Kyoukai No Rinne S3

As promised by Sabato and Bijin at the end of the second season, I guess they were not pulling our legs or deceiving us to buy some useless products of theirs because indeed we did get another season of Kyoukai No Rinne. Fans of the series and/or Rumiko Takahashi would expect more or less the same thing as seen in the past 2 seasons and for us who are expecting more, let’s hope this season would answer and solve a few issues that we would want to see resolved. But of course there are some things that can never be resolved otherwise everything else in the series loses its charm. Like Rinne being a poor shinigami… Ouch…

Episode 1
Rinne goes to the census to get his payment. It depends on your shinigami ranking. So if Shouma has a gold card, does this mean he ranks hire than Rinne? Turns out to be fake. Kain then explains there have been fake gold cards being going around. It is a crime so whoever catches the mastermind will be promoted. You bet Rinne wants in. Then they see Ageha buying one from a vending machine. She goes a step ahead by bombing it to shut out other rivals! But the Damashigami runs away so they chase it till they arrive at its HQ. They believe Sabato is the culprit since he has printed many copies. But when they see one with Sabato’s ID on it, they think it is fake. But Kain checks it to be real! How can this be? For one to achieve it, one must purify 2000 spirits. That’s like 10 years of continuous hard work. If Sabato was a slacker, how can he get it? Simple. He got it during high school. Everyone goes back to Tamako and she confirms it is real. During his high school years, his frustrated teacher gave him the ultimatum to purify 200 souls before sundown. Luckily there was a group of girls practising nearby. So he helps them by semi-purifying spirits before they complete the job. That at most was only 100 spirits. His teacher is so sad since tomorrow he will go for reincarnation so he challenges him to a duel whereby he laid his gold card on the line. Because defeating such holder means you are a worthy opponent. Sabato could only defend from his aggressive attacks. But those girls cheered on him and before he knows it, Sabato wins. Up till recently, Sabato forgot about the card and made the fake copies using it. Tamako suggests Rinne fight Sabato for it. Sabato seems serious but his scythe’s handle breaks. So he goes to Sakura for duct tape and now she’s involved. Sabato makes a run for it so Kain uses some spirit attraction tool for spirits to slow him down. Sabato manages to semi-purify them. Rinne is in a dilemma if he should complete the purification because it would mean owing him. But screw all that because money is more important! Sabato’s scythe breaks and hits Rinne’s head. Technically he lost. Sabato escapes. In the end, Rinne has only himself to blame for eating expired food. The fake gold card eventually couldn’t sell because of how cheap it looks.

Episode 2
Riku Hayata is the ace of the track team. But he keeps tripping each time he runs. Sakura sees a ghost hand latched on to his leg. Hayata’s senior, Shu Kazami is injured and is worried of Hayata as the preliminaries are around the corner. The injury stems from Hayata carelessly throwing a banana peel and he slipped on it. Kazami doesn’t blame him but Hayata is insists it is his fault. After observing Hayata run and tripping again, it is revealed the hand latching onto his leg is Kazami. At least his living spirit. Hayata hopes Rinne can solve this without telling Kazami. Talking to the living spirit, it doesn’t harbour grudges for that incident. Since on the day of the accident, both were to race each other, Rinne bought an expensive doll to recreate that race. It ends with no regrets but the living spirit is still there. Rinne goes to spy on Kazami at his house and finds something shocking. So he brings the gang here as they discover Kazami is being haunted by a living spirit of Hayata! It is regretting throwing the banana peel. So with the duo making up, the living spirit disappears. Reward for solving this? Boxes of bananas… Hurry and it all up before they expire. Next day, there are cases of males from clubs involving drawing getting their face smeared by black paint by a faceless ghost woman! It seems she wants them to draw her face but they don’t know how she looks like and just drew. That earned her wrath. When Rinne and Tsubasa try to catch it, they realize it is not a ghost or evil spirit because it cannot be exorcised or materialized. When the ghost appears before Suguru Egawa, the president of the art club, she panics and doesn’t want him to draw her face and runs away. Egawa explains she was the former president of this club. Rinne follows the ghost back to her home and finds a faceless girl sketch. Next day, Hitomi Egusa comes running to the clubroom. Rinne had left a fake blackmail letter regarding the sketch. Egawa confirms the sketch belong to him but was stolen. He is willing to burn it to solve this incident. As Sakura talks to Egusa, she learns that she was worried how Egawa would draw her. It’s not that his drawing sucks, the original drawing had her wear glasses. She did wear those before she moved onto contacts. Egusa didn’t like it and tried to secretly erase it but erased the entire face. When Egawa is heard coming in, she tore the page and ran away. With everyone hearing about it, Egawa claims he wanted to give that drawing as her farewell gift. The old Egusa with glasses is always in his fond memories. The rest realizes the duo have a secret crush on each other and hence the faceless ghost incident is no more.

