Time to celebrate, and to say so long.
What They Say:
Episode #13: “Hell’s Bon Festival of Lights” & “Idle Chat with the Great King Enma”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s summer vacation in Hell! During the Bon festival the dead return to their earthly homes for a moment of respite with their living family members. Which means the denizens of hell get a much needed break from all of the torture and condemnation. So, it’s street festival time! It’s highly amusing to hear Hozuki proclaim that Hell has high standards for it’s workers as he bites apart some cotton candy with his fangs.
I have to say though, I’m not sure I’d want to dine on giant pervy octopus takoyaki or the questionable ice cream being sold by the giant cow gatekeeper. The whole street fair scene has some amazing call backs to earlier episodes. Very fitting for this grand finale.
Suddenly it’s time for the return of the dead back to hell, so the minions rush off to big meeting at the end of the night. It’s quite the party, with Hozuki, Oko, and many others playing music, dancing, and having a good time. The joy on Karauri and Nasubi’s faces is infectious as they rush through the crowd to get closer.
At the stroke of midnight the demons hunt down the stray souls that try to avoid returning to the afterlife on the mundane plain. Hozuki seems unconcerned that several mortals catch sight of the demon’s hauling off the dead on flying eggplants. Yes eggplants. No, I don’t understand whatever bit of folklore or pun resulted in that.
Then it’s back to business.
King Enma is suffering from a sore throat and Hozuki decides to mix him some concoctions to help him out. There’s a great deal of idle chit-chat leading up to the actual drinking of said concoctions, which King Enma is rightfully reluctant to drink. For some reason he does it anyway. You’d think he’d know by now not to trust Hozuki to actually help him. The first drink is some random herbal mixture made mostly of pine, the second a demonic practical joke courtesy of Lilith, and the third… the third…
… Hozuki has some serious issues, and what a way to tie up all the loose ends of this short series. The resulting scene is probably the funniest, and darkest, in the whole series. It’s an amazing way to close out everything that’s occurred up till now. It’s also about time that Enma called Hozuki out on all his bullying, only to admit to Hozuki that he’d make a better ruler of hell. Hozuki is far too humble for that. Besides, he likes running things behind the scenes and torturing his boss.
With a… slightly modified end credit sequence, we bid a fond farewell to Hozuki and the rest of the citizens of hell.
In Conclusion:
Hozuki no Reitetsu is a nigh inscrutable journey into a very Japanese look at the afterlife. It’s also a crash course in world mythology, Japanese pop culture, and classic slapstick antics. It demands that it’s viewers pay attention to get the most out of it, which is asking a lot from the usual streaming audience. It’s the weird artsy kid sitting in the back row of desks combined with The Office. Many viewers won’t get the appeal, but it’s always been a fascinating and often funny watch with a great artistic style and well defined personalities. A little slice of hell, complete with tortured souls and bureaucracy, underworld politics and the everyday lives of demons. The next time someone complains that anime is getting too samey and to safe, Hozuki will be there to hit them with a spiked mallet and sentence them to the seventh circle of hell.
Episode Grade: A –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.2, via Safari 7.0.1, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
