Kure-nai scores an 8 out of 10. (Spoilers located in pictures)

First off, I feel it necessary to go ahead and give a little plot summary, but I am way to lazy to even attempt and putting my words from episode 1 all together, so I figured I’d just copy and past from a comforting source:

Sixteen-year-old Kurenai Shinkurou, a specialist in settling squabbles between people, is one day approached by his employer with the daughter of a powerful plutocratic family asking him to be her bodyguard (Wikipedia).

Kure-nai was, all-in-all, a great show to watch. I probably would love to go back and rewatch this all in one day’s sitting, but I like to pile tons of “must see” animes on my agenda so I most likely won’t ever get back around to it. The show rounded out to about an 8 out of 10 in my book; and by MAL standards, that’s “Very Good.” However, if you were to look at my list, the scoring makes about as much sense as a cat chasing a dog. I tend to score shows off of the most random things, so I think I’ll go ahead and lay out my grading system for Kure-nai.

Was the Art Good?

Well, I’d say so! I’ll go ahead and compliment the greatness of Kure-nai’s art though its in depth fight scenes. The show stuck so true to physics of a fight. They didn’t make things too overly fast nor painfully and methodically slow. It kept you interested while being able to follow each swing.

I am not some artist so I won’t feign like I noticed some sort of special drawing style in this show. I’ll just say that I really didn’t feel like I was looking at the same old shit again.

Was the Story Good?

I clump a lot of stuff into story: “Have I seen something like this concept before?” and “Did the show portray itself in an acceptable way?”

Not all of us really go out and look for a show where a 16 year old boy has to protect a 7 year old girl from her incestuous family. Not all of us do, but a very twisted minority does.

The show didn’t really portray itself very well. There were too many stupid errors on Benika / Shinkurou’s side that really pulled away from they supposed profession. There were also a few quirks that just didn’t sit well with me, like the musical episode. Although the show did have extraordinary writing, I do not think it really followed its own plot that well.

Were the Characters Lovable?

I sure as hell thought so. I don’t care what you people think. I thought Murasaki was absolutely adorable. I know that she was a perfect bitch, but I just loved her cuteness. And yes, she is pretty much the only character that really mattered in this show other than boring ol’ Shinkurou.

—

So that pretty much covers the show. I can’t really say that I want a second season or an OVA, but I also can’t say that I wouldn’t watch it if it came out. It’s been fun blogging Kure-nai for ya’ll and I look forward to my first post of Natsume Yuujinchou.

Do you love me?

That post title does not imply that this show was slow or bad, but rather jests at my severe slowness as a writer.

I won’t go on discussing all my views on the show’s entirety, so that I can save that for another post. This is all about the final episode of Kure-nai and because I ruined the final episode of True Tears at my old home blog; therefore, I cannot be held accountable for those who read on.

! SPOILERS FOR ALL YOU GOOGLE-HAPPY ANIME VIEWERS !

Summary:

Shinkurou’s reckless actions in order to save the cock teasing Murasaki have made everyone a little worried. Benika continues to defy the laws of physics in her snowmobile of a car while Yuuno and Ginko remain at school waiting for a call from him as if it is the hour after their first date. Everyone has good reason to wory about Shinkurou. He’s wandering into the belly of the beast but has forgotten all about Murasaki, for he has stopped off at the Kuhouin kitchen in order to sharpen up on his common thief skills. Outside, Lin spots Benika and the recently awoken and perfectly fine Yayoi. She catches up to the two and proceeds to cheat with her car too.

Shinkurou finally manages to get to the outers of the Inner Sanctuary once again, but this time he has met his most formidable opponent yet, an older man with no combat training whatsoever, Murasaki’s father! After hearing about how crummy Shinkurou is for not understanding Kuhouin practices, we see Benika crash into the Inner Sanctuary halls followed by Lin. Lin crashes her car and is met by Yayoi who wants to try out her new skill. This isn’t really a new skill but rather an uber rigged display of why Yayoi is in the wrong anime. Apparently, after sparing and watching Shinkurou, she was able to pick up on the Houzuki-ryuu fighting style (Sharingan much?!?). Who’d have thought that this fighting style was the one thing that could beat Ryuuji and Lin.

After Shinkurou and Yayoi lay waste to their enemies, there is more talk to Murasaki about leaving. Then Renjou and Kazuko come in to tell them that they will not be leaving, Murasaki will stay and stuff, yadda yadda yadda. Obviously, Shinkurou can do aas he pleases at this point. After s confusing exchange of words, a mean knife attack on Benika by Ryuuji, and a flippin awesome Houzuki horn slice n’ dice attack by Shinkurou, it is settled that Murasaki will get to leave the Inner Sanctuary by her own choice. However, she will stay in the Kuhouin estate in order to prove that the whole Sanctuary thing was stupid. Renjou decides to preserve the family and dissolve the Sanctuary at the same time. The one good thing about this is that he tells Shinkurou that once she loses that he can come take her. Meaning, Muraski wins either way. She lives outside the Sanctuary with the father she never got to bond with and if they decide to stick her back in, she gets to live with the boy she came to love.