Episode 3
It’s time to clean the reincarnation wheel. No pay but there is certainly great BBQ after that. However Suzu is ‘sabotaging’ as she doodles all over the place and Sabato trying to steal their scythes and in an attempt to get them back, the dropped scythes scratched the wheel. In the end, they have to hire a professional cleaner. Talk about saving costs… But everyone still had great BBQ, though. Later Raito and Refuto want Rinne to purify a scythe. When they sell it, they always get sold back. When Ageha comes by, she immediately buys it and attacks Renge next door. Seems this is part of the curse as well. The siblings remember they went to some site to mine for iron but it was contaminated by evil spirits who harbour hatred towards shinigami. Now Renge buys it and intends to attack others. When Kain comes into the picture, she plays the victim and points out the fault to the siblings. Kain then forces them to fix it all for free. Ken Amano seems to have a dark rainy cloud over his head ever since he got a new dog, Kotarou. Rinne and Sakura hears him out it could be a grudge from the past. When he was young, he and his friends stumbled upon an abandoned puppy, Bero. Due to their circumstances, they took turns to feed it. One day when it was Amano’s turn, his parents brought him to the amusement park and he forgot all about it until he came back. It was raining then. Next day, Bero was no longer there and Amano lied to his friends he did feed it. He thought he was taken but this curse could be its curse. Using a device to show what happened that night, Bero did stray from his box. It looked like he was being hit by a car but a young girl took it in and nurtured it properly. Wow. Bero had a more luxurious life than all of them. The rain cloud then turns into Bero. It pats Amano’s shoulder before passing on. They deduce Bero’s passing was at the same time Amano adopted Kotarou. Amano might have unconsciously called Bero’s spirit. The raincloud was because it was their shared memory and perhaps Bero wanted him to remember their moments one last time before he passes on.

Episode 4
Sakura tells Rinne about a fortune teller, Annette Hitomi Anematsuri who can predict with accuracy at the mall. She felt something off about her and the crystal ball so Rinne checks and the crystal ball has been a lost item. When they try to see her, she already left a note that the shinigami won’t get her. She must have seen this coming. But it didn’t take long before she returns. They start chasing her but obviously she can see the future of what is going to happen. However she trips and the crystal ball fall into the pond. In the end, she escapes and they couldn’t find the crystal ball either. The next day, a note is left saying she has retired. In school, they are shocked that Annette has become their teacher! Confronting her again, she reveals the crystal ball was passed down by her ancestors who are witches. As she has French ancestry, they made a deal not with the devil but a shinigami for the crystal ball in exchange for bread. Her ancestors were able to avoid witch hunts and generations later, her grandpa moved to Japan. The crystal ball seems to return to her no matter how she loses it. As for why she is working as a teacher, she saw her future with no job. She became a bum but her mom told her to go find work or else. She saw this part time fortune telling at the mall. So this teacher job was just her getting a normal job. Rinne confiscates the crystal ball. Annette sees the future and has no qualms giving it to him. As he is about to return it, he sees the future of repairing it and Annette rewarding him. Can’t go against fate, right? Sure, Annette did pay him. But just to cover the costs. With the crystal ball back in her hands, she becomes more popular giving free divinations to students. But her greatest challenge yet is when Manami Ubukata has problems with her boyfriend. It seems an old man ghost is haunting her. She promises to fix it but goes to Rinne for help. Yup, she can only see spirits but not purify them. Rinne wants to be paid but she isn’t willing to part with her money. When Ubukata’s relationship gets worse, she blames Annette for not fixing and others start to think she is a scam. Desperate, she looks for a saviour. Tsubasa? His sacred ash didn’t manage to do the job. So they look into Ubukata’s past. It turns out this old guy is her father. In fact it is his living spirit. He didn’t like her dating a boy so he unwittingly cursed they would break up. The spirit stops showing up when he realizes about it. Though, he still hopes they would break up. Annette sees more spirits but wants Rinne to help purify. No money, no talk.

