Amars to the fashionable Kuranosuke, although Kuranosuke himself is annoyed at himself for getting attracted to Tsukimi’s bright expressions.

Returning to the Amamizukan, the rest of the Amars finally get around to asking Kuranosuke his name. Kuranosuke is about to unhesitatingly state his name, and in fact does state his name once, before noticing a sign which says what Tsukimi thought often but failed to make clear to Kuranosuke: “No Men Allowed”. Fortunately, the Amars are a bit confused about an apparent woman’s name being Kuranosuke that he has the chance to change it to “Kurako”. For a moment there, I thought he was going to say Kurara … Kuranosuke then gets a headache when he finds himself thinking Tsukimi is so cute as she happily talks with Kurara.

Returning home, Kuranosuke finds his uncle Saburouta on the premises, who keeps on hinting that there’s a reason why Shuu shuns women. And he keeps hinting at it even when Kuranosuke is in the bath, which frustrates Kuranosuke enough to make him chase after his uncle for answers. While running practically naked, Kuranosuke runs into the returning Shuu, who looks like a shell-shocked woman who has just been raped. Fortunately, this is not the case, although Kuranosuke doesn’t dwell much on this, being more preoccupied about the fleeing uncle.

Saburouta having run away by car, Kuranosuke heads to the garage and asks the driver Hanamori to help in the chase. Unfortunately for Kuranosuke, Hanamori is in the middle of waxing one of “his” precious cars (obviously not his, even if he drives them). Saburouta does call to tell Kuranosuke that Hanamori is also in the know, and Kuranosuke threatens to dirty the shiny, just-waxed car if Hanamori doesn’t tell. As Saburouta and Hanamori warned, the story is the awkward sort for Kuranosuke, as the reason for Shuu’s fear of women stems from his witnessing his father and Rina, Kuranosuke’s mother, playing around when he was nine.

Some time later, Shuu asks Hanamori for a drive to the Amamizukan. There he meets the still dressed-up Tsukimi and asks to hold her hand for emotional support. Immediately leaving thereafter, Shuu leaves behind a nerve-wracked and confused Tsukimi, who has no idea why Shuu seems to act so differently so quickly.

Finally, it is an easy guess that the title of this episode is a reference to the movie Night of the Living Dead.

Episode 5 of Kuragehime, “I Want to be a Jellyfish” (私はクラゲになりたい), begins with Tsukimi sighing over her time with Shuu the previous day. Especially the last bit where she was exposed in her underwear, recalled in the form of a movie trailer, which prompts her to bash her head in an attempt to expunge the terribly embarrassing memory. Meanwhile, Shuu is sighing the same way during breakfast, prompting Kuranosuke to have all manners of thoughts about how yucky it is to watch the virgin Shuu pine over Tsukimi.

This is also an important day since Chieko gets a call about the proposed redevelopment project that threatens the existence of the Amamizukan. A public hearing about the redevelopment project is going to be held, which would be an opportunity for the Amamizukan residents to voice their opposition. There is just a teeny little problem, though: the residents are all scared of showing up among a public avenue with “upstanding” citizens. But given the threat, they all manage to enter the room where the hearing is being held together for mutual moral support.

Shuu is also part of the audience at the hearing, since the Kuboichi family is still undecided about whether to support it or oppose it. This is enough to make the anxious Tsukimi even more anxious, especially since she ends up sitting right next to him. Tsukimi goes through further emotional turmoil because Shuu acts completely different from the other day. In fact, Shuu still has no idea that the Tsukimi he has a crush on is the same girl sitting right next to him, but Tsukimi can only come to the conclusion that Shuu is ignoring her.

While the presenter at the hearing, Inari Shouko, is starting to make the case for the redevelopment project, it doesn’t take long for the Amamizukan gang to run away from the hearing. This is because everyone’s attention was drawn to them due to Mayaya’s running commentary, and with their utter fear of public attention (in fact it’s their number one fear at the time, although no doubt their number one fear changes with the situation), they couldn’t stand the stares. Only Chieko remained, because she was too frozen to run off, not to mention that kimono are not the best sort of attire to run in.