And so we come to our happy ending. Or is it really a happy ending? Muraski may get to sit in daddy’s lap and hear stories about Souju before she overdosed, but Murasaki sure didn’t get to ask Shinkurou the most important question, whether he loved her or not. We get to see our answer when we get a glimpse at Shinkurou’s pedophile dream of walking hand and hand with Murasaki in a field of violets.

Thoughts:

I must say this this last episode had some serious drama and some kick ass action. Even though the drama was VEEEEERY drawn out and the action was EXTREEEEMELY short. I loved it. The whole bit about cars on snow was too much for me because the show has been so true to the physics of fighting. So why exactly was it too much trouble to research driving a bit?

The other thing would be that the Houzuki’s fighting style was utter suck up until that point. Yayoi could stop it easily in a sparring session, but Lin couldn’t stop it in real combat. Oh well. I don’t really care. If they hadn’t had won, then I would have been forced to withdraw my love towards blissmo (idk why, but I just would have).

No matter what anyone says Murasaki may not be a doll in the Inner Sanctuary anymore, but she is a Kuhouin doll nonetheless.

One episode left until I call up all my friends and start screaming!

One more episode to go until I finish the series and I must say “If Shinkurou doesn’t shank every living soul in the Kuhouin estate with his elbow horn and save Murasaki, then I will be overly pissed.”

This episode I feel kind of just set the stage for what he was up against exactly. I mean, we’ve already seen rigdasaurus Lin, but we didn’t know that Ryuuji was powerful at this point. That offered a drastic spin in their predicament.

Summary:

Murasaki has gone super depressing on us as she is being put back in the Inner Sanctuary. Sad lolis doesn’t really make for happy viewers, but loli none the less so she’ll pull through.

We also see that no matter how determined a person is to save their 7 year old girlfriend, traffic will always through a kink in the plans.

When Benika, Yayoi, and Shinkurou finally arrive at the estate, they look across the vast land. Benika and Yayoi had been there before and know just how tough this will be, but Shinkurou is practically getting ready to go build a snowman. He’s so naive about exactly how many times he will be raped. And, right from the get go, things are difficult. They fight in a stream and get chilled by the wetness then they run into Lin and her crew, leaving Yayoi behind to strut her stuff (she gets pwnt). During this time Ryuuij talks about how he is manly and his father is weak.

Atfer Benika and Shinkurou get away from the crowd and make their way towards the Inner Sanctuary, we get to see Ryuuji being a dick yet again. Apparently he can’t get enough of tormenting his kind father. He eats his dad’s snack and puts much emphasis on how good it is, then he calls Kazuko his mom, walks with her down the hall, and tells her to meet him in his warm room. I can only assume that since Ryuuji stole his pop’s afternoon snack he is now after the bedtime one.

Benika and Shinkurou reach the Inner Sanctuary and talk to the gatekeeper door opener girl and display how determined they are. They walk in to see Ryuuji with the doll-like Murasaki. Lin jumps in, breaks up the party, then Ryuuji springs up and cheats with god mode on his previous martial arts master, Benika. Shinkurou also successfully slaps Lin and cums on himself with excitement. Ryuuji kicks Benika around then takes his loli sister off into the darkness. Lin is left with Benika and Shinkurou, when, all of the sudden, the gatekeeper door opener jumps out and gives her a hug with a knife. Lin grabs the knife and repeatedly stabs the overly affectionate servant but loses sight of her prey in the process.

Shinkurou and Benika are in hiding in a storehouse and Benika decides to rescue Yayoi and gtfo. She tells Shinkurou to go start the car because she knows that they should warm the car up before they get in (awh the pleasures of suburbian knowledge). While he warms the car, he looks at a picture of Murasaki’s Shichi-Go-San and gets a renewed vigor to take another ass beating. Benike comes back with a limp Yayoi, sees that Shinkurou has gone off, and drives her car through the woods after him (breaking all the rules of snow tires).

Thoughts:

If this doesn’t end with Shinkurou turning into a monstrosity with horns and blades sticking out every which way, I’ll be mad. Or, if Murasaki dies… I’ll be pissed and will never love blissmo again.

Also, until July 20th when I hatch…

Level me, you insolent readers!

What! JLeeson didn’t already have episode 10 done?

I sincerely apologize for not having blogged this show properly (previous 8 episodes do not qualify), I missed episodes 10-12 as you can see. I recently moved and had not had internet since this past Thursday or so, plus I have been at freshman orientation for college so even if I did have the connection I still wouldn’t have posted because, let’s face it, my college career outweighs blizzy (I’m expecting some sort of cutting remark from her by the end of this post for that). On top of all that, since last night… when I initially planned to write this belated post, I have been using the On-Screen Keyboard for the handicapped and also for those who think their keyboard is broken but don’t think about switching usb ports. I plead the previous in order to maintain face with you people.

