This anime season is a good one for oddball shows. It makes sense since the schedule is so massive, but it’s always nice to get a break from conformity. Factoring in the carryover Uchuujin MuuMuu we have an impressive diversity of weirdness – Ame to Kimi to, Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu, and this series. Each scratches a different itch and none of them are remotely like anything else (including each other). At least here we have Hoozuki no Reitetsu as a frame of reference, and Eguchi Natsumi’s sense of humor and visual style are pretty distinct. But The Earthbound Mole charts a very different course even from that one.
Mind you, Mogura making a reference to Bubbles (Michael Jackson’s pet chimp) in the “Moonwalker” game would have felt right at home in Hoozuki. But not in anything but an Eguchi series. Momoyuki racing so desperately to save a guy he doesn’t even know – and who was responsible for the drama currently playing out – says a lot about him. “Empathy” is pointedly used later in the episode in reference to another character, but it certainly applies to Momoyuki-san.
In fact Momoyuki is trying to save two souls here – the uncle, and Maya’s ghost. If she uses her spirit energy to finish him off, she’ll go to Hell – though in her current state, Maya doesn’t seem to care. But Mogura-san simply isn’t going to allow this to happen. He restrains the spirit and uses some of his precious ghostfire to stabilize the uncle’s condition. As Magi-kun notes, it seems pretty obvious this is a recurring pattern for Mogura, who’s clearly too empathetic for his own good. He assures Maya that Uncle will have plenty of emotional trauma to deal with from all this and urges her to head for the other side ASAP and claim she got lost. Which it seems Maya does, after a brief opportunity to connect with Miya.
As for the “Brothers” half of the episode title, it’s pretty clear from Umeharu’s conversation with Yae-chan that whatever tensions exist between he and Kuriaki, they’re well within the bounds of normal sibling misalignment. These two are polar opposites in most things, they drive each other nuts, but in the end I think they love each other. Umeharu’s sins (in Kuriaki’s eyes) are obvious enough – taller, better-looking, smother with girls, more extroverted. Umeharu just finds his brother’s lack of common sense and self-preservation to be lacking – he’s a “pedant” who gets involved in situations even when he has to stake in the game. Oh, and they had an encounter with Mogura as kids too – though Umeharu doesn’t remember it as the same man and Kuriaki may not remember it at all.
Next up it’s back to the Nekozuku clan, and Inukai-san. And talk about opposites, that family (the men at least) and her. It’s hilarious because Kyushirou is so totally a cat, and Shio is so totally a dog – you can perfectly see where Eguchi-sensei’s mind was going with this. Added to the the mix is his mom, Kyouko (the very versatile Tanezaki Atsumi). Kyouko is, in a word, crazy. She has an ability to see the future unpredictably – in fact she sees something with Inukai-san, but doesn’t say what it is – that some misinterpret as fortunetelling.
Mogura-san once more falls back on the “seeing is noticing” mantra that’s becoming a major theme. Toushirou chalks up his wife’s ability to her extreme empathy (as referenced above). She’s so into other’s situations that she spots things about them in a predictive manner. Momoyuki equates it to a psychologist very good at observing their patients – “seeing is noticing” – and Toushirou asserts that even if not quite right, that’s close enough. If we go by the pattern of his parents, the idea of Kyoushirou winding up with the completely mismatched Shiro seems quite feasible, if not inevitable. At the very least, we’re sure to see more of the two of them as a pair.
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