English Dub Review: Dekin no Mogura: The Earthbound Mole “During the Rainy Season”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The islanders discuss how to move forward after the fall of the Samejima family.

Our Take: 

With the demise of the selfish Samejima family, we’ve finally reached the point where we can close this chapter for good.  As someone who’s struggling to find a single silver lining in the show aside from its art design, I’m very relieved that I’m out of this tedious hellhole.  Of course, I can’t take away other people’s enjoyment of Dekin no Mogura, especially those who read the source material.  Since I’ve been viewing it without ever reading the source material, I’m pretty much going on a whim by saying, for the final time, that this concept should’ve worked for me, given my previous experience with other supernatural anime shows.  Instead, it’s nothing but an underwhelming chore that takes almost every cliche from other similar anime and does nothing to invigorate it.

The season finale of Dekin no Mogura doesn’t help much in giving the show its proper or even compelling closure.  Well, except for the fact that it delved further into Mogura’s origin, despite my not caring that much about the characters to begin with.  We see that Mogura remembers heading to an island years ago, where he pretended to be a priest to assist the islanders, explaining his experience with the paranormal.  Additionally, the episode’s second half reveals that Mogura was actually a god, according to Mogura’s neighbor, Ukigumo, raising more questions about this “earthbound mole”.  The problem is that I don’t care that much to find those answers, as the finale is reminiscent of rainy weather: dreary, damp, and soaking wet, minus the latter.  “During the Rainy Season” further dampens the series even further than it needed to be, resulting in it being one of the most disappointing, if not the most tedious, experiences I’ve witnessed this year.