The big old shrine scuffle continues between Rom, Mitsue, and Miko and… whatever the heck that thing is. When the dust settles, the big danger might have passed, but… if they’re out of the fire, well, that frying pan still has lots of heat left and Miko’s apparitions might have a little more heft to them than they used to.
Yes, the long-running matter of the shrine and Miko’s guardians of dubious intent comes to a rather explosive climax. It gives you enough to understand what happened, both now and in the past, without letting you know what happened. There are panels of moments, which you can make a reasonable guess about, but the story is deliciously shy about giving it all away.
And while that would normally drive me nuts, the way this series has been about the supernatural has been one of its best strengths. You can tell somebody has an idea what the rules are, or they fake it like they do, but this is the unknown and it is, indeed, unknowable. Too many series pull the curtain back entirely, this one leaves enough to still cast a shadow.
That doesn’t preclude it from having appropriate weight and pathos, mind, especially with how it wraps up the ongoing story of Rom and Mitsue. It also gives Miko a hero moment, even though she is far from an active participant in this fight. She has ever been an unfortunate observer and that is what makes her such a tragic heroine in her own series.
The second story is definitely lighter, if such a thing can be said to exist for this series at this point, but it’s also very clever because it also upends the established rules of the series to good effect while reminding us that loligoths are essentially evil (I kid, I kid).
Miko has always been attractive to spirits, but now it seems she might be really, really attractive to a particular spirit. The twist here is that Miko sees what she always sees, but everybody else can see this new character, and they see a normal girl.
Even if the story feels much less intense, which isn’t strictly a bad thing, this whole thing is now extra creepy because of how Miko’s avoidance strategy has been tossed out the window. Everybody gets to see her acting super weird around the new girl. It’s terribly clever.
And the story pulls no punches about how flipping unsettling this new… thing… is. Her design, the eyeballs, the “hair”. Now, it’s entirely possible this is about to be a cautionary tale about othering, the narration is definitely playing up the danger angle a bit, but that’ll still be fun. Right now the nebulous nature of it is, again, a nice touch.
It’s great to see Hana and Yuria back in action too, although poor Yuria seems to get sidelined so much that she’s practically a third wheel at this stage. I did laugh at how she once again gets the exact wrong idea about how powerful Miko actually is.
Actually, there are a few wonderfully low-key jokes to help leaven the horror. The entire art class section is a genius exercise in awkward cringe comedy and I love Miko’s deadpan at the convenience store just before that part. She’s so wonderfully put-upon, and who can blame her?
Overall we get a very satisfying conclusion to one storyline and the rather strong start to the next. I wish the side cast was featured a bit more and I almost could have done with a short break before the next big arc, but that’s a small complaint.
4.5 stars - this is such a wildly inventive series that has come a long way to be more than just ecchi with wild drawings of gross stuff. This has been impressive and, indeed, continues to impress.