Episode 5
Rinne is tasked to train Sansei, Kuroboshi’s grandson since that black cat wants to retire. Although Sansei can detect spirits faster than anybody, he is actually scared of them! Attempts to train him to overcome his phobia fails. Sansei even tries to bribe Rinne not to report this! Oh, money! So eventually Tamako takes over the training and Kuroboshi has to fork out money for it. Retirement is a long way off… Sabato seeks Annette’s help since the money he put in the lucky pot is missing. She sees the culprit… Rinne?! Sabato thinks he knows where he misplaced it as Rinne chases him back to the store. All his lucky pot merchandise is unsold so they try to break the pots to see which one has the money. None. They remember only 1 customer bought it. Well, they’re in luck because dumb Ageha returns to complain. Rinne manages to snatch it away and as predicted, he got the money. However that is short-lived since the landlord confiscates the money for due rental and reparations. Rinne is out picking bamboo shoots and he isn’t particularly interested in a rainbow one since there is a penalty for misusing it. But with Renge wanting it to so it could grant her a wish and Kurosu wanting to sell it on the black market, you bet Rinne is hard up to fight for it. The rainbow bamboo shoot seems to have a mind on its own as it tries to escape its pursuers. We see it change hands frequently from Ageha boiling its outer skin to Kain mistakenly accusing Rinne for trying to steal it and Suzu trying to roast and eat it. Eventually the rainbow bamboo shoot cannot take all of this anymore and wishes itself to become a grown bamboo tree. With no more wishes, I guess it is safe from the greedy predators. Kain covers it up that there was no rainbow bamboo shoot sighted.

Episode 6
Shouma hands Rinne a little yatagarasu for him to keep as he wants to show it to his friends tomorrow. Rinne won’t have any part of it since it is illegal. But for 5,000 Yen for the job?! Okay! However the bird eats up all the food. Shouma fishes it out and plans to return it to its sanctuary since the reward is double. 10,000 Yen! So as they try to retrieve it, it eats more food and it grows bigger. Too late because when it is an adult, it will return to the sanctuary itself. This means no reward. But does it feel grateful for Rinne giving all his food? Well, the reward is only reimbursement for the food it has eaten and 10,000 Yen is its limit. So with Rinne’s ramen, he only got 140 Yen reimbursed… Rumours of a wandering veiled bride. Rinne and Sakura spot it enter a café and looking for a nearby chapel. Talking to her, she seems to have died in an accident while on her way to a chapel. It could be really a tragic love triangle since the café’s owner’s late husband is the same as the bride’s supposed husband. As they try to replay the events that day, the veiled bride is actually the husband?! He owns a chapel and the lack of marriages is making him in the red. He needs to do a promo but lacks money to hire a bride model. His wife was pregnant and couldn’t fit in the dress so he dressed up as a bride himself. As he ran out of film, he rushed out to buy one but on his way back got hit by a car. The case is solved when Rinne takes a picture of them. And he is trying to sell it to the café’s owner?! Rinne finds a transparent safe containing a 10,000 Yen. This is part of Masato’s plan to see Rinne fail as the safe is made out of the strongest ice from hell. So he gives Rinne free items to see him fail in breaking the safe. He is enjoying it. So when Rinne starts to catch on that it might be somebody’s prank, Masato tries to leave but here comes Renge after all that commotion. She recognizes the safe because it was stolen by Masato from the fair organized by Damashigami. Rinne gets the key from her to open it but gets a sucker punch. Oh, the bill is fake too. In the end, after forcing Masato to restore his place back to normal, he is thrown into the depths of hell. Ungrateful…