Inari Shouko

Noticing the missing Chieko, Tsukimi volunteers to head back to get her. It’s raining, and Tsukimi is still bothered by Shuu ignoring her, so she is not in a great mood. It gets even worse when she walks by Shuu walking with Inari Shouko under the same umbrella, especially since Shuu completely ignores Tsukimi. It’s not such a good experience considering Tsukimi’s nascent love for Shuu, who finds Chieko already gone when she returns to the hearing. In reality, Shouko is trying to apply her feminine wiles to Shuu in order to win the Kuboichi family over to the redevelopment project, while Shuu is simply providing cover for the rain because Shouko “forgot” to bring along an umbrella of her own.

A dejected Tsukimi is the first one of the Amars to return to the Amamizukan, where Kuranosuke is waiting in anticipation of the weekly hot pot dinner. While Tsukimi sulks in her room, Kuranosuke has to wait until the other Amars return, whereupon he learns that there will be no hot pot dinner. In fact, he learns that none of the Amars were able to voice any opposition to the redevelopment plan threatening their home at the hearing. He believes this is why Tsukimi is so depressed, having no idea that Shuu ignoring Tsukimi is the reason for her sulking.

This is enough to fire up Kuranosuke (not to mention that he himself might be losing a place he finds joyful), and he returns home to pick up feminine supplies after hearing the Amars’ dejected lament that they can’t fight back because they can’t be as “upstanding” as others. Back at his home while he’s packing the supplies, a subdued Shuu approaches and asks if his “Tsukimi” really does live at the Amamizukan, having been unable to see her along the other Amamizukan residents who arrived at the hearing and not realizing that she was sitting right next to him. Kuranosuke is in no mood to explain things to Shuu, however, and returns to the Amamizukan. By the way, it was a nice touch of realism when Kuranosuke tried to kick down a door to get a sulking Tsukimi out of her room, only to painfully fail, something I’ve experienced myself …

Back at the Amamizukan, Kuranosuke begins his quest to shape up the Amars in preparation for battle against the redevelopment project. The first step is to make them presentable so that they would not be looked down upon (and to get rid of one reason for their inferiority complexes that are so crippling to any semi-public action they want to attempt). Mayaya is the first to be transformed by Kuranosuke’s formidable feminine skills, and she actually seems to like it (or she’s so catatonic that she is just standing like she’s posing), while Bamba is “cutified” with a wig to tame her otherwise untamable afro hair. And the Amars seem to like the changes. Meanwhile, Shouko calls for a date with Shuu under the pretext of returning the umbrella she borrowed. And the episode ends with the reclusive Mejiro wondering what happened to the expected hot pot dinner.

Neo-Mayaya

Neo-Bamba

At the beginning of the episode when the Kuboichi family was having breakfast, we get to see all the faces of the family clearly except for the mother (who is not Kuranosuke’s biological mother, of course, and in fact calls him formally by name). It was pretty clear that the mother’s face was deliberately not being shown. And so far, it has been very heavily implied that Tsukimi’s mother had died years ago, but for some reason this has not been stated outright yet. These give me the crazy idea that Kuranosuke’s father’s wife is actually Tsukimi’s mother, whose sickness forced her into a long-term hospital stay, somehow met Kuranosuke’s father, and fell in love with him.

That’s just too overdramatic and crazy, probably arising from my penchant for crazy ideas. After all, I did idly wonder if Shouko is actually Kuranosuke’s mother, which would be even more melodramatic, but at least I can dismiss this craziness with certainty since they don’t really seem to look much like each other, not to mention that Kuranosuke’s mother doesn’t have the mole that Shouko does. They probably don’t show Kuranosuke’s father’s wife’s face clearly because they didn’t want to create a new character design. Despite the insane ideas that pop into my head, I don’t think you’ll have to worry that I’m not prescribed any antipsychotic medication …

What’s not so crazy is that the interest Kuranosuke and Shuu shows towards Tsukimi might be enough for the them to steer the Kuboichi family away from the redevelopment plan. Kuranosuke’s opinion probably doesn’t matter much, but Shuu’s opinion most probably does. While Shuu does not seem to be at all the sort of person to go against a clearcut deal just because of a romantic interest, this might not be an issue because the redevelopment project is almost certainly not a clearcut deal that is definitely advantageous to the Kuboichi family (or even the “greater good”). Otherwise, they would already be throwing their support behind the project. Likewise for being potential opposition. In fact, there is the possibility that Shuu might end up supporting the project in a misguided attempt to free Tsukimi from a culture of “NEETness”.

