境界のRINNE ep 17
Kyoukai no RINNE – 17

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Tsubasa is not happy with how Rinne interrupted his plans for a lovely time with Sakura. Further, he’s troubled that his Power Stone pendant is still tainted with evil. The demon Masato pays Tsubasa a visit, giving him the Demon’s Tome (Book of Devils), which when used in combination with his Power Stone, will allow Tsubasa to curse Rinne (or whomever else). Tsubasa attacks Masato, forcing him to flee, but Masato tells Tsubasa that he will curse Rinne. Tsubasa abandons the tome as elsewhere, Rinne reluctantly decides to sacrifice a can of peaches to give to Sakura as thanks for all her recent help.

Meanwhile, Sakura gives Tsubasa a small bag of cookies, making him very happy. He becomes envious when Sakura gives a bag full of bags of cookies to Rinne. When Sakura gives him the Demon’s Tome he’d abandoned, Tsubasa’s thoughts cause Rinne to be struck by lightning, destroying the can of peaches. Tsubasa again abandons the book and flees as Sakura accompanies Rinne back to his abode, giving him the massive supply of cookies. Tsubasa is frustrated, but suddenly finds himself back in possession of the Demon’s Tome as Rokumon delivers it to him at the request of Sakura. As a result, a large flock of crows fly to Rinne’s residence, consuming all of Sakura’s cookies, while at the same time, Tsubasa’s Power Stone grows darker.

Sometime later, Rinne finds an offering of a bag of taiyaki and a locket pendant with a note to keep it near him. Rinne realizes whomever gave him this must know about the curses he’s been suffering. Sakura is examining the locket in class when Tsubasa sees them. As he’s jealous, a classmate puts the Demon’s Tome on his desk, just as Tsubasa is slamming his fist in frustration. A storm springs up outside, while in the class, Rinne gets rained on, ruining the taiyaki. Hearing Sakura speak poorly of whomever is cursing, Tsubasa promises her he’ll help in this matter, then flees to a temple, where he has the Demon’s Tome burned in the purifying fires there. However, the book recreates itself and falls on Rokumon.

Rinne discovers Masato is behind the recent curses and attacks while at the same time, Tsubasa prepares a summon trap for Masato. When Tsubasa activates it, Sakura races up with the Demon’s Tome and places it in his hands, causing Rinne to be knocked out as a result. Realizing he’s damned either way, Tsubasa curses himself by having a massively giant piece of kinugoshi dofu fall on him. This causes a partial purification of the Power Stone. Tsubasa thinks cursing Masato will purify it, so Rinne takes the mirror locket from Sakura, tosses it at Masato, causing Tsubasa’s curse to come back on him and complete the purification of the Power Stone. Tsubasa then summons light spirits, which slap Masato repeated before knocking him far away. Tsubasa wants Rinne to punish him, but Rinne graciously congratulates Tsubasa instead, then mentions being hungry, causing Tsubasa to treat him to another burger and fries meal, much to Tsubasa’s chagrin.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, I loved this episode. The story was taken from volume 6 of the manga, and the story there really didn’t do that much for me. Here, thanks to Brain’s Base’s efforts, the slapstick humor and other humor elements worked quite well.

Tsubasa’s continued attempts to rid himself of the Demon’s Tome, and the fact that people were constantly giving it back to him just at the right time when he was feeling quite negatively about Rinne was very funny. I liked how Brain’s Base staged things visually to maximize the humor.

The slapstick elements worked quite well too. Even though as an audience, we knew the moments were coming, they were timed quite well to maximize the humor effect.

Adding to the slapstick humor element was the fact that Tsubasa really didn’t want to curse Rinne, even though he was jealous of Rinne for coming between him and Sakura. Not only did this make the slapstick results of the cursing funnier for me, it also showed that Tsubasa really didn’t want to harm Rinne, even if Rinne stood between him and Sakura.

I really enjoyed how Rinne played Tsubasa at the end in order to score a cheeseburger and fries meal though. 😀

I think the part that had me laughing the hardest was when Tsubasa summoned the light spirits, who were slapping the tar out of Masato. 😆

The only part of this episode that was a minor distraction for me was how there was zero friction between Sakura and Rinne. Two episodes ago, Rinne was fretting over how to clear up these misunderstandings with Sakura. Last episode, this misunderstanding element wasn’t missed because Sakura was going with Tsubasa, which lead to the adventure that they had with yo-yo boy. Rinne’s participation in that event was due to him butting in, and the story’s pacing was such that there was no time to worry about such things as misunderstandings.

In this episode, when Rinne is crying blood as he prepares to give Sakura the canned peaches as a present for helping him so much, that would have been a perfect time for him to also think, “And I need to make sure I clear up these misunderstandings.” However, that didn’t happen, nor was there any thought of that later. Indeed, Sakura’s actions toward Rinne were not cold and distant, as they had been a couple of episodes ago, but warm and friendly, so much so that she had a large shopping bag full of bags of cookies for Rinne.

As I said, this is just a minor thing, but it was a plot thread that kept being built upon, and suddenly, it was completely forgotten. I’m sure this was partially because the episode was focusing on the love triangle from Tsubasa’s point of view. But to keep the continuity of things, a small acknowledgement of the misunderstanding plot thread would have been better, in my opinion. After that, once Rinne started getting cursed, it would then make sense that there’s no thought about misunderstandings because Rinne’s predicament takes precedent.

In the end, as I said earlier, I really loved this episode for the great laughs it gave me. I found it to be much more enjoyable than the manga story had been.