Episode 7
Sakura hears a power stone at the shop beckoning her. The shop assistant insists in giving it for her free. Turns out there is this little jester devil who claims he can grant her any wish. But he lazily does it and often fails. Tsubasa takes a look at it and realizes this is the legendary wandering stone in which he will bug you until you say the right wish or pass it on to others. As different stones give different luck, this little guy won’t let him inspect and pushes him away. Despite the strong push, Tsubasa feels more relief than pain. He uses other stone spirits to help determine but they smirk at the little guy. He then reveals he is unsure of what his stone does and is going about trial and error. It is soon discovered it is a rock salt. Mmm… Nice delicious tea… Sakura visits her classmate, Yumi Kariya who recently moved into this place. It is dirt cheap because it is haunted by a poltergeist. See those flying plates and bowls? Rinne is called in and the poltergeist haunting is some weirdo pervert balancing the dishes?! Turns out he was the previous resident of this home and trying to look for a job. He found one on welcoming parties so he bought several stuffs and practised himself to death. His lingering regret is to make people laugh. So Rinne has Kariya’s family watch his comedy show. But they become disgruntled upon seeing what kind of ghost was haunting them. They get mad he broke their dishes! Can he never find peace? Till Kariya’s dad lectures him about being true to himself and not hiding his face. That is how you make a good impression in finding a job. He takes off his disguise and he looks quite handsome! Before the ladies swoon over, I guess dad has his face doodled again. The case is solved and he is able to pass over. Ageha realizes there is an expired wandering spirit house under her bed. There is a taboo and penalty for not turning it in on time. So she dumps it at Rinne’s place. He too is unsure if it was his fault and tries to find a way to illegally dump it. Luckily dumb Suzu crashes into him. It gets mixed up in it. She brings it back to Kain and he too is unsure if this expired house was his. When it is his shift to collect those houses, Rinne is before him. He tries to sneak in the house but Rinne can read his moves. They try to outdo one another until Ageha starts dumping a whole lot of expired houses right in front of them. Well, she does live in a big house. Of course she gets reprimanded. And if you’re wondering why the other shinigami are so kind to help, looks like they have a heap of expired houses too! Yeah, the taboo is not so rigorously followed.

Episode 8
Ageha finds an old box from elementary school. Suddenly something bursts out. A cursed straw doll attacks Renge at school. Flashback shows how the duo were paired to learn counter cursing. You put the hair of the person you want to curse in the straw doll and wait for 7 days. If it passes that day, something bad will happen. I guess it’s going to get worse since Ageha forgot and many years passed. She hires Rinne to get rid of it but each time he hurts the straw doll, Renge gets injured. Renge gets her revenge by putting Ageha’s hair in it so it starts attacking her. Then they blow each other up. Rinne returns with many counter curse straw dolls borrowed from the elementary school to deflect all the curse back. Case solved and a rare good ending for Rinne since he got paid for doing nothing. Raito and Refuto give Rinne a reward to test out a silver scythe. But the more he purifies, the silver peels off. Is this fake? Because there is an amount behind the peel, they remember some cash reward system to motivate shinigami to work hard. With a thousand yen as reward, you bet Rinne is going to work hard. As more peels off, OMG it is worth a billion yen!!! The siblings then steal it from him to claim the reward for themselves. A struggle ensues and eventually Rinne turns it in. Hmm… The highest cash reward is only a million yen. Turns out the predecessor who made the scythe lost count in how many zeroes to put in since the difficult part was engraving the cash amount. No reward then… Rinne and Sakura meet a spirit of a girl who passed away a week ago in front of the hospital. She knows about shinigami since one guided her to the Sanzu River but he disappeared. If she can cross the river with him, she’ll rest in peace. As she describes him, Rinne becomes less thrilled because that shinigami is Matsugo! They go see him and Matsugo is so happy that his gay tendencies are showing. And Matsugo doesn’t remember who this girl is but pretends to do so. As advised, he takes her to ride across the river. But with Rinne. The girl isn’t satisfied so Matsugo as advised rides his white steed. Guess what? He lets her chase after him! After more advice, he lets her ride it. Still not satisfied? This time he takes her on a date and everything goes pretty well surprisingly. The girl is satisfied and passes on. So what was Matsugo’s success? Kuromitsu whispered to him to take this as training for his date with Rinne. Oh dear. Now Matsugo wants to ‘date’ Rinne, he is nowhere to be found! But Matsugo continues to bug him by always waiting for him outside his place. But nobody’s home… I think he ran away like forever.

