English Dub Review: Tsugumomo “Naked in the Futon”

Keep your clothes on for this review.

Spoilers Below

This episode’s opening scene features a new, mysterious face of an intense looking guy. I’m not sure of his role, but he has a new malison cleanser whom he sends off to battle.

The gang explains the conclusion of last week’s episode to the student council president (he’s got a name, I should probably learn it). Nanako walks in with a whiteboard – she can’t talk anymore because of some delayed malison atonement.

The intense looking guy’s malison cleanser is equally intense. She shows up out of nowhere and beats up Kazuya and Kiriha. Her sword obi is even in absolute fear of her. When she brings up Kazuya’s mother he’s almost in tears. This intense redhead was just testing these two to see if Kazuya is worthy to wield his mother’s obi. He’s not, according to her. She challenges him to a duel to take his place.

Tsugumomo then launches into the redhead’s tragic backstory – when she was small she took up her brother’s obi in order to avenge his death. But Kiriha and Kazuya’s mom killed his murderer before she got a chance. She decided that she had to have a vendetta against someone, so she picked Kazuya’s mom (who happily accepted). She could never beat her.

Kazuya starts feeling really sad again because all this malison stuff is his fault since he’s a magnet and all. He wants to give up his life as a malison cleanser now. Kiriha isn’t having any of this. Obviously, she takes this time to use her powers to make them both naked in the futon. Then they can have a real talk.

She explains how far she’ll go to protect him and fight for him. Everyone survives because of others, and as a spirit, Kiriha wouldn’t exist without Kazuya. It’s a touching scene. I’m not clear on why they need to be naked for it. His consideration causes Kiriha to suddenly grow back to her full form.

The show seems to be ramping up to the season’s final episodes. If so, this red head is going to be the final boss, and she just doesn’t look as impressive as some of the other monsters we’ve seen. Early on, they fought an entire possessed library. I hope something ups the stakes before we get to the end. It was nice to see some more backstory as well as Kiriha’s vulnerability. This episode was a good breather – hopefully, the calm before the storm.