Finally, I am hazarding that this episode’s title, “I Want to be a Jellyfish” (私はクラゲになりたい), is a reference to the reality television show I Want to Be a Hilton.

Episode 4 of Kuragehime, “Let’s Meet at the Aquarium” (水族館で逢いましょう), begins with the Amamizukan residents cooking sweet potatoes, where Tsukimi suddenly has a flashback to a similar situation with her mother. Except her mother had doubled over at the end, so it’s a sad flashback that sends Tsukimi into a crying fit to the confusion of the other residents. Meanwhile, Shuu still has no clue that Tsukimi is the lady of his dreams, while Kuranosuke still has no clue where his mother is despite having broken into his father’s room.

Kuranosuke does get the clue he missed in the previous episode when he comes across a copy of the redevelopment plan involving the area around the Amamizukan. This has him running in panic to the Amamizukan to warn the residents, except it turns out that they are already quite aware of the plan and are throwing their support to the opposition. After having the wind taken out of him for being the only one panicking, Kuranosuke decides to tag along Tsukimi, who is going to an aquarium to see jellyfish, something she does when she feels depressed.

Kuranosuke just doesn’t tag along, however, as he dresses Tsukimi up in a kimono borrowed from Chieko. He couldn’t help himself from playing dress up with Tsukimi after admiring Chieko’s kimono collection so much given his own hobbies, which would probably raise Chieko’s opinion of him the most. But more happens to torment Tsukimi, as Shuu volunteers to drive her and Kuranosuke to the aquarium. At least she doesn’t have a problem talking normally to him, thanks to her blurred vision due to Kuranosuke confiscating her glasses for the sake of fashion.

However, once at the aquarium, the interaction between Tsukimi and Shuu annoys Kuranosuke for some reason, so he heads into the ladies’ room to take off his feminine attire. This may have not been the best of ideas, since when he comes back he finds Shuu hugging a crying Tsukimi. Considering how he was drawn to Tsukimi earlier after seeing her laugh for the first time, he gets frustrated that he recognizes that what he is feeling is jealousy. It turns out that Shuu was hugging Tsukimi because he didn’t know what else to do when she started crying for no apparent reason. The reason that Tsukimi started crying is that she misses her mother so much, remembering the time when they were together at an aquarium the last time, which she does not explain to the others.

At least the incident prompted Kuranosuke to return Tsukimi’s glasses. This has its downside, however, since while Tsukimi can see better, she can’t talk normally to Shuu like she did earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Shuu still doesn’t seem to realize that the lady-like Tsukimi is the same otaku-like Tsukimi he saw the other day at the Amamizukan. When Tsukimi returns to the Amamizukan, Mejiro has everyone thrown into emergency mode to finish one of her manga, with Tsukimi being the only one who can be treated as a reliable assistant, and in the confusion Tsukimi ends up showing herself in her (very plain) underwear to Shuu, who entered the Amamizukan to say how much he enjoyed the day and leaving with a nosebleed.

The episode ends with Kuranosuke being extremely shocked at himself for being jealous of the interaction between virgins, while Tsukimi is in shock for having shown what she considers a very unflattering view of herself to Shuu. Kuranosuke himself is almost certainly not a virgin, considering his own attitude and how girls threw themselves at him. But I’m not sure he would have the easiest time seducing Tsukimi if he were to become seriously interested in Tsukimi in a romantic way, considering that he may not have much experience with girls running away from him.

Finally, I am going to hazard a guess that the title of this episode is a reference to the Japanese television drama “Let’s Meet in a Dream” (夢で逢いましょう).

Episode 3 of Kuragehime, “Enchanted” (魔法をかけられて), begins with Kuranosuke dressing up to the chagrin of the male members in the family. His internal monologue reveals that the biggest reason he cross-dresses is to destroy any prospect of himself becoming a politician, something he loathes of ever becoming. Obviously the father does know of Kuranosuke’s habits, and Kuranosuke was just avoiding him in the previous episode because an encounter would just raise a bothersome fuss.

