境界のRINNE ep 05
Kyoukai no RINNE – 05

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Rokumon brings in a ¥100,000 bounty for an evil spirit, so Rinne accepts this gift. At school, something has put child hand prints all over, with a special message for Tsubasa. Tsubasa attacks the chalkboard, causing the spirit to emerge. He and Sakura give chase as the spirit heads to Rinne, who recognizes it as the one with the bounty and captures it. Rinne takes it home, where he discovers the spirit is actually the famous elementary school girl ghost, Hanako-san of the Toilet. Hanako has a grudge against Tsubasa since he drove her from her toilet home five years ago. Tsubasa and Sakura arrive and when Tsubasa eggs her on, Hanako powers up and attacks him. Rinne senses the power isn’t hers and sure enough, he finds the giant, evil spirit with the ¥100,000 bounty is the one providing the power.

Rinne consults with his grandmother, who informs him the spirit’s name is Toichi, who lends power to weaker spirits for exorbitant prices, but then consumes the weaker spirit when the time comes to pay the bill. Rinne tells Sakura about this. She feels sorry for Hanako. Tsubasa arrives with more tools to attack, forcing Hanako to borrow more power, though Rinne stops that. Rinne explains the price to Hanako. Tsubasa attacks the giant spirit, but it just divides into smaller bits. Rinne leaves Hanako with Sakura and Subasa as Rokumon gives Rinne his formerly hocked shinigami scythe. Tsubasa is surprised to see Rinne purify the first Toichi piece. Toichi goes for Hanako, so Tsubasa apologizes to her. He pulls a Bible out and clubs Toichi with it, allowing Rinne to purify it. Rinne takes Hanako to the Rinne no Wa, collects his fee, but ends up having to spend it all on the debt. Tsubasa asks Sakura what exactly Rinne is.

Thoughts/Review:

I’ve mentioned this before, but I am finding the anime version of Kyoukai no RINNE to be much more entertaining than the manga had been. That’s mainly because the humor factor is increased with the animation and comedic sound effects.

For example, Tsubasa’s Bible Corner Crush wasn’t something I remembered being particularly funny in the manga. Mildly amusing, sure. However, in this adaptation, seeing Tsubasa use it just made me laugh out loud, which I didn’t expect. It was just the way it was portrayed in the anime. (Though where was the cross on the Bible?)

Along those same lines was Rinne purifying the Toichi and sending it to the afterlife. Again, I couldn’t help but laugh at the results of this in the anime, which I don’t remember doing in the manga version.

Of course the funniest part was Hanako’s attack on Tsubasa, whereby she wraps him in toilet paper, then dumps toilet water on him, even getting some in his mouth. I just laughed and laughed at that.

As to the story of Hanako-san of the Toilet, I liked how she’s portrayed sympathetically. In Japan, Hanako-san of the Toilet is akin to the Bloody Mary urban legend in the U.S., so how Hanako is portrayed in legend varies. I prefer the one here, whom had no ill will toward the young Tsubasa when he “summoned” her, but grew a grudge when he expelled her from her toilet. Thus this story’s version of Hanako was able to portray the scarier elements from Japanese legend, but also the nicer elements as well.

I couldn’t remember how the manga dealt with the ¥100,000 reward for the evil spirit, so I expected that Rinne would get cheated out of his prize. I should have remembered that he owes a ton of money, though unlike Hayate the Combat Butler, where the amount owed is constantly stated, here, I don’t think the amount Rinne owes was ever mentioned.

While it was kinda sweet seeing Rinne and Sakura together at the end of the episode, whereby Tsubasa wonders what Sakura’s true feelings for Rinne are, there is a part of me rolling my eyes ’cause this is a Takahashi-sensei title. Even in her most romantic title, Maison Ikkoku, the romance element was the MOST frustrating element as Takahashi-sensei would much rather have ultra-complex and complicated romantic tangles. If one is lucky, these will be sorted out in the end.

In the end, this was a rather enjoyable episode that gave me some laughs. I’m glad I decided to watch this series.