境界のRINNE ep 25
Kyoukai no RINNE – 25 Final Episode

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Tamako gives Sakura some prototype candy that will cause her to no longer see the supernatural. Sakura eats the candy and the following day, she can no longer see the supernatural. As Rokumon tells Rinne about the A1 Grand Prix, where evil spirits are in competition to find, haunt, and curse a human target, Sakura and friends investigate a sealed well, were the A1 Grand Prix starts by removing the seals. Sakura’s friends flee when the well’s cover flies off, but though Sakura stays, she doesn’t see any of the spirits, nor Rinne, who’s wearing his Haori of the Underworld. Rinne learns that Sakura is this year’s Grand Prix target, but the evil spirits can’t reach her at home, thanks to the Exorcism Hourglass that Rinne gave her. Tamako drops off more candy for Sakura to have.

At school the next day, Tsubasa sees Sakura under attack and defends her with a Holy Ash grenade assault. When she learns there were spirits she couldn’t see, she’s very happy about this. Rinne works hard to dispose of the various types of human evil spirits around, but because he’s constantly in his haori, Sakura never sees him. To aide Rinne, Tamako takes one of Sakura’s hairs and gives a Decoy Doll that takes on the appearance of Sakura and lures evil spirits to it. When Tsubasa learns of this doll, he thinks that Rinne has it for lewd purposes. However, when Sakura and friends find Tsubasa with the doll (Rinne being invisible), they think it is his. He immediately identifies it as Rinne’s, so when Rinne has to take it and flee to draw off more evil spirits, Tsubasa spreads the rumor that Rinne made the doll for  weird purposes.

After three hours, the ¥30,000 Decoy Doll stops functioning, but Rinne has exorcised nearly all of the 5000 evil spirits in the A1 Grand Prix. Tamako thanks him for his work and causes him to reveal he has feeling for Sakura. That evening, Sakura is really missing being with Rinne, which grows the following day. Tamako and Rinne start gathering race bibs for ¥5 each, meaning they’ve lost ¥5000 on the deal. Sakura goes to Rinne’s place to wait for him as one final evil spirit attempts to curse her. Rinne defeats him, but Sakura can’t see him, making him feel lonely. Sakura is going to leave, but then remembers she’s going to return the candy. In doing so, she trips over Rinne and can see him again. The next day, as thanks for his work, Sakura brings in a bento for Rinne.

Thoughts/Review:

I don’t remember this story from the manga, so I don’t know if it is anime original or not. Either way, I enjoyed it a lot.

I had to smile at what seemed to be a purposeful nod to Inuyasha by having that sealed well at a local shrine.

As to the story, it was rather sweet on a few levels. For starters, even though Sakura was ecstatic about not seeing the supernatural, she began to seriously miss how this also took Rinne out of her life. Thus she sacrificed not being able to see spirits and such in order to see and be with Rinne. I liked that.

On the other side was Rinne, who wants Sakura to be happy, even though it means she can’t see him when he’s working and wearing his haori. I liked how Tamako got Rinne to reveal he had feelings for Sakura, despite trying to put on a brave front while knowing he might be closer to Sakura than ever, yet further away from her than ever. So that was nice.

I’m glad it ended with Sakura making Rinne that bento. That was really sweet. It would be nice if this would lead to more of a romantic element between the two in the next series, but all things considered, I doubt this happens. But I can still hope.

There were some nice humor moment. Sakura starting to undress, not knowing Rinne was there was funny. Rinne bailing out and Rokumon saying he won’t tell anyone what a perv Rinne is was funnier.

Tsubasa getting upset when he saw the life sized Sakura doll with Rinne was funny. Having Sakura and friends catch Tsubasa with it was funnier. And though it made Rinne look bad for a time, I admit that I laughed when Sakura heard Tsubasa explain the doll was Rinne’s, so she assumed the worst on why he had the doll and that must be why Rinne wasn’t around.

In the end, this was an enjoyable episode, both for humor and sweetness. I’ll write a final thoughts post later on.