There’s no question about it – anime has become much more mainstream overseas in recent years. And with that, the overseas market has become much more important to production committees. Just this week the new Demon Slayer film shattered the U.S. opening weekend box office record for anime, pulling in $70 million (and it’s already the #2 all-time grosser in Japan). But it would be a mistake to assume there aren’t still massive gaps between the Japanese and foreign audiences.
Case in point: Dekin no Mogura. On the largest English-language aggregator site, MAL, it sits at a dismal 6.24. On what I believe to be the largest Japanese aggregator site, anikore.jp, it’s currently the top-ranked anime of the season. Better yet, case in point Eguchi Natsumi, because Hoozuki no Reitetsu was a massive hit in Japan and the series barely rippled the pond in English. That’s why I’m very hopeful next week will be the season finale of The Earthbound Mole, not the end – the manga continues to be a big seller and it’s hard to imagine this was planned to be a one and done. And the fact that the last two eps have started with recaps certainly doesn’t make it seem like it’s trying to rush through material.
If that turned out to be false optimism, it’s not as though you couldn’t end on this merfolk arc – it’s the biggest story the anime has told so far. But it still feels transitional, setup more than payoff. There’s no question that the Samejima are awful people that have done awful things. But as Momoyuki schools the village chief, he still couches it in terms of trying to get him to see that he’s been a dupe all along. Prez even comes at him with a sword, justifying it by asserting that Mogura is a “bad boy” because he doesn’t know a mother’s love. But Mogura is packing – one of the ropes used to tie up humans in Hell, he says. And Earthbound weapons are no match for that.
Magi and Mori-kun are still stranded on Merfolk Rock of course – and Maggie-kun is in even bigger trouble, having been snatched up by the merfolk itself. But Nekozuku father & son show up in the nick of time – and so do their bakeneko, of course. Toushirou sics Ikebukuro (“motivated by food”) on the merfolk’s head and Kyoushirou sics Nabeshima (“motivated by looking cool”) on the tail. And the kitties rip the screaming apparition into its component parts, which appear to be an unholy gattai of human and shark. And there’s a story behind that, as the Professor has gleaned from the material in the Kirihara storehouse. Gathering folklore is what this guy does, after all.
The story of how all this merfolk lore came about it a pretty grim folk tale, to say the least – and like many local legends it’s grounded in a true story. It’s Yaeko’s great-great-grandfather who provides the info that the exorcists employ to do their work. Yae-chan offers to pay but Toushirou says it’s taken care of – Great-Grandpa has given him a first edition of “Restaurant of Many Orders”, a short story by Miyazawa Kenji (indeed, that would be worth a shit-ton of money).
Meanwhile, Kyouko and Shio-chan are headed down to the shore on foot. But as Kyouko notes, walking downhill is indeed murder on the knees, not that Shio would notice. She winds up carrying Kyouko until Yui comes by in the family car and offers them a lift. She’s no doubt headed to see if she’s managed to finish Mori-kun off and if not, to give the knife a final twist. But she gets a hell of a lot more than she bargained for. Kyouko goes full superhero mode here – she eviscerates Yui verbally, and with extreme prejudice. Again, as with Momoyuki-san she’s trying to give this person a last chance to reject their evil legacy and think for themselves. Kyouko not only urges the girl to leave the island, but to look into becoming a dominatrix (that absolutely had me on the floor).
Kyouko is goddam awesome, that’s all – like most of the main cast. She eats Yui’s lunch and sticks her with the check and the girl is such a wreck that the merfolk latches on to her as a sort of dying paroxysm. Never fear though – Shio, in her infinite wisdom, has worn a wetsuit under her clothes instead of underwear (as the Professor notes, none of that really makes any sense) and promptly swims out to Yui’s rescue. And what this all makes me realize is that the main cast are basically a hilariously weird and offbeat justice league – they’re all cast in the role of superheroes, more or less. What a fabulously clever and funny setup by Eguchi-sensei – who is, after all, one of the most hilarious and clever mangaka there is.
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