The mother of the family doesn’t seem to be bothered as much as the brother and father; at least she is more preoccupied at trying to calm down the father, who is pissed at how Kuranosuke is cross-dressing when a distinguished visitor is dropping by. Fortunately, the visitor, who is the father’s brother-in-law, happens to be a otaku, to the chagrin of his attendants, and he is all too happy with Kuranosuke’s appearance. That’s just even more annoying to the father, who gives Kuranosuke the perfect excuse to get out of the house.

Kuranosuke also happens to be bored with the time he spends with his college friends and their unchanging conversations, and he finds Tsukimi and her encyclopedic knowledge of jellyfish to be a new source of entertainment. Which is why Tsukimi finds herself bothered by Kuranosuke during what was supposed to be her happy time feeding Kurara. On the other hand, the other residents seem to be fine with Kuranosuke by now, thanks to his bribery in the previous episode.

However, Kuranosuke notices that the feed Tsukimi bought for Kurara costs 3,800 yen, which he realizes is very expensive (obviously he isn’t the oblivious-of-the-average-income-level type). This is unfortunate because this prompts him to ask the Amamizukan residents what they do for a living, which is the foremost among many forbidden questions for the residents. Mainly because they desperately want to deny themselves being NEETs. They do have their sources of income, but most of them work from home and are without corporate employment. I would consider their work respectable employment, though not something they could get rich at, but their strong reactions imply this is another source for an inferiority complex, despite their words to the contrary.

Having been presumably kicked out of the Amamizukan yet again for his insensitive questions, Kuranosuke is asked by Tsukimi about his politician family. Instead of answering her question, though, Kuranosuke takes a real good look at Tsukimi, which does an excellent job of avoiding the question since the interrogator petrifies. This also makes it really easy for Kuranosuke to take Tsukimi to his own room to do all sorts of horrifying acts on her with all sorts of terrifying implements.

Horrifying and terrifying to Tsukimi, that is. Using his finely honed makeup and fashion skills, Kuranosuke does a terrific job of changing Tsukimi’s appearance to look like a demure and innocent young lady. This might be a shock to Tsukimi’s self image, but the much bigger problem for her is that she doesn’t want to be kicked out of the Amamizukan, something she fears might happen if the other residents see her like this. When Tsukimi runs away, she runs into Shuu, Kuranosuke’s older brother, who ends up being quite smitten with her new appearance, even if he doesn’t realize who she is nor recognizes her from their previous encounter.

Kuranosuke now has yet another reason to hang out around Tsukimi, as he thinks it would be great fun to apply his fashion skills to one who never concerns herself with fashion but can be dressed up quite spectacularly. Tsukimi, on the other hand, has demoted Kuranosuke from the princess from the first episode to a witch, as she desperately tries to clean away the makeup she suffered. Meanwhile, Shuu has been quite taken with the lady that ran into him to Kuranosuke’s great amusement.

While Tsukimi ends up playing Chinese zombie back at the Amamizukan thanks to the messy way the makeup cleanup effort ended up, Kuranosuke wants to know where his mother is in return for telling Shuu where to find Tsukimi. However, Shuu denies knowing where she is, but Kuranosuke tells him anyway purely for the amusement factor. Kuranosuke is surprised that Shuu knows about the Amamizukan, but he’s more preoccupied by the entertainment that he doesn’t really listen to Shuu’s aborted explanation that it’s part of the redevelopment area.

Shuu uses the excuse of returning Tsukimi’s glasses and clothes that she left behind to see Tsukimi at the Amamizukan. Unfortunately for him, he is completely taken aback by how crass the reality compares to his imagination, and not recognizing Tsukimi as the same person he ran into earlier (apparently thinking that Kuranosuke played a prank), he returns with the thought that the Amamizukan has good reason to be demolished quickly for redevelopment. Ironically, Tsukimi seems to have developed an attraction to Shuu, as she silently asks her mother if love is what makes a girl a princess.

Back home, Shuu wants to know what Kuranosuke intends to do if he knew where his mother was. To this, Kuranosuke replies that Shuu has nothing to worry about, that he just wants to see his mother’s closet again. If one were the psychoanalyzing sort, one might wonder if Kuranosuke’s cross-dressing and associated fashion skills might have something to do with him missing his mother. The whole thing about Kuranosuke’s mother also implies a sordid past in the Koibuchi family, considering that Kuranosuke and Shuu are presumably half-brothers. Or Kuranosuke was adopted into the family after living with his mother for years. Either way, it seems complicated.

