English Dub Review: Kakuriyo-Bed and Breakfast for Spirits “I Took a Trip to the Capital of the Hidden Realm”

Don’t you just hate it when your coworkers try to murder you?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Three episodes in, and Aoi Tsubaki has finally opened her titular bed and breakfast for spirits, and its about time, too. Having earned some respect from Oodanna. Now, she’s been taken on a trip on Oodanna’s magical flying boat to the spirit world capital; a reward for the good cooking she demonstrated last episode. Oodanna continues his romantic pursuit of Aoi by giving her a rose quartz glass flower for her hair.

Soon, they arrive at the capital, where Oodanna is something of a big deal. Per the rules of this world, Aoi must wear a mask so that no one there knows that she’s human. They wander around town for a bit and eventually settle down to eat a hot pot together. Oodanna continues making his weird advances on Aoi, and the two are soon joined by Suzuran, one of the most popular geishas in the capital city, and the younger sister of Akatsuki, who is a servant at Oodanna’s castle. She knows of Aoi’s grandfather, Shido, and asks when he will return, which is a touch awkward considering that he’s dead in the ground.

After Suzuran treats them to a serenade, Aoi and Oodanna make their way downtown, walking fast to get some dessert. While things seem fine initially, Aoi can’t help but feel like she’s being watched. After dropping her rose quartz rose, she gets lost from Oodanna and wanders into a spooky alleyway, where she’s confronted by a gang of hungry demons who quickly realize she’s human. Thinking fast, Aoi uses the leaf she received last episode to blow a gust of powerful wind at her attackers, who are carried off into the stratosphere.

Aoi spots a mysterious big-hatted woman nearby and quickly surmises her to be the one responsible for the attack in the alley. She tackles her to the ground and reveals her to be Oryou, one of the residents of Oodanna’s castle who is in love with the master of the house. Because of her jealousy of Aoi’s favor in Oodanna’s eyes, she tried to get her murdered at the hands of those hungry spirits in the alley.

The two’s confrontation is interrupted when Suzuran comes running down the alley begging for help, being chased by some unsavory brutes. Aoi quickly hides her away, and Oryou explains that those men chasing her were from a powerful family in the capital. Turns out, Suzuran just got sold to that family and was ordered to marry into the family against her will. Suzuran doesn’t know what to do, but then Oodanna finds comes to save the day.

Our heroes try to whisk Suzuran onto the magical mystery boat to safety but are confronted by the men trying to track Suzuran down. Oodanna tries to negotiate with them, but negotiations come to a swift end when the boat starts to take off. A battle ensues, with Suzuran’s attackers shooting at the ship with fire arrows, but Aoi uses her tengu treasure fan to deflect them, which earns the awe of their attackers. With fear in their eyes, they demand to know who Aoi is, and Oodanna reveals to them that she is Shido’s granddaughter, which gets everybody’s panties all in a bunch. Their business done, Aoi and the others sail back to Tenjin-Ya with Suzuran in tow.

Once at the castle, Akatsuki and Suzuran reunite and Oryou gets chewed out by Oodanna and the mistress of the house. Having disobeyed Oodanna’s orders to watch over Aoi, she is confined to her room to await punishment. Later, Aoi returns to her bed and breakfast to meet with Ginji and discuss their menu. Ginji samples some cherry juice to Aoi, who loves it and decides to make a dessert out of it. After some more discussion, the two settle on making a menu that is different from the traditional fare served there. Ginji heads off to do spirit chores, and all ends well. But wait! A passed out Oryou is carried into the restaurant by Kasuga, who insists that Oryou needs help! Guess it’ll have to wait until next week’s episode.

Our Take:

The more I watch this show, the more I have to wonder why it exists at all. So much of this episode is filler scene after filler scene, forced along by awkward dialogue delivered by stilted acting with animation that makes stick figures feel more enticing. Not to mention this episode’s bizarre plot, which has attempted murder by butchery shrugged off as just a little spat between girls. No, no, no, Kakuriyo, you do not get a passing grade for this week.