Monkey business.
What They Say:
Episode #7: “Shrine and Temple”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Now that Satoru and Haru are settled in a bit it’s time to give them a tour of the town. The first stop just happens to be Yumi’s boyfriend Shohei’s temple.
Shohei has quite a large family, and a father who takes his job very seriously. I was surprised to see that, he didn’t seem the type to come from that sort of background.
In a country were the dominant religion is a combination of different Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, it’s not unusual to find that a temple may house a small shrine on it’s grounds. Strange things have been happening in the temple, and many of the younger monks are starting to think it’s the work of ghosts. Although both religions respect each other’s space, there has been some decline of the small shrine at the temple simply for the fact that as time progressed the symbol of that shrine, the local monkey population, disappeared. Now more people visit the temple, and when Buddhism is mostly used for funerary rituals you can start to understand why people think there might be ghosts about.
It’s not ghosts that have been haunting the temple, but two rambunctious heralds without a human around to see and talk to them. As young and playful as Haru, the two little monkeys are reeking havoc on the temple, playing pranks and scaring Yumi’s cat in the process.
Makoto is delighted to meet the two cute heralds, until their antics start to become unbearable. They think they’re spreading joy to all the sad mourners who come for funeral services, but they’re just causing trouble. Watching Gintaro sit in the middle of the youngsters as Haru gets upset and the two little monkeys run all over is exhausting. I can sympathize with Gintaro’s desire to just leave matters be. Makoto just wants them to understand how the humans might feel.
It was hilarious to see that the two little herald’s didn’t want to drive off the humans and had no ulterior motive for their mischief other than having fun. They don’t seem to mind not being taken seriously, and have no plans to stop their behavior. Makoto is left attempting to explain the situation to Shohei’s family. On the way home Satoru bemoans the fact the family doesn’t believe in spirits. Makoto says it doesn’t matter if they did or didn’t, they seemed happy and accepting of the idea that they had monkey heralds around, and that’s all that matters.
In Summary:
As Gingitsune continues on, we keep getting introduced to more humans and more heralds. Little kid heralds like Haru seem to be commonplace, even in modern times. The two mischievous spirits are exhausting to watch and I could completely relate to Gintaro and Satoru’s exasperation. Even with waning beliefs, it appears that the heralds are still around and training up their successors to watch over humans. Even if those successors end up being obnoxious little brats.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.8.4, via Safari 6.0.5, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
