What They Say:
Ep. 8 “The God Goes To The Beach”
Summer break is here and Nanami goes to the beach with her friends to take her mind off of her broken heart. Trouble ensues when Tomoe accompanies her and goes into the ocean against his better judgment.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Thank goodness, the humor has finally come back. We start with some gags, including a fairly good fourth wall breaking, to counterbalance the extreme depression that Nanami is in over being rejected by Tomoe. Her friends Ami and Kei decide to try to cheer her up by suggesting a trip to the beach. So, it sounds like we will be having some swimsuits and fanservice, a nice change from the rather dull direction the show has been drifting in for the past couple episodes.
But it turns out to be not such a good idea as the Dragon King of the ocean is one of Tomoe’s most implacable enemies, going back to the distant past (over 500 years ago) when Tomoe was a wild and seemingly vicious demon who attacked the Dragon King’s palace, killing many of his retainers and stealing one of the Dragon King’s eyes. Though he does not want to go to the beach, when Nanami decides to go, he unwillingly comes along. It might have been fine if he had never set foot in the water, but an interfering god (Mikage’s rather campy friend) forces his hand when Ami is dragged under the water’s surface and Tomoe must go to the rescue. This allows the Dragon King to locate him after all of these years and capture him. Nanami tries to object, but the Dragon King appears unwilling to talk. Nanami finally gets him to agree to spare Tomoe if she can recover his missing right eye, which apparently is a powerful item that can grant long life and great power.
Getting the eye is not going to be easy, since it’s been over 500 years and who knows what Tomoe did with it. Fortunately for Nanami, Mizuki the snake familiar also tagged along and Nanami can use the time traveling incense burner he has in order to find the eye in the past, though there Nanami will have to deal with the fierce and wild Tomoe of the past. Her first encounter in the past is also a bit troubling, as she meets an old woman along the sea shore who is actually a spirit named Isohime, who tells her that the Dragon King’s eye is inside of Nanami. It doesn’t get better when Nanami comes across the Tomoe of the past, who apparently has just fought the Dragon King and is still very much in his wild phase. Will she be able to get the eye and tame the wild fox? We shall see.
This episode was definitely an improvement over the last couple of episodes. There was just a little too much seriousness to Nanami’s growing love (bordering on obsession) with Tomoe, and it was starting to drag down the show. Thus, it was good that this episode started with gags and kept them coming for some time before returning to serious matters again, throwing in jokes to keep the mood lighter before going for the more dramatic and serious material at the end. It was a balance that the earlier episodes in the season managed to get about right, but which the two episodes before this one did not achieve. Akitaro Daichi is usually very good at maintaining the right balance of elements, so the imbalance of the recent past was a troubling sign, but I now feel a bit reassured that things may be back on track.
As we enter the final batch of episodes, it will be interesting to see how the show will resolve the outstanding plot elements, such as they are. Will Nanami be able to rescue Tomoe? Will that work to change Tomoe’s feelings about humans, and one human in particular? Can the fun level be kept high enough to stave off boredom? All this and more to come in the coming weeks.
In Summary:
Nanami is depressed over being rejected by Tomoe, so her friends Ami and Kei try to cheer her up by taking her out to the beach for some fun and relaxation. Mizuki and an unwilling Tomoe tag along, though Nanami is unaware of the real reason why Tomoe does not like the ocean. That becomes apparent when an old enemy of his, the Dragon King of the ocean, appears and takes Tomoe away, supposedly to pay for crimes Tomoe committed against him in the past. Nanami, desperate to save Tomoe, embarks on a risky maneuver. While this sounds very dramatic, at least the comedy level has come back a bit in the episode to lighten things at the right moments before getting entirely serious. Let’s hope that balance can be maintained, unlike the somewhat boring two episodes that preceded this one.
Grade: B+
Streamed by: Funimation
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
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