Overview (Spoilers Below): Keitaro was cursed years ago and receives exorcisms at his grandmother’s shrine. She once warned him not to enter the basement; she locked them away in the dark for a reason.
Our Take: The ghost-hunting team is formed, for better or worse. For someone like Keitaro, it’s obviously the latter. But that’s not the only thing that happened in last week’s episode. Besides the frightening spirit in the phone booth and Yayoi’s skull eyes, we learned about Keitaro’s struggle with the curse placed upon him by an unknown ghost. This episode explores his history further, with Keitaro being treated with exorcisms by his grandmother. This leads the trio to Keitaro’s grandmother’s shrine, where Keitaro is scheduled to be exorcised by having his surprisingly long nerves removed from his hand. While the grandmother is pleased to see Keitaro again, the same can’t be said for Yayoi. Keitaro’s grandmother is pissed at Yayoi for destroying the shrine’s statues in an attempt to find the evil spirit that took her mother. She even calls her a “monster” because of it. I can understand why the grandmother is mad at Yayoi for wrecking her property but berating a young but creepy girl seemed pretty harsh. Of course, the exorcism is the least of Keitaro’s problems, as he’s suddenly become a victim of the cursed dolls locked away in the shrine’s basement. Thankfully, Yayoi comes to the rescue yet again by decapitating the doll’s head with a katana. It further shows that despite her young age, Yayoi seems extremely capable of handling spirits by herself, especially when she’s carrying dangerous weapons like a freaking katana. However, we haven’t learned how she was trained to defend herself yet, so I hope this gets explored more as the series progresses. Additionally, Yayoi’s actions prove she cares for Keitaro, even though her questionable actions and personality creep him out numerous times. Unfortunately, Keitaro still has a long way to go to trust Yayoi, especially since she keeps the dangerous ghosts inside her room. Yes, that includes the doll that tried to possess Keitaro. So far, the English dub cast is far from superb regarding how they deliver the dialogue. However, everything else is disturbingly weird for the right reasons, which is enough to see what happens next.