So, what do heralds do all day?
What They Say:
Episode #09: “I’m Sorry.”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
In the last couple of episodes of Gingitsune we saw what the humans were up in their day to day lives. Which of course makes you wonder what the fox heralds do all day. While the monkeys loved to people watch, Gintaro spends most of his time sleeping. Which gives Haru plenty of time to make a fool of herself.
Haru has been practicing her divination flame, which isn’t anywhere as strong as Gintaro’s technique. She’s too proud to accept his offer of instruction, and is harshly critical of anything anyone does. Awfully self important little fox spirit, isn’t she?
The practice comes to an end when the two little girls who live nearby stop by to offer up silly little prayers. Haru, being a herald, can hear their requests and doesn’t think much of them. The girls are a minor annoyance until a gang of boys show up and then all hell breaks loose.
Kids will be kids, and soon Haru has taken sides in the playground-esk battle, cheering on the girls to let the boys have it. Next thing you know there are two broken wooden ladles and a torn statue apron. Gintaro ignores the shrieking children even after the yelling has turned into panic and the kids take off, scared of getting in trouble for messing up the shrine.
Haru, impulsive as always, gives chase but slips, falls, and tumbles all the way down the hill into an unknown neighborhood. She can’t figure out where the shrine is (here’s a hint, look up) and eventually Gintaro heads down the hill to fetch her.
The juxtaposition of two spirit foxes standing next to a busy road is a sight to behold. As is the town in this episode. Actually, everything looks really nice this time around. When the series started the animation was stiff and cheap looking, but this episode looked surprisingly smooth and fluid with lot’s of movement and scenery changes. It’s unusual for short series to get better looking as they go on. I can only hope this change in that trend is because animation studios are budgeting their money better nowadays.
The kids come back on their own to apologize to Makoto’s dad, whose name is mentioned enough in this episode that I can now remember it’s Tatsuo. He doesn’t even have to lecture the kids because the fear of being eaten by a fox spirit was put into them by a grandma. We even get a little rainbow to close the episode out. All’s well that ends well!
In Summary:
It’s figures that the goofiest episode would have the best animation of the bunch. Poor little Haru still has a lot to learn about being a herald. Not to mention working on her poor sense of direction. I’m not a fan of Haru’s shrill yelling, but it was a fantastic looking episode and and least Haru’s weather prediction came true. Maybe she’ll lighten up like her human has… although we probably don’t have the time to see her mature much. Next week is another look in at what Satoru is up to with a focus on kendo practice, which should be interesting.
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.