Anyways, on with things. Because I am far too lazy to go rewatch episode 10 and get an exact summary of what happened, I will just tell what I remember. HAH! You must suffer through the fog bank of my find. Chances are I’ll be remembering a good number of Kure-nai Danbooru pr0n plot points.

Summary:

Murasaki is taken back to the Kuhouin estate but isn’t put into the Inner Sanctuary immediately. She returns to find that she is not allowed to do anything for herself. Tea must not be wiped up by a young lady of her stature. She remembers about how Shinkurou would tell her to wipe up her own messes.

Meanwhile, Renjou is being chewed out for not having enough Kuhouin backbone and Shinkurou is laying around limp noodle because he cannot go up against Kuhouin backbone. He gets up to go shop for Tamaki and Yamie after being scammed by a handful of paper strips that clearly weren’t money.

When he is out he runs into Yayoi who gives him a talk over a nice spar at a shrine. During this talk we get to see a story of Yayoi screwing up. Since she is perfect I choose to believe that she fabricated a failure of her own in order to make Shinkurou realize that Murasaki is old news. However, we all know that Yayoi’s only failure in life was giving Shinkurou a talk like this. I mean, he’ll think that their friends, then he’ll want to sleep with her only to find that she is more woman than he, resulting in jealousy and attempting murder that backfires and gets himself killed because nobody can challenge Yayoi. (Note: any time Yayoi looks like she is losing it is only because she enjoys getting kicked into the fetal postition.)

Shinkurou takes Yayoi’s incite to heart and tries to move on. This just makes him look like a complete, ignorant douche to Ginko, his flake-out friends, and his apartment residents. Alas, all that is left for Shinkurou is to either stay and clean his apartment forever knowing that Murasaki is being raped by her older brother as he scrubs mildew or grow a pair and demand to challenge the Kuhouins.

While we would all love to see The Adventures of Kurenai: Apartment Cleaner Extraordinaire! we all also know that the ending of the show would be only 7 steps above suck (unless it showed the rape scenes, then we’d be 2 steps below epic).

At the end of the episode, Shinkurou, Yayoi, and Benika get ready for the cold, wintery area of the Kuhoin estate and Murasaki gets dolled up for the Inner Sanctuary.

Thoughts:

How’s that for a “bite me, I finally got my computer working back-in-action post?”

I must say that this doesn’t reflect any of my previous summaries over Kure-nai, but I will also admit that everything I said here was exactly how I remember it and that is good enough for me.

I’m looking forward to actually getting to watch episode 11 and 12 and get those summaries up for you then the closing review.

Also, until July 20th when I hatch…

Level me, you insolent readers!

I am to give birth to Kuhouin children

Once again, I am late in my Kure-nai post, but I have a new job at a daycare (truth) and am currently feeling a little bit ill (lie); with those two things I demand that you cut me some slack.

Yes, I know that Kure-nai 10 has already been released, so expect to see that up here later today or within the next two weeks.

This episode shows the long awaited arrival of the Kuhouins. They don’t show up to take Murasaki away till the end of the episode, but you anticipate the action throughout the duration. Only problem is, “Can Shinkurou handle who they send at him?”

Summary:

Shinkurou and Murasaki have been separated; Shinkurou is with Benika, and Murasaki is with Yayoi. Neither of the adults can find anything to please their guests. Shinkurou goes on about how he might not be able to handle the job and wonders why he even had it in the first place. All of his mistakes were predicted by Benika though. Shinkurou, still confused about what Ginko had told him, inquires wheteher Murasaki is really a Kuhouin and after some explaining about the inner functions of the Kuhouin marital system, Shinkurou is ready to get back on the job and protect Murasaki.

Those inner workings are kinda messed up. Basically, only boys matter in the Kuhouin family. When a girl is born, she is put in the inner sanctuary. Whenever a Kuhouin girl is 13, she is considered an adult and can be used to make babies for Kuhouin men. The girls’ sole purpose is baby-makin’. Whenever they give a baby to one of the guys, that man will take a wife in order to cover up the whole event to the outside world, and that baby will be named as the wife’s child. Simple and twisted enough. (desires to go search for a Kuhouin doujin)

The plan is for the two of them to leave the country the following day, but Shinkurou requests that they return to Samidare apartments so that Murasaki and he can say their goodbyes. Yayoi, once again is smartly against it, but Benika wants to indulge her pupil’s one request. They head back to the apartments, with Yayoi on guard outside as always, and have a small dinner party with Yamie and Tamaki. Shinkuou decided to splurge and buy some nicer meat for their meal (shimofuri). After their lovely meal, they call it a night and say they will see each other tomorrow, but Yamie notices something strange in it all. Shinkurou was being generous with food and Murasaki seemed especially sad when Tamaki said “See you tomorrow.”