Finally, as to the title to this episode, I am hazarding a guess that “Enchanted” (魔法をかけられて) is a reference to Disney’s Enchanted, even if the episode was more like Cinderella with Tsukimi having been “magically” turned into a “princess” for a short while before turning back to normal.

Episode 2 of Kuragehime, “Sukiyaki Western Matsusaka” (スキヤキ・ウエスタン・マツサカ), starts out from the end of the previous episode. Tsukimi is desperately trying to hide the existence of a fashionable person from the other residents of the Amamizukan, presumably fearing that it might end up with her being kicked out. It’s even worse that the person in question is male, as Tsukimi’s query to the reclusive Mejiro about what punishment she should receive for what she poses as a hypothetical situation is death.

Too bad for Tsukimi that she is doing a spectacularly bad job at trying to hide her unwanted guest. Fortunately, only Chieko and Mayaya remain in the building among the non-reclusive residents, and Tsukimi eventually manages to get her guest outside without being discovered. Although perhaps Tsukimi should be much more worried about how her leaving guest mentions how he likes the atmosphere of the Amamizukan.

Tsukimi feels a lot more relaxed as things go back to the normal routine, with the other residents fantasize what they could do if they spent the same amount of money Tsukimi spent on the aquarium for Kurara. And the Amamizukan residents go out for groceries to prepare for the weekly pot dinner party. Here we get to see that Banba is an excellent optical meter for judging the quality of meat, which at least gives them the consolation of fantasizing about the high quality beef displayed while having to satisfy themselves with discounted beef.

Too bad yet again for Tsukimi that the dinner party isn’t as festive as usual. In fact, too bad for everyone else, since her previous guest had returned to join dinner. While Kuranosuke, our fashionable person, is having a jovial time at dinner and talking to everyone, everyone else has turned into stone in the presence of such a fashionable person. In fact, it gets so bad that a couple of the residents run away from dinner and Chieko is forced to ask Kuranosuke to leave. At least the residents don’t know that Kuranosuke is male. Tsukimi does get the shock of her life when Kuranosuke said he came back since he wanted to see her again; seems that this is something Tsukimi never expected to hear from another person.

Tsukimi walks Kuranosuke back to his home, wondering why he came to dinner, and she gets to learn a little bit of what growing up must have been like for him as he reveals that he was always envious of a festive dinner among people, something that he rarely got to do with his own family. This makes Tsukimi think back to the times when she had happy dinner with both her mother and father, and she is about to tell something about it to Kuranosuke, although she’s interrupted when Kuranosuke is alarmed that his father is home.

Tsukimi is utterly shocked when she becomes aware of her surroundings, as she finds herself at the front gate of an enormous mansion. Kuranosuke apparently doesn’t want to face his father while in crossdressing mode, either because it might spark another huge fight in a series of fights or because his father doesn’t know about his crossdressing. Fortunately for him, his older brother arrives, and while the brother is really unhappy about Kuranosuke’s crossdressing ways, he’s even more wary of letting the father know.

Kuranosuke manages to convince his brother to get some high quality Matsusaka beef from the mansion kitchen, and back at the Amamizukan, manages to completely turn around the residents’ attitude towards himself, with Tsukimi being flabbergasted at how easily they were all bribed with good food. Next morning, Tsukimi receives the final shock of the episode when she notices Kuranosuke’s brother on the news next to the ex-transportation minister, Koibuchi Keiichiro (whom I expect is quite pleasing to Jiji’s eyes). And that’s on top of worrying about the residents ever learning that he’s male.

It doesn’t look good for Tsukimi’s prospects of not getting an ulcer, considering how all the portents point to Kuranosuke moving into the Amamizukan (him being a crossdressing otaku, liking the Amamizukan, not being close to his family, and him being rich along with an increase in vacant land in the neighborhood).

One thing I want to mention before finishing this post is that the title of each episode seems to be inspired by other television shows or movies, given how many movie references appear in the opening sequence. It’s clearly inspired by Tsukimi’s own imagination that sometimes ties into movies and such, even if the references haven’t appear too often in the episodes themselves so far. I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that this episode’s title is inspired by Sukiyaki Western Django.

