境界のRINNE ep 03
Kyoukai no RINNE – 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakura is puzzled over Rinne’s claim to be both shinigami and human. For his part, Rinne gets a request about romance as well as a ¥5 coin, but this is beyond the scope of his job as a shinigami. When Sakura inquires about Rinne being human and shinigami, Rinne explains that his grandmother (Tamako) is a pure shinigami who fell in love with a human male, managing to get his life extended by 50 years. Rinne’s grandfather recently passed, and that is who Rinne had been living with. Meanwhile, Sakura’s friend Miho reports that the club building has a hinotama spirit and asks Sakura to come with her to check into it. The two plus Rika come to the building, were a giant cat spirit (bakeneko) reveals itself, scaring Sakura’s friends. Rinne chases it off as Sakura wonders what is going on.

Sakura rescues an injured kitten, taking it home and feeding it. However, when she steps out of her room for a moment, the kitten flees with the rice bowl given it. Sakura chases out the window into a Reidou tunnel, where it grows to toddler size. The Reidou ends outside the club building, where Sakura discovers Rinne is living. The cat, a bakeneko, is named Rokumon and he wants a job with Rinne. Rinne refuses and takes Sakura home. Rokumon shows up at Sakura’s house, explaining that Rinne is helping to pay off Tamako’s debts for keeping his human grandfather alive. Later, when the club building is about to be destroyed, a giant rat spirit emerges. Rokumon defeats it, saving Rinne ¥500, so Rinne hires Rokumon for a meager wage.

Thoughts/Review:

With this episode, we get introduced to Rokumon, Rinne’s black cat. I don’t remember him being annoying in the manga, and he wasn’t annoying here, unlike Shippou-chan, a similar type character in Inuyasha.  Indeed, I kinda got a chuckle out of his fight with the giant rat spirit, and the fact that Rinne was going to make Rokumon cover food expenses.

I didn’t remember the abandoned building Rinne was staying at being designated as a club building in the manga. It looks like an old, Japanese apartment building, rather than a club building.

I recall wondering why in the first volume of the RIN-NE manga, Rokumon sometimes called Sakura “Lady Sakura” and sometimes “Sakura-sama.” Hearing this episode of the anime, I know understand why I was confused — Rokumon addressed Sakura as “Sakura-ojousama.” Mystery solved.

As to the story, we get to see some of Rinne’s background. Knowing what I know about Rinne’s father, his reaction to Sakura asking about his father and mother made me smile. I don’t remember ever seeing anything about Rinne’s mother during the course of reading the first nine manga volumes.

This was an evil moment because I LOVE Japanese Swiss cake rolls. 👿

While I did find this episode fun enough, I’m finding that I’m not finding much to discuss. It could be because I’m tired, or it could be that the RINNE series is pretty simplistic, thus making episodic reviews more difficult to write. I’ll keep watching and if episode blogging becomes too difficult, I’ll just do a series review.