Episode 9
Sabato is praying at his father’s grave when he spots a gold mackerel can. Tamako calls Rinne because there is a thief in her house. Turns out to be Sabato. But he has mackerel marks on his face, proof that he fell for Tamako’s trap at the grave. As it cannot be normally washed off, he must go seek forgiveness at the altar at home. However Tamako has laced various portals in the house, making him unable to reach his destination. Well, there is a way. Through this messy room. Rinne tries to escape but Tamako will pay him to help clean up. As father and son does so, they find an old savings book with lots of money. Perhaps Tamako had forgotten about it. So they try to search for the stamp and all hell breaks loose. Eventually grandpa mackerel simply have to guide them to the altar to apologize as they’re taking too long. But after that they continue searching for it but nothing was found. Tsubasa invites Sakura to study at his home. She had to invite Rinne so Tsubasa distracts him to eat his high grade tuna. Apparently Sakura’s friends are also here. Tsubasa receives a parcel from his father. A spirit pops out from a bottle named Minerva. Tsubasa lies it is a goddess of wisdom so Sakura’s friends want to touch it to be smart. Of course Sakura can tell it is a spirit so they have to catch it. Rinne is also roped in because the spirit ruined his tuna meal. The spirit is seemingly playing pranks on everyone. Tsubasa reads the instructions on how to catch it. With a banana? The spirit is actually a monkey. Everyone settles for tuna since it is rich in DHA. The shinigami are cleaning the Sanzu River. Those who cross cannot bring their belongings and are forced to dump them. So during clean up times, those who get it can claim possession. Rokumon finds a gold bar. Imagine all the things he can but. And even resign from his job! He tries to hide it from Rinne but eventually is found out. As they try to outdo each other to claim the gold bar, soon everyone starts tussling for it. In the end, it is flung into the deep end of the river and clean up time is over. I guess they’ll have to wait for the next time. For now, it’s back to the poor life.

Episode 10
Suddenly boxes of bombs drop into Rinne’s room. Sabato orders them in his name and wants him to pay. Not a chance. Turns out somebody has started a union and spread the word to his Damashigami employees to fight for better wages and refusing free overtime work. So as they try to figure things out, Sabato almost uses his inflammable tools to cook or light up things but is luckily put to a stop. Damashigami employees are then seen stealing the boxes. Meanwhile, it is Renge who is the leader of the union. She thought nobody turned up but it turns out everyone was too dumb to get here. As Rinne tries to follow the Damashigami, it leads him to a party that Sabato and his employees are having fun in. The sold the bombs for a profit. Renge? She went home to sleep, frustrated that everyone is so dumb. Sabato tries to get Renge to steal Annette’s ball to sell it on the black market. Of course she doesn’t want to but the thought of stealing it herself and profiting from it without him. Also, Annette can see this future so when Renge sets a trap, it all went according to prediction. Annette shows Renge a future where she will get cuffed by Kain. Will her identity be revealed? She brushes it off and later is shocked to learn Kain is here to collect the ball upon hearing rumours it still exists. At first she thought of finding it fast or she’ll be arrested but realizes if she is near the ball, she’ll get arrested. She tells Sabato she wants out but he doesn’t listen. He throws her a fake ball to switch with the real one. So why doesn’t he do it himself? She throws it back to him but hits Kain! He seeks her explanation so she blames it on Rinne. So Kain and Renge face off with Rinne to arrest him but another fake ball knocks Kain out. Rinne pulls Sabato out but soon Kain goes to chase for the scumbag. By this time, Annette sees a new future for Renge in which she attacks Kain in her cuffs. Resisting arrest? Kain returns with handcuffs to arrest Annette. However she pushes Renge towards him and she gets cuffed instead. So it was her fault? Rinne notices something strange about this Kain. It turns out to be a doll version, a trap set by Sabato. Renge attacks it out of frustration. Sabato returns to steal the ball this time but from all the confusion it is fake when he tries to sell it. Annette still holds the real one. This is destiny?

