English Dub Review: Tsugumomo “Kukuri-hime”

Flash!

Spoilers Below

This episode starts with a flashback – finally a longer version of the scene we’ve been getting glimpses of all along. Kiriha essentially sacrifices herself, agreeing to turn back into an Obi, in order to save a young Kazuya and wipe his memory.

In the present day, a powerful lady is looking for Kazuya. She’s also talking to an unseen local god. (That’s this week’s vocabulary lesson. They “enforce the laws of creation by managing malison levels”.) This mysterious lady comes after Kazuya at school and tries to take him back to the shrine. She refuses to let Kiriha come with them. It’s a conflict that can only be solved by magical attack arm wrestling, which Kiriha wins. The four of them (including Chisato) head to the shrine.

Then, another flashback: a curly-haired woman in battle, teamed up with Kiriha. I haven’t forgotten about this whole mom dying storyline. “Kukuri-hime” looks like the episode where the pieces start to come together.

Kiriha is pretty disrespectful to the local god, while also worried about current conditions. Malison levels are way up. Also, “the seal has weakened”, referring to the flashback memories that are coming back to Kazuya which should not have come back yet.

From the description, this show sounds very dialogue heavy, but it doesn’t feel that way, at least in this episode. The God takes some more time to talk, says Kazuya should become a malison cleanser. But Kiriha is not having it. The god’s wordy explanation (Kazuya is a malison beacon, the reason all these events are happening around him) balances out with Kiriha’s unexplained outrage. Tsugumomo has its background lore on a timed release.

Any anyway, there’s another epic action sequence coming up. Since Kiriha is refusing the proposal on behalf of Kazuya, the god decides she has to kill him. Kiriha almost wins. But as the God conjures up a storm and calls upon all the water in the sky to assist her, she delivers one final blow. And, apparently, as she says, “It is done.” They’re all dead now.

While most of the backstory still needs to be filled in, with this episode, the story is finally moving somewhere. Kiriha’s not just a crazy sash lady anymore. Even if the audience doesn’t understand what’s at stake, we’ve seen enough to trust her, and so has Kazuya. Now that we’re all invested, let’s hope our main characters come back to life.