Benika sneaks into Renjou’s office. He tells her that she is too late and that Ryuuji is already on his way to get Murasaki. Benika tells him that Murasaki isn’t the same as before, but Renjou, nonetheless, endorses Ryuuji’s actions. The both of them agree to use this as a test to see who is better, Shinkurou or Ryuuji.

Ryuuji, a skilled Kuhouin fighter, and three body guards arrive at Samidare apartments. Yayoi can easily take down one of the bodyguards, but the female that is accompanying them is a different story. She is thrown through the front door of the complex, tossed about, and kicked limp. This noise obviously alerts the residents. Tamaki and Yamie step out of their rooms to see what’s happening, but when the bodyguards come upstairs they are confronted with a few sharp punches and are easily set aside.

They reach Shinkurou’s room and the first bodyguard is met by a fist to the face. He can knock these guys out no problem, but then the woman that beat Yayoi comes up the steps and gives Shinkurou a run for his money. Now Ryuuji can step inside and get his little sister back. While Shinkurou is repeatedly kicked into place, Ryuuji pressures Murasaki into obeying Kuhouin laws once again, admit that her sole purpose in life is to make Kuhouin babies, and then walk straight out the door.

Thoughts:

Ryuuji’s a tool.

Murasaki kissed Shinkurou.

That woman that beat up Yayoi and Shinkurou was rigged.

That’s all folks!

I don’t want to go back to the Kuhouins!

Omg, intense episode. I can already tell that the next one is going to be even better. There’s going to be some action. Last episode, Murasaki went to hang out with Tamaki for the day her constant time with Tamaki is resulting in her saying odder and odder things it’s quite funny.

In this episode the group celebrates Shichi-Go-San. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what that was before the episode offered a brief explanation. I am sure glad that they did because I was as clueless as Murasaki. To save time, I’ll just go ahead and say that Shichi-Go-San is a celebration for 3, 5, and 7 year olds (Shichi-Go-San = Seven-Five-Three). To be more specific it is for girls aged 3 or 7 and boys aged 3 or 5. You can read up more about it here. I read it and it was all very interesting.

Summary:

Agents from the Kuhouins are keeping an eye on the Samidare apartment, changing cars every so often in order not to raise Yayoi’s suspicion. While his people are out doing field work, Renjou and Kazuko sit comfortably in their estate having a small breakfast; their main topic of discussion is about Murasaki. Since she has been found it’s only natural to talk about her. The only problem is that the way Renjou is talking is making him sound s bit like Souju. He comments on how her time in Tokyo could be beneficial to her, but Kazuko finds that ridiculous; a Sanctuary girl has no need for that type of knowledge. She’s right, but Renjou’s attitude seems to give a hint that he is opposing the Inner Sanctuary now too.

Shinkurou and Murasaki’s breakfast isn’t near as sophisticated as the Kuhouin’s. Murasaki just gropes in a bag of bread, commenting on how great it is, Shinkurou claims that it is too sweet. Yamie and Tamaki then offer up their comments on the bread; Yamie agrees with Shinkurou, and Tamaki agrees with Murasaki. The fact that they are in Shinkurou’s room and eating his food again irritates him a bit, but the issue is put aside when Yamie chips her tooth and calls it a bad premonition and when the TV announces that Shichi-Go-San is on the 15th. They then all agree that since Murasaki is seven she needs to experience this once in a life time opportunity. They, however, will get the chance to visit a shrine where a relatively popular murder of a detective Bogey happened.

Shinkurou, goes up to the school and stops in to see Ginko; she almost has the information on the Kuhouins and needs a bit more time. That aside, Shinkurou decides to ask her what she did for her Shichi-Go-San. She gets a little confused and uncomfortable at the question though.

At home, Yamie and Tamaki prepare Murasaki for her Shichi-Go-San. They get out one of her nice kimonos and put some makeup on her. Surprisingly, Yamie doesn’t goth the little girl up which makes Tamaki and Murasaki happy. Now that Shinkurou is home he needs to get permission to take Murasaki out of the apartment so he goes to plea with Yayoi across the street. She calls up Benika who is in the middle of holding a gun to a tied up man’s head and gets the approval under one circumstance: they can’t go to Hanazono shrine like they wanted, instead they have to go to some small shrine that’s in front of a train station. After that is all cleared up, Murasaki and the others come out to head off to the shrine only to find out the saddening change of plans.

They arrive at the shrine, but on their walk down the sidewalk they happen to pass by a Kuhouin agent. Their location is known again. The small shrine turns out to be even more of a disappointed than they thought, but Murasaki is happy to go take pictures and offer up prayer; Tamaki and Yamie see that the shrine gives luck in gambling so they offer up a big greedy prayer. Shinkurou offers to buy her a charm since her fortune was bad so she picks the pretty pink one. It says safe-driving, but she doesn’t know that. After their visit to the shrine they head to a restaurant to get drinks.