Episode 11
Kain has been missing for 3 days after trying to investigate the dying flower fields. No motivation to find him? There’s a cash reward. Let’s go! With all the related parties jostling each other for this, eventually Kain is found but he refuses to go back and let Rinne have his reward. Turns out he needs to get to the bottom of this. Somebody has been digging underground tunnels and thus denying the flowers the nutrients. After another round of chaos because money faced people will do what it takes to get him back, the culprit turns out to be a mole spirit who got lost. Kain returns but Rinne didn’t get his reward… During the test, Sakura notices a different spirit hand substitutes Rinne’s hand to take the test. Because of that, he ends up in the top 10. Renge calls him out for cheating as she notices this. Rinne admits he did. This breaks Sakura’s heart and she feels disappointed with him. Rinne then brings them to the spirit world hotspring and introduce to them smart people who died without being able to use their smart talents. The only way they could pass on if they take the high school test. And this season if they do so, they get double points or something. Even so, this doesn’t hide the fact Rinne didn’t put in the effort and is still cheating. When Rinne is forced to take the make-up test because he failed English, the rest are puzzled. Didn’t he had a foreigner take his English test? Apparently the foreigner didn’t know how to read questions in Japanese. Everyone is humbled by Rinne’s act. He knew he would fail and yet he allowed it so the spirit could rest in peace. Well, in actual fact, Rinne regrets picking the wrong person and tries to find a spirit who is proficient in both language before his test. Study himself for once, please? Annette invites Rinne to her house since the reports cards are missing. When Suzuki tasked her to help, she decided to summon fairies to do the job. Of course she needs to reward them with a French cake. Seeing the shops don’t sell it, she made it herself. You don’t need to see the future to see what happened to them after eating this charcoal. Failure to reward means there is a price to pay. This means the report cards are returned covered in charcoal and the fairies start throwing ink. They realize the burnt cake is used for the payback and it will end once all is used up. Eventually the entire house is covered with charcoal when the payback is finished. Now Annette wants Rinne to help clean up the place before mom and grandma gets back. Too late. She feigns she was marking the report cards. Should have done this all the while, no? The students wonder why the reports card are so dirty.

Episode 12
Rinne is tasked to investigate a haunted beach house. But first, have fun at the beach! When they decide to investigate, they start cleaning it first. They’re going to stay here as part of their vacation?! Turns out the central pillar is haunted. Rather, a tree spirit. He explains he was born in the mountains and longed to see the ocean after hearing about it. When he was finally chopped down and made into this house, his joy is short-lived because he is facing the wrong way. Hence all the poltergeist activities are actually him trying to turn around and causing the things to move. Rinne has an item that allows him to see the ocean. Everything would have been fine had not the rest start causing havoc and blocking his view. In his anger, he forcefully turns around and the entire house collapses. At least he has a clear view now. A granny refuses to go home on an eggplant at the end of the Obon. She visits her old house which is dilapidated. As she hates eggplants, they can’t force her to go back so Rinne peaks into her past. She used to grow this garden with lots of eggplants and converses a lot with her neighbour over the hedge. She likes him as he reminded her of her late husband but knew she was too old for such romance. She wanted to give eggplants as thanks but on that day when she died, he came over to help her. This dream guy of hers looks like an eggplant! Now, he thinks Sakura is her granddaughter and leaves some flowers. It calms granny’s heart as she returns home. Rinne has a request to bust a Damashigami for a meagre 500 Yen at a festival. Seeing Renge doing a con job at the water balloon stall (people who play the game get their soul suck into it), he believes he can nab her in action and use the reward to have fun. Unfortunately Kain is here to investigate too so Renge drops her bad girl act and does legitimate business. She decides to close her store to have fun with him but Suzu has made him broke so he goes off. Renge is back to shady business and Rinne is left to wonder if he should spend his money to patron and catch her in the act. He couldn’t decide so Renge goes free. Too bad Suzu busts all her balloons and frees all the souls.