The story centers around Kurashita Tsukimi, a huge fan of jellyfish and a girl who moves to Tokyo to become an illustrator. She moves into an apartment complex that is full of fujoshi with a no-men-allowed rule. However, one day, Tsukimi invites a stylishly fashionable woman to stay at her room at Amamizukan — only to discover that the guest is not who she seems to be.

Reading this blurb, the first thought that came to my mind was “A jellyfish fan doesn’t sound real.” Episode 1 of Kuragehime, “Sex and the Amars” (セックス・アンド・ザ・アマーズ), whose title is obviously a reference to “Sex and the City”, opens with a scene that makes the jellyfish otaku thing sensible: When proganotist Tsukimi was young, one of the last things that she did outside with her mother was to visit an aquarium, where they saw a jellyfish exhibit at which the mother pointed out beautiful jellyfish and compared them with a wedding dress.

Obviously, the jellyfish thing has stuck with Tsukimi ever since. In the present day, Tsukimi is going through the horrible ordeal of wading through Shibuya in order to get to a jellyfish exhibition. It’s horrible for her because of all the “princesses”, women who she deems to have a far higher level of willingness and skill to maintain a fashionable appearance. Apparently it stimulates an inferiority complex too much or something. In fact, it’s too tough for her that she gives up and returns to her residence, the Amamizukan.

The eighteen year old Tsukimi has been in Tokyo for just half a year, and she has lived at the Amamizukan for three months after having been invited by a friend on an Internet community site. The residents of the Amamizukan are all female otaku like Tsukimi, albeit having different areas of interest, and they also all lack boyfriends. In fact, this is apparently is the reason they call themselves “Amars” (尼ーず), which seems to be a bastardized English plural of the Japanese word meaning a buddhist nun. And they all know too well the horrible ordeal that Tsukimi must have went through at Shibuya. There’s also one other resident who Tsukimi has yet to see with her own eyes.

When Tsukimi feels depressed, especially when she thinks of her mother, she cheers herself up by basking in the presence of a jellyfish at a nearby pet shop. This is exactly what she does that night, except this time she finds a lethal threat to her jellyfish friend (in her mind) Kurara in the form of another species of jellyfish. Despite her encyclopedic knowledge of jellyfish and managing to overcome her terror at talking to a man (especially one who wears bling), she fails to convince the employee at the pet shop to separate the two species of jellyfish. In fact, she gets bodily kicked by the employee, which is how she ends up in front of a princess.

This new “princess” gets what Tsukimi is saying quickly, in contrast to the dimwitted employee, and by force of personality, manages to convince the employee to just give Kurara to Tsukimi for free. After all, the jellyfish would die anyway if nothing was done. As for the princess, the voice is not quite what I would have expected to hear from such a character. It’s somewhat deep, although still consistent with what I might hear from a woman. Tsukimi doesn’t notice anything amiss, though, only being blinded by the “princess”ness.

At the Amamizukan, Tsukimi has arrived with the princess and has put the jellyfish temporarily in the bathtub, but Tsukimi is nervous about the others finding out the presence of the princess, considering the weakness all the residents have against such people. But after we get to see the residents enjoying their obsessions, Tsukimi’s hope of getting the princess out unseen is dashed, and the princess ends up sleeping in Tsukimi’s room.

Banba, the train otaku

Jiji, the older men otaku

Chieko, the kimono otaku

Mayaya, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms otaku

The next morning, Tsukimi gets the shock of her life when it turns out that the “princess” is actually a guy. He’s not gay, but he apparently crossdresses for fun. If this were manga, I probably wouldn’t have had a clue. It still would have been perfectly OK if you didn’t have a clue that he was a guy until you reached near the end of this anime episode, though, considering that the voice actor is actually female. Anyways, considering the other residents’ attitude towards young men, especially pretty men, Tsukimi might be really worried whether she gets to have a roof over her head starting from the next night.

I liked this first episode of Kuragehime, with it being pretty amusing. I also expect to see a lot of movie references from Tsukimi, considering how the opening credits is basically one movie reference after another. She certainly has an active imagination from the way she imagined her interaction with Kurara. Finally, “Kuragehime” basically means “jellyfish princess”: is the story somehow going to be like Tsukimi becoming a “princess” she had wanted to be, or is it just a fun title for the show?

