English Dub Review: Kakuriyo -Bed and Breakfast for Spirits- “I Was Abducted from an Ayakashi Inn”

A new inn, new challenges, and a new opening theme song.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Aoi has been abducted to Orio-Ya, the rival inn to Tenjin-Ya, where she finds herself in a similar situation to what she endured when she first came to the spirit world.

Initially, Aoi is imprisoned within a cell, but with the help of her little turtle spirit friend that managed tag along with her, she gets the key to her cell and manages to escape. She doesn’t get far, though, before she’s caught by the staff, but Ginji does his best to protect her from the hotel management’s wrath.

Through a twist of fate, Aoi runs into Matsuba, the elder spirit she earned the respect of many episodes ago, who is staying at the inn. The crotchety old demon protests against the poor treatment Aoi is being forced to endure and insists that Aoi cook for her once again, which she does.

This allows her to earn her place at Orio-Ya for the time being, where with Ginji’s assistance, she’s able to open her bed and breakfast once more, serving the spirits of this new land Aoi finds herself in.

Our Take:

This week’s Kakuriyo takes a few unique turns to make itself a little more interesting than the past few episodes have been. A hostile situation is just the kind of thing that can make Kakuriyo a bit more palatable. While I’m still not head over heels for the series, I can at least acknowledge that this episode is a far cry ahead of what I’ve watched the last few weeks.

The big draw to this episode is that Aoi has found herself the prisoner of a rival inn to the one she’s spent the series learning how to thrive in. This gives the show an opportunity to break from the dull drum its fallen into with new characters and new obstacles for Aoi to overcome. Execution of this idea is nebulous at times, but the plot feels more like a plot than ever.

Initially, it seemed like things were going to be tenser than what I’m used to, but after the first five minutes, the episode practices some of its “tried and true” plot points that its abided by so far. Aoi’s love of food and hospitality propels her to succeed in this new inn. Matsuba’s return from the early series was a nice payoff to Aoi reaping the fruit of her labors, and of course, it falls down to her ability to cook Matsuba breakfast to earn the respect of the new inn staff. This is underscored with some emotional moments with Ginji and Aoi, trying to drive home a sense of tragedy in Aoi’s situation.

By the end of the episode, it seems pretty apparent that this isn’t so much a new direction for Kakuriyo as much as it is a lane change. The story remains basically the same, but with a slight change of setting and characters. I can’t say I’m disappointed, since I don’t really expect anything of Kakuriyo at this point than for it to go on for 22 minutes, but I was actually a little surprised to see it lapse back into its formula.

It all goes about the way you’d expect, the kind of routine you’d probably enjoy if you’ve stayed with the series so far. It’s not doing anything new except for it beginning setup, but with a little more character growth and payoff than what we usually get from this show.

On a side note, this new opening isn’t half bad.