Back at the Kuhouin estate, things are all business. Renjou goes to visit his father and is questioned on whether he still has feelings for Souju. He denies that any such emotions exist, but it is fairly obvious that he loves her. They decide that they need to get Murasaki back into the Sanctuary so that their affairs will not be leaked out. One of Renjou’s sons, Ryuuji, then comes in and basically tells his father off for being weak and says how he will get Murasaki back for his father.

The night is now coming to a close and the group must part ways. Tamaki and Yamie want to go try out their newly improved gambling skills and Shinkurou wants to get back to put Murasaki to bed. On the way back, Murasaki asks Shinkurou is he likes women with big breasts. (This is where we see just how much Tamaki has been teaching the girl.) She claims that her mother had large breats so she will probably grow up to have them too. She finds being a child troubling because she wants to grow up so that she can be a suitable partner and please Shinkurou; he just tells her she’s fine how she is. She is happy to hear that and is happy to later hear that Shinkurou is happy having her there.

The next day at school, Shinkurou gets a text from Ginko whil he is talking to Yuuno again so he goes to see her and finds out a bit of information on the Kuhouins that he didn’t really want to know. Apparently, in the Kuhouin family tree, there is no Murasaki. She doesn’t exist and there are no records of there even being a girl child to Renjou. This comes as a shock to him and he knows Murasaki isn’t capable of lying at her age so the two of them determine that she probably doesn’t even know how her family views her.

Shinkurou is depressed and majorly confused so he heads home to see Murasaki but is stopped outside the apartment by two Kuhouin agents. They attack him while he’s off guard, and he’s only saved because Yayoi chases them off. She calls up Benika and Shinkurou runs in to tell Murasaki the bad news that they have been found and can no longer stay in the Samidare apartment.

Thoughts:

I think that this episode probably had the funniest situation that I have seen in any anime. I’m not talking about a funny joke, but Benika’s casual attitude while holding a gun to a man’s head. She just calmly talks on the phone about the Shichi-Go-San without wavering then kindly asks the man if he has children as if their current situation isn’t even a reality. Like the whole thing is just a normal happening between to people. I laughed so hard when it showed her with the gun in one hand and the phone in the other. That cinematography was genius, probably the best the show has had.

I must say that when Murasaki started talking about large breasts and pleasing Shinkurou, I was tempted to pause the show and go search for doujins, but I decided to look for them afterward. (I didn’t find much of anything. And yes, I know, I’m horrible.)

I’m kind of curious as to what will happen. The preview to the next episode gives the impression that it will be all action, but I am not wondering about what will happen in the next episode. I am curious as to whether or not Shinkurou will have to relocate with Murasaki cause if they do they probably won’t be able to just move to another part of Tokyo, they’d have to go to another city. Oh well, guess we’ll find out.

That’s why you became a lolicon, right?

I figured that I’d be blogging nonstop since school is out now, but I have hardly had a chance to breath. I saw enough of all these people all year long and now they wanna spend every waking hour of the summer with me too? YEESH! Oh well, here I am with the dilatory post on Kure-nai episode 7 (episode 8 will be subbed pretty soon and I hope to get that written up in a decent amount of time).

Some of you viewers/readers may not have enjoyed this episode near as much as the previous musical fiasco, but personally I felt that the show was getting back on track more with this one. I’ll admit, I haven’t read the light novels so I don’t really know the storyline of the show, but episodes like this seem like they’d fit closer to what little amount of story that has happened.

Summary:

Tamaki and Yamie stay in Shinkurou’s room to keep Murasaki company by watching television with her. I’m sure at this point, or probably previously, the viewer wonders “What do those two women actually do?” Well, in this episode we get to see Tamaki wear something other than sweats and do something other that lay around in Shinkurou’s room; She takes Murasaki to her college campus with her in order to find a good guy. Yamie promises to cover for the two of them so that Shinkurou wont get angry, and, once again, Tamaki is on a man hunt.

When they arrive Murasaki starts noticing differences between college and Shinkurou’s school, that’s when Tamaki is confronted by an acquaintance. Obviously the two don’t get along and Murasaki’s inquisitions are only adding fuel to the fire. The quibble grows into an argument about boys and how Tamaki steals boyfriends away and how that girl hates her, blah blah blah. In short, Tamaki’s a slut. She starts talking about a new boy that the girl likes and ends up getting punched.