Episode 13
Rinne is at the pawn shop and sees an unredeemed scythe that belongs to the legendary shinigami, Otome who suddenly went missing 10 years ago. Also pawned with it is her platinum licence. Rinne sees the licence and is shocked. Going back to confirm with Tamako, Otome is indeed his mother. She was a very good mother and wife. Too good for that lazy ass Sabato. They weren’t exactly on bad terms but the day she went missing, Sabato pawned her scythe. Maybe that is why. Also, anything that belonged to her also went missing that day. They tried searching for her but to no avail. Back in school, Sakura tells Rinne that a new family moved into a house nearby but their daughter, Ichigo could see spirits sensed a ghost haunting it. Rinne purifies the ghost that turns out to be a living spirit. The previous owner bought the house but business went south and was forced to give it up. Kids these days, Ichigo ‘abuses’ the living spirit to get the hell out! And that case is solved. Rinne would like to be paid (no mercy) but Ichigo wants him to hear her out then. It seems for a long time she has this feeling something is watching her. Rinne and Sakura spots a camera from the other world spying at her. Rinne gives a pendant to block the camera from filming. He’ll be charging for that too. When he goes home, he sees Sabato knocked out in his room and Otome’s scythe is missing. Sabato then purposely sprays an evil spirit scent on Rinne. He is forced to purify them all. His purpose is that when a shinigami purifies evil spirits, they get paid. Suddenly here comes Otome purifying the rest of them. She’s back like that? She beats up Sabato for being a lazy ass. Rinne is mixed seeing his mom again. However… She doesn’t recognize him! Heart break! Even more so, she thinks Rinne is going to pay her. Mother or not, nobody takes his money! Sabato causes more mischief by unleashing more evil spirits over town. Otome and Rinne compete to see who can purify more (and thus get paid more). She isn’t a platinum licence holder for nothing. It is revealed Otome has been working hard to earn money for her young son since her husband is useless. Could it be her memory stopped at that? Ichigo is being chased by evil spirits and Rinne goes to help her. But when Ichigo sees Otome, she knows who she is.

Episode 14
Otome suddenly turns into a doll! Apparently the doll is from Sabato. Care to explain? He used to licence as it is Otome’s only belonging left to try and find out the truth why she left. However after creating the doll, it whacked him out and took the scythe and left. Sabato cannot understand why she left. Things were going great between them. True, it was. Otome even had a good relationship with Tamako. Sabato desperately looked for her and found her sandal by the Sanzu River. He traced it and it looked like she went into the reincarnation wheel. Suddenly Ichigo takes the scythe and beats the crap out of Sabato! She has fully remembered. Ichigo is Otome reincarnated! She isn’t aware he even pawned her scythe. On the day Rinne first walked, he accidentally tripped over a bag of books that Sabato bought from the pawned scythe. It contains list of names whom Sabato claims he wanted to call to make project deals. However one of the books she saw terrified her and she decided to get rid of it. After throwing it into Sanzu River, a herd of gnus dragged her along into the reincarnation wheel. She reincarnated into a fish, followed by a canary an anteater before as Ichigo. Sabato tried to track her reincarnation and sent out numerous spy cameras. He has proof of many photos of Ichigo. And other women? However this doesn’t explain why she took all her belongings and a certain book.

