Domestic life.
What They Say:
Episode #24: THE STRIPPING HAG AND CLOTHES-HANGING GEEZER / CHEF MIKI
Hozuki teaches his “pets” about the old people that dwell at the Sanzu River bank and the monsters within, but it proves to be more of a headache than anticipated.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The “pets” are at it again, and this time they’re swimming in the Sanzu river right next to a sign which says “don’t swim here.” You think Shiro would have learned his lesson last time but nope. Luckily the Hag catches them and Hozuki comes to the rescue before the monsters in the river can have a nice dog and monkey lunch. (Rurio was not stupid enough to disobey the sign.)
Hozuki may have met his match in dealing with the Hag’s husband, who is simply called ‘old-geezer’ by everyone in the same way she’s just called the ‘hag.’ He’s a lazy layabout who long ago stopped taking his job seriously and the Hag is left picking up so much of her husband’s workload that he’s actually fallen out of many mythological records. His actual job is providing the clothes the dead wear but he’d rather go to Miki-Maki concerts. Man, everyone loves Maki.
Hozuki can’t fire the old man because he’s been tenured there for so long that he knows all the tricks for staying employed but refuses to work. This leads to a heated back and forth argument which eventually ends with everyone surprised that even Hozuki doesn’t seem to have a solution to get him to work again. At least until a plan is hatched which includes a false maki marriage scandal and a lot of threats of going to the newspapers and making a scene. Eventually, the old geezer seems to relent and Hozuki wins the argument.
Never underestimate Hozuki.
Maki isn’t in the clear for the episode though. Miki is still having problems after her previous identity crisis. This time she is panicking because their new show might mean she has to cook on camera. The ‘cute girl that can’t cook’ trope hits hard as we find out that Miki is absolutely terrible at any kind of cooking and Maki isn’t much better. (I actually thought her cat-erpillar themed bento was adorable and tasty looking, it’s not like in included actual cat-erpillars or whatever those things are called in the show. Shinkuchu? I don’t think they’ve ever explained those.)
The conversation and attempt at resolving the food issue went on for so long without a real joke that I missed the eventual punchline for the whole event and couldn’t be bothered to scrub the timeline back to catch it. I hate to say it but I think Hozuki is starting to run out of jokes.
In Summary:
As far as Hozuki episodes go this one is definitely middle-of-the-road in subject matter and execution. We get a little bit of Hell trivia as we learn more about the Sanzu River crossing, we meet the Hag’s useless husband, and we find out the idols aren’t good cooks. Shiro gets into trouble, the dead are tortured, and everyone is yelling every other line at each other. Maybe it’s a good thing that the show is ending for the season shortly as I think I need a break. The humor isn’t hitting me as hard as it used to.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: HIDIVE
