境界のRINNE ep 16
Kyoukai no RINNE – 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Tsubasa invites Sakura to come with him on Sunday to the Haunted Tree at their old elementary school, where he’s buried a power stone. She agrees, causing him to be excited. Sakura’s friends probe Rinne about this, but he pretends not to care. On Sunday, Sakura meets Tsubasa, making his day, while Rinne decides to take a walk, to Rokumon’s surprise. When they get to the Haunted Tree, they find it not the same as they remembered. An old man warns them that the tree is cursed. Sure enough, a kid with a giant, bladed yo-yo attacks. Tsubasa sees that the yo-yo has his power stone in it and gets attacked. Sakura gets a good look at the boy ghost and recognizes him as Youta-kun, who was in her class, loved yo-yos, and died.

Youta attacks Sakura, who’s saved by Rinne, who claims to have just been out on a walk. Youta attacks, blaming Sakura for always getting in his way. Despite being really good with a yo-yo, Sakura was always better and was able to deflect his yo-yo when he’d use his yo-yo on other girls. Rinne realizes Youta is possessed, so he separates the evil, yo-yo spirit from Youta. Rokumon sells Tsubasa a weapon to force the power stone pendant from the evil spirit, allowing Rinne to purify it. However, Youta hasn’t passed on, so they discover that he’d buried Sakura’s yo-yo there to get back at her. Once Sakura has it back, Youta passes on and the group goes to a burger place for Tsubasa to eat.

Thoughts/Review:

I do remember this story from the manga, though I’ve no idea how much it was changed. Not much, I suspect. (Update: after looking at my volume 5 review, I don’t think Rinne was in the original story.)

Brian’s Base works the Sakrua-Rinne-Tsubasa love triangle by getting Tsubasa to ask Sakura to accompany him. I couldn’t help but shake my head in amusement at Tsubasa’s excitement over this.

I was also amused by Rinne’s attempts to be casual about the whole thing, both to Sakura’s friends and then later to Sakura (until Rokumon ratted him out).

Seeing Sakura casually thwart Youta at yo-yo when they were little kids amused me as well, much more so than I remember when I read the manga.

I got as kick out of Rokumon hungrily eying Tsubasa’s burger and fries, something I can relate to big time. 😉

Of course the funniest bit was Rokumon selling Tsubasa the canister needed to get his power stone pendant from the evil spirit.

I wasn’t thinking of the manga specifically, but this episode did make me think of how many young people are dropping dead in this place where Sakura, Rinne, and Tsubasa live. When I looked back at my volume 5 review, I saw I wrote this.

…I wouldn’t want to live in whatever town/city Rinne and Sakura live in, or at least have children there.  Seriously, how many dead students have Rinne and company run into since this series started?  All of the accidents and whatever else that’s slaughtering all these kids must mean this area that they live in is a death trap.

Yeah, that certainly is still very true.

Still, this was a fun little episode for the love triangle stuff, and seeing Sakura with her skills at the yo-yo.