The two of them then go sit down to have some juice during lunchtime. She tells Murasaki how she has probably been with 20 men (what a whore!). Then her current boy toy comes up wanting to talk; however, since Murasaki is present Tamaki insists that they put off the conversation. Turns out he just wanted to break up with her. Upon hearing this, her attitude changes and she is suddenly more than willing to work on the relationship and ditch Murasaki. He gets defensive and tries to get away and then Tamaki turns into a mega rude person and raises her arm to strike the boy. But, Just then, in an instant, her soon to be ex goes into uber wussy mode and cowers in fear under her oppressive fist! It works. Tamaki backs off and he continues to whimper like a 3 year old. Either she is absolutely the worst girlfriend ever or she has the best best best best BEST taste in boys ever!

Tamaki and Murasaki go to a little cafe in order to have juice. Tamaki lays on the table in severe depression and Murasaki tries to cheer her up. She gets through to the freshly dumped girl and they happily brush off what has recently happened and return to their man hunt. They cup they hands, put them to their eyes, and look out the window to try and spy a good man. Then, like a bullet through the forehead, Tamaki sees her ex with another girl and falls back into depression, questioning whether or not she is even a good person. She starts talking about all sorts of things like changing her hairstyle and the way she dresses just to impress this guy. Then she comments on how overly excessive girls are useless and bad. Murasaki starts putting some of Tamaki’s descriptions to Yuuno’s case and she ends up coming to realize a little bit of the older girl’s pain, but, more importantly, she is convinced that Shinkurou is being deceived. So she starts to rush out only to be stopped by a heavy door. Tamaki goes to pay the bill and a man by the counter notices Murasaki and realizes that she is from the Kuhouins – she’s now been spotted and their location is now known since the man tailed them back.

By now Shinkurou is back home and is upset that Yamie would lie to him. His conversation with her is cut short when Murasaki runs up to alert her of what has come to her attention. She tries to tell him to break up with Yuuno (even though they aren’t really dating).

At the end of the episode we get to see how the Kuhouins operate a little bit more and how Souju died. In short, Benika was in charge of the security for the Inner Sanctuary and she often talked with Souju. Her views from the outside world got Souju’s attention and, by Kuhouin standards, warped her mind. Souju was then tossed aside because she didn’t fit in with the family. and the new wife was chose. Renjou continued to love Souju, but he could no longer consider her a wife as she was forbid to consider Murasaki her daughter, but he continued to see her and she cared for Murasaki. After a while, Souju couldn’t bear it. She overdosed and left Murasaki a note revealing the truth to her. That she was indeed her mother. Benika was thrown from the house for being the source of the problem. Of course we know that she later comes back to fulfill Souju’s wishes and take Murasaki out of the Inner Sanctuary, but now that Murasaki’s location is known to the Kuhouins, chances that the sanctuary will have its little princess back are pretty good.

Thoughts:

I feel that Murasaki probably learned a lot from being with Tamaki all day. I never really realized how much of a slut Tamaki was though. I mean, it has been making references to her being vile and what-not and she does make the occasional comment that raises an eyebrow, but I always figured that she was kidding with Shinkurou. Nope! This episode shows her true slutty bitchiness. I suppose she’s the type that’s mean to everyone but the guy she is dating (I know that type all too well).

Also, I luled when Shinkurou was accused of lolicon.

You’re terrible!All I can say is that this episode better have been filler. I can’t help but think that this was just some sort of joke, but oh well. I sat through it and got like… 1 and a 1/2 laughs. I won’t compliment this episode, except for the one funny part, but I will compliment BSS for subbing it in a timely manner even though they probably lost vital team members due to suicide.

As for the actual episode, once again, nothing important happened. It wasn’t even a continuation of last week’s conundrum, this was a whole new level of side tracking.

Summary:

A person comes to the door to try and get participants for an upcoming musical that is to play in the nearby park. He assumed that the residents of Samidare Apartment could be of assistance. Shinkurou tries to tell him otherwise, but Tamaki cuts him short. Yamie comes downstairs and the old man sees her and is convinced that he has picked the perfect place to search for actors. And so, the apartment’s participation in the upcoming musical is sealed…

They are all excited. Shinkurou gets permission from Benika to have Murasaki in the play and even asks Ginko if she wants to come see it. Their excitement hits a brick wall at their first practice in Shinkurou’s room. Yamie cannot sing. Her voice and low and far off key, so Shinkurou tries to take it upon himself to teach her; he fails. They enlist help though.

Now their play is reliant on Yuuno. “It seems my type of voice is needed after all,” Yuuno says confidently before her high pitched, fingernails on blackboard, cat strangling voice kicked into action and set their rehearsal back once again. Now Shinkurou is in a predicament where he cannot say no. So he must take it upon himself to teach her. He kicks everyone out of the room and practices with Yuuno – well he plans to practice, but Yuuno’s ovaries go into hyperactive mode so she is practically orgasming while singing to Shinkurou and rubbing all over him (kinda like a stray cat lap dance).

