境界のRINNE ep 31
Kyoukai no RINNE 31

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakura sees a lot of kid shinigami around, which Rokumon explains are elementary kid shinigami doing homestay programs as part of their education. Sakura discovers Rinne has been assigned a kid named Shouma, who’s really upset at learning the grandson of the famous Tamako is dirt poor. He wants to exorcise an evil spirit to get the 50 points needed to complete the homestay program. Meanwhile, Sakura, Miho, and Rika encounter a rumored alligator woman spirit, which Miho and Rika talk about the following day at school. Sakura confers with Rinne on this as Shouma eavesdrops, thinking he has an opportunity to get his 50-point spirit.

Sakura and Rokumon discover the girl Sakura saw before, but this oneesan is a real human. She’s looking for her tiny alligator named Chibi, who’s been missing a year. Meanwhile, Shouma encounters the alligator woman in her oneesan form, which then turns into an alligator. When Sakura shows up with Oneesan, the alligator is excited to see her, but she rejects it because Chibi was tiny, not large. When Chibi flees, Shouma and Rinne pursue. When they catch it in a convenience store buying its favorite jerky, it tells them the story of how it died. It becomes enraged at Shouma’s indifference, but when Oneesan sees the package of jerky, she accepts it as her Chibi, allowing it to pass on.

Thoughts/Review:

I remember this story from the manga, but the anime seems better than the manga’s version, at least from what little I can remember.

I admit that I enjoyed seeing the little punk Shouma getting his butt handed to him left and right. I forgot that Shouma was in the manga for a few chapters, but that explains why he’s in the next episode.

I also have to admit that the story of Chibi and Oneesan touched me somewhat. Making Chibi have that child voice helped as well as the story in general, where the poor alligator ends up dying trying to get back to its owner.

On the other hand, the notion of someone buying an alligator as a pet is quite humorous, more so considering I grew up in gator country. I couldn’t help but laugh at the announcer issuing the warning about not buying alligators from back alley sellers. There was also the warning that there is no such thing as a miniature alligator, which cracked me up.

On the Crunchyroll side of things, I don’t know who’s translating (so if I know you, don’t take this personally), but I wasn’t thrilled with some of the choices. For example, Shouma uses the term “binbou” to refer to Rinne because the word means poor. This is how I’ve always seen it translated (and how I believe it was translated in the manga). However, this was translated as “hobo” for some reason and that’s NOT what Rinne is. A hobo is an impoverished, migratory worker. So I don’t understand the use of hobo when Rinne isn’t a hobo.

The other thing that stuck out to me was translating fairly well known Japanese word “baka” as “you suck.” Most of us know that “baka” means “idiot.” So I’m not really sure why “you suck” was chosen as the way to go. There seems to be less translating and more, “I need to write an adaptation to reflect what I feel is an attitude being stated ’cause that’s cool and hip.”

Otherwise, I enjoyed the episode as a nice bit of fun.