境界のRINNE ep 38
Kyoukai no RINNE 38

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Transfer student SHIMA Renge is assigned to Sakura’s class. Sakura sees a spirit looking like Marilyn Monroe hanging around the girl. Renge seems to cause boys to madly fall in love with her and this appears to trouble her. Sakura goes to consult Rinne about it, only to find him missing. Elsewhere, SAWA Erika confronts her boyfriend Shuuto on the roof of the school over his instant crush over Renge. As Rinne observes, Renge joins them and lures Shuuto jump off the building. Rinne saves Shuuto, who then gets a beaten from Erika. Rinne comes to know that Renge is a Damashigami. Meanwhile, Erika pays Sakura a visit at home and gets confirmation that Sakura can see the supernatural.

Rinne discovers Tsubasa’s body is almost soulless. He confronts Renge, who’s collecting souls by luring boys into a Reidou. Rinne thwarts her by dumping pheromones on Tsubasa’s body, causing the boys to chase him. Since Renge has Sakura captive, Rinne chases Renge to save Sakura, only to fall into a trap. Renge tells Sakura she wants a female friend. However, this too is a trap. Rinne escapes before Sakura can be snared. There, they learn that the oni Renge had been a top Shinigami, but an encounter with Sabato forced her to miss her entrance exams and forced her to become Damashigami. Rinne saves Sakura at this cost of his haori. He discovers Tsubasa’s soul and that of other boys in the room next to his, so he frees them. Tsubasa is not happy that guys are attracted to him.

Thoughts/Review:

Renge smacks hard of a Takahashi-sensei creation to keep a series going. Well, I suppose that’s only natural ’cause that’s what Renge is.

That aside, Renge isn’t a horrible character. It is amusing that she was a Shinigami, but because she failed due to Sabato, she then decided to become the best Damashigami. It is amusing that she’d want to work for a group, lead by Sabato, whom she hates.

I was amused that Renge uses the Marilyn Monroe spirit lure to snag boys. I guess she must be well known in Japan, even after all these years.

Anyway, looks like Renge will be around for a while since she’s in the previews for the next episode. I just hope she doesn’t become an annoying character. I wouldn’t mind it if she became friends of sorts with Sakura.

Tsubasa got to play comic relief this episode, especially after Rinne dumped the pheromones on him. It would be funny if this came up again in future episodes such as the next one.

Beyond that, not a whole lot to discuss for this episode.

In the end, Kyoukai no RINNE 38 is an amusing episode, introducing the new character Renge.