While Murasaki stands outside the door and complains and Tamaki listens closely to the conversation, Yamie spots Yayoi and forces her to help her sing. Apparently Yayoi is a grade-A singer and is willing to help a random stranger with their issues.

They get things in order and the episode goes into a dramatic animation of them running through the entire musical with greatly improved voices. The committee approves of their musical, but the group breaks into an improv addition to the story. Them Benika and Ginko come over after the committee leaves to tell them that it was all her doing and that there was no musical. She just wanted them to have fun together.

Thoughts:

…..

I swear to God, if Kure-nai pulls another stunt like this, I will drop the show. But before I do so, I’ll let you know, blizzy.

My thoughts? My thoughts? Initially I was wondering if we kept a handgun anywhere in the house, but then my knife started looking mighty appealing. Don’t get me wrong, the entire episode wasn’t horrible. I mentioned earlier that I had 1 and a 1/2 laughs. The first laugh would have been when Yamie couldn’t sing and Murasaki kept trying to say “You’re terrible!” The half laugh is when the singing finally ended and the group decided to go into improv acting. That was about it. The rest of the episode was gouge my eyes out worthy.

I was highly tempted to summarize the episode:

They joined a musical
Yamie couldn’t sing.
Murasaki and Tamaki could.
Yuuno replaced Yamie’s part.
Yuuno couldn’t sing.
Yayoi could sing.
They all sang together.
Benika Punk’d them.

But I was man enough to properly do my job. And that job was to describe an episode of a great show that was equivalent to crap. Seriously, I’ve seen episodes of Koi Koi 7 and Bottle Fairy that were better than this episode. I could have more fun listening to English Naruto say “Believe it!” in every other sentence. Oh well, all I can do is hope that the next episode gets back on track.

I said I’ll fix it!
This episode didn’t have enough action or cutesy acts from Murasaki, even though Shinkurou sparred and Murasaki played with another little girl. In light of that, I still greatly enjoyed the episode. I wouldn’t say that it had much character building, or really contributed much to the story line, but it did show us a little more of the quaint, everyday side of what our two heroes go through.

Summary:

In episode 5 we get to see Shinkurou go to the Houzuki household to spar, thus letting us see Yuuno in action. She, of course, is Shinkurou’s sparring partner. While Shinkurou will be training, Murasaki will have her hands full with Yuuno’s little sister, Chizuru.

On their way there Murasaki notices that there are a lot of families on the train. Shinkurou tells her how families spend time together on Sundays. This catches Murasaki’s attention so she thinks about her own family. Perhaps, just perhaps, Shinkurou is taking her back to the Kuhouins. She continually asks whether they are going to the Kuhouins. He reassures her that they are just going to Yuuno’s house, but this doesn’t sit well with her either. Aside from the fact that Murasaki is not a fan of the “vile woman,” Yuuno knows about the Kuhouins and that alone is enough to make Murasaki uncomfortable about their destination. But, once they arrive, she is put at ease when she sees how lovely the house and garden are. This is where she meets Chizuru.

At first, they don’t get along, but after finding out that Chizuru has a video game (Nintendo DS), she is all too eager to play with her. Yuuno and Shinkurou go off to spar, but while they are working up a sweat, Murasaki is busy doing everything wrong. First she breaks the screen on the DS because, let’s all remember, she is a competitive girl who doesn’t like to lose and she has never played with a Gameboy so she doesn’t know how delicate they are. After breaking the DS, Murasaki and Chi-chan move on to playing with dolls. This time, Murasaki is determined to make the frying pan holding doll hold the fork. The hand isn’t shaped to hold the fork, so she accidentally forces the arm off. This is the second thing of Chi-chan’s that she has broken so the little girl just gets sadder. After realizing that she has once again offended her host, she decides to fix the dolly. She forces the hand back in, offering momentary relief from the eye-burning tears before the leg falls out of place. Now it has become an all out war to save the doll. Chizuru doesn’t want anymore damage done, and Murasaki is determined to fix what she has wronged; thus resulting in the head popping off.

The tears come pouring again so Murasaki goes to get Shinkurou’s help; howver, she walks in him trying to work out of a struggle hold. She now sees what practice he was working on and is a little shocked. After talking to Grandpa Houzuki about Yuuno’s and Chizuru’s strife of being born into a family of killers, he goes to fetch Murasaki from Chi-chan only to find them fast asleep. Yuuno walks him to the bus stop and they head towards home. Luckily Shinkurou was able to fix the doll, but he’ll have to buy Chi-chan a new DS. He doesn’t have to money for this, but he promises Murasaki that he’ll get her one too. When they get back to the apartment, they find Yamie and Tamaki waiting in the room with dinner. Tamaki gives Shinkurou a heater even though he complains about not having the money to pay for the extra fee on his electricity bill, and they go through a whole week’s worth of food even though he (still) poor.

Thoughts:

I really do enjoy watching this show and I apologize for the delay in my blogging it. School’s out now though, so I can get back to working on it.