For like half a year, my anime blogging had effectively stopped. (For that matter, all my other blogging had stopped as well.) This is mostly because a big change in routine has put a crimp on my blogging activities. It wasn’t that I lacked the time to blog, but rather that I didn’t feel like doing any blogging. In fact, I haven’t even been able to watch much anime, either. Recently, I’ve been getting the urge to watch more anime and blog again, however. I obviously won’t be able to watch and blog a ton of anime, but I think I can manage one or two series. The question is: Will this be the last throes of a dying anime blog, or will this be a resurgence of a blog that has been in hiatus for too long?

Considering the chances of a blog in hiatus to stay in hiatus, the odds might not be high that I could continue to work on this blog. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try: if I don’t even start an attempt to resume blogging, then the blog will definitely be dead. I just need to be able to maintain my energy and interest for awhile …

One of the first things I need to do is to finally watch the last episode of Dance in the Vampire Bund and blog it, which I have been ignoring for far too long. (I’m going to have to brush up on what happened in previous episodes by reading my own blog entries: I knew there was a reason I wrote them.) As for new anime series to blog about, I’m rather partial to Kuragehime: there’s something about the ridiculous-sounding blurbs that pulls me to it …

In episode 11 of Dance in the Vampire Bund, “Underworld” (アンダーワールド), the hunt for Akira has spilled over to public areas where the “general public” mills about, except this is a rather special group of the “general public”: This is the Bund, so they are all vampires. Becoming a vampire definitely seems to addle people’s brains a bit, since when confronted by a homicidal maniac who is killing everyone in her path during her hunt for a single person, they all go berserk and start attacking her to no avail.

Akira only gets a reprieve when Alphonse, the one in charge of the “we don’t do that sort of stuff” division, shows up in his car to extract him. Akira insists that Alphonse talk about what’s going on, and he gets an answer: the surviving three royal families basically were usurpers who killed off all the other pure bloods and even the previous vampire queen Lucretia, Mina’s mother, while Mina was only left alive supposedly because killing her would leave no pure blood female behind to continue the species. In reality, it’s more so that the perverts can humiliate Mina Tepes every ten years or so for the “sake of checking up on her suitability as a mate”.

Akira decides to jump back into the fray while asking that Alphonse pass a message on to Mina that he will survive and that she should fight as well. When Mina gets the message, she remembers the first time she lay eyes on Akira seventeen years ago, which was right after a humiliating session with the perverts after which Akira’s innocence cheered her up. The renewed determination prompts Mina to join the outstanding bet among the perverts: she will put everything on the line, betting that Akira will emerge victorious, and she will win her freedom if she wins.

Among the “everything” that Mina bets, one of the perverts is particularly interested in a specific item, but Mina isn’t sure what he’s talking about. It seems to be related to whatever Akira had seen in Mina’s castle right before he lost his memories during a secret mission a year ago, though. After a heavily armed Mei Ren showed up to save Akira from another assassin (where it turns out that she is among the last of a dead family and also a werewolf (and not the vampire she originally implied herself to be), and her romantic overtures were rebuffed by Akira, who has stronger feelings for Mina), the main assassin in this episode shows up again, and this time she is much more interested in trying to get Akira to reveal what he saw a year earlier.

Having been separated from Mei Ren and being unable to transform into a werewolf for what are presumably psychological reasons, Akira can’t do much while the assassin beats him up and psychologically torments him by transforming into Yuki, all the while demanding that he reveal what he saw. She was making good progress in the mind games department until she took Mina’s form, and that was a big mistake. This breaks Akira’s psychological block, and in a rage, he bites off the assassins head for daring to impersonating Mina Tepes.

Akira probably has regained his memory of whatever terrible secret that he learned during his secret mission of a year ago, and the implications for his relationship with Mina might not be pretty, considering how everyone in the know seems to think he’ll end up an enemy once he remembers. I could be wrong, though: it seems I’ve been wrong about Mei Ren as well. Whatever the case, I don’t think Mina or Yuki have any idea about what is about to transpire, even as they worry about what is happening with Akira.