I kinda want to see how the whole broken game and promised game thing will work out. I’m guessing that Shinkurou will indeed plead to Benika for the devices. Chances are he’ll get them.

I also wonder if Chi-chan and Murasaki will ever get to play again, because that was kinda cute even though Murasaki was a major bitch about breaking toys.

uber-mega-rigged-zomg-wtf-just-happened¿

I am very late in writing up this episode. I’ve been very caught up in school: senior play and year-end English project. I am, however, very glad to be working on something of this proportion even though I have been working non stop for a while now.

Now, on to Kure-nai. This episode shows Shinkurou’s crazy ass technique, Murasaki’s progressing knowledge of life with Shinkurou, and a bit of Shinkurou’s past. So, in short, this is a Shinkurou happy episode, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Summary:

The episode picks up where we left off with Murasaki tailing Shinkurou to his night time job. She doesn’t realize that Yayoi is behind her. Shinkurou reaches the Yakuza building that he has business with and ends up getting in through excessive doorbell ringing and asking for the young boss by name. Once the doors open, Murasaki rushes in behind Shinkurou; unfortunately Yayoi cannot do the same. The problem, along with the risky job, is now in Shinkurou’s hands.

With business about Hanamura Kindergarten coming to a close, Murasaki is found. The boss sees this as a way to step aside from the problem of a dispute mediator knowing about his threatening of the school principal so he begins to call off the meeting. Shinkurou pressures him by saying that the information would go public, things are closed up and he and Murasaki get ready to leave. Murasaki notices something odd in the boss’s eyes and tries to alert Shinkurou of it, but he won’t have her spoiling his deal so he doesn’t listen to her. This results in a straight punch to the face when the elevator opens. The two are in a pinch, and Murasaki has been hit down to the floor, but Shinkurou can’t let that happen. The deal has obviously gone bad and he now has to protect Murasaki too, so he uses his uber-mega-rigged-zomg-wtf-just-happened¿ technique! Shinkurou grows a blade out of his crazy bone elbow and takes everyone out, but throwing them across the room and through doors and by blocking bullets with his blade elbow.

Luckily, Yayoi has found a way in and has quickly gone to take care of Murasaki, but this incident won’t sit well with her. She has always seen Shinkurou as being the least likely candidate for the Kuhouin job, this is just fuel on the fire. Benika tries to get her to lay off of Shinkurou, but Yayoi is to upset. They take them back to the apartment and go on their way, but Yayoir still cannot figure out why Shinkurou of all other people, excluding herself, was chosen for such a job.

The next morning, Murasaki is keenly aware of the mistake she has made. She put both of them in danger and she is eager to make it up to him by making breakfast. After last night’s “lecture” from Yayoi, he is convinced that he is in fault so there is no way he could be mad at her. Murasaki knows that it was her fault, but she is glad to know that she isn’t in trouble.

Shinkurou heads off to school and Murasaki stays home, she is still determined to make it up to him so she begins to clean the apartment so she airs out his futon and polishes the place down, even to the remote.

Shinkurou goes to report to Ginko about the job and how he isn’t quite sure about where things will go from there. His injury is found out when Ginko bumps into and and it arises again when he is later walking with Yuuno. She notices his elbow and tells him to come over for some medicine that they use for inexperienced users. She tells him that he shouldn’t take on jobs where he has to rely on the horn.

Shinkurou returns home to find his futon airing out. He and Murasaki then go to the public baths in order to bathe, Murasaki can now wash her own hair. Once again, Shinkurou’s wound gets in the way, and Murasaki feels guilty again.

This is when we learn some of Shinkurou’s past. This story is told by Benika to Yayoi and also by Shinkurou to Murasaki so it switched back and forth during different parts. I’ll just tell it straight up to avoid confusion. When Shinkurou was younger he was a part of a terrorist-hostage situation in an airport. He, Ginko, and other students were the hostages. Shinkurou, at that young age, did not care if he was killed since his parents had already been killed. The terrorist was ready to kill him despite Ginko’s cries when Benika came in with her operatives and took out the enemies to rescue the kids. Shinkurou went to train at Yuuno’s place and has followed Benika since. Benika finally tries to explain to Yayoi why she chose Shinkurou for this job. She believes that the two of them are similar and that they both can learn from each other. He is the only person that could possibly be compatible with her.

Thoughts:

I really liked this episode. And yes, it was because of that crazy horn technique. The only thing that doesn’t make much sense is that this horn is tied in with this Houzuki martial art. How can a biological change as drastic as a large protruding blade be gained from a martial art? I don’t know, frankly I don’t really care to find out. As long as that blade continues to be awesome, I’ll be fine.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is whether Yuuno is more skilled that Shinkurou in this skill. She has trained in the same techniques, I am just curious to see her in action some time in the future.