So we go back in time when they first met. They were doing some work at the shinigami youth society. It was love at first sight. He proposed to her that day but she had something to do and came back 3 days later with an answer. Within a week, they got married. Sounds like a happy story so far. Now, one of the books contained an old yearbook. It seems the general knowledge is that Otome is 2 years older than Sabato. However she lied about her age and took all her stuffs relating to her so as not to miss out anything and threw them away. Before they married, Otome snuck into the census office to alter data about her age. Sabato doesn’t mind if she is 10 years older because he still loves her. So how old is she actually? Two years younger. Hey, that’s not bad, right? Well, 2 years younger… Than Tamako!!! Holy sh*t!!! No wonder she clicked so well with Tamako because they’re from the same generation! No wonder she is platinum licence holder. Who could have purified so much spirits lest you are that old! Sabato is in the greatest shock because nobody lied to him before in his life. So will they get back together again? No way. Sabato isn’t a pedo and Ichigo has a new life to live. With the case solved, Ichigo gives Rinne an allowance of 500 Yen. She might be reincarnated but she is still his mother. Well Rinne, so glad you still have a kind mother, right? Until later he realizes he didn’t get reimbursed the full amount of all the tools he used which amounts to 2,000 Yen.

Episode 15
Weird to see Ichigo coming to Rinne’s school for help. She and her friends played Kokkuri and now the spirit won’t leave and keeps bugging them. Ichigo purposely makes the spirit visible so the school could see how Rinne purifies and hence earn money. However they don’t sense anything malicious from the spirit who seems to be targeting Ichigo. Heck, he could even talk. His scary look is because he died while working in a haunted house. He fell into the Sanzu River and Otome was passing by. He signalled her help but was told to wait as she got rid of the yearbook. Of course we know what happened and he waited and waited till he was somehow dragged back to the real world. Since Ichigo cannot purify him anymore, she introduces his son. Here comes the money! Mother hatches more scheme to use Kokkuri to get more money but the school bans it. Rumours of a spirit forced students who pass by the park to pay up. Rinne investigates and it turns out to be a cursed maneki neko. Actually Sabato is behind it. Flashback shows he entered some haunted house to steal something. He saw this and took it. Now his hands are stuck to it until he could fill it up with money. There is an amount in the front to show the remaining sum to be filled up. But it has not moved since. Rinne busts him as he has never put the students’ money into it but his own pocket! Sabato escapes to continue his unholy business so Rinne chases after him. He manages to knock it out of his hands but it becomes a time bomb only dangerous to spirits. Greedy Sabato tries to grab at and gets caught in the explosion. Luckily he didn’t get purified and in hospital he thinks of making copies of it to sell. Tamako has Sansei clean the storeroom but it is filled with spirits so he freaks out and breaks everything before running away. Because of that, Tamako won’t speak to him and ignores him. He bribes Rinne to come apologize with him. However Tamako continues to ignore him and treat like as though he doesn’t exist. Checking out the storeroom doesn’t reveal anything much. Tamako hires Rinne to clean it. Sansei tries to help but is treated roughly and the way she says thinks, it looks like he is fired? Poor Sansei. Is it that bad? As they try to figure things out, it finally dawned to them that Tamako cannot see and hear Sansei. Sansei remembers he ate some buns sent from the shinigami association as thanks for Tamako. It is meant for spirits and you won’t see them for 7 days. Sansei is glad she doesn’t hate him but still has to bear with her ‘abuse’. It wears off in 7 days. Two more days to go…

Episode 16
Rinne is investigating a restaurant with creepy crawling marks all over. At the same time, Annette needs his advice because she can’t stop splurging money. Well, she is letting him having seconds and ordering what he wants. The waiter points out that Annette is the woman whom they realize the strange marks started appearing. It is discovered a snake spirit is haunting Annette. She reveals she bought a wallet supposedly with the charm to save money. However at this restaurant as she examines the wallet, she thought this salmon skin leather inside was creepy and threw it away. It is actually a snake hide and is the lucky charm. After purifying the snake, she manages to get the charm back as it is still inside the trash bin. The charm forgives her after she vows to take care of it. But for now it is going to sleep for 100 years. Rinne bugs Annette for payment. Come back in 100 years. After another beat down by Rinne, Masato tries to steal Annette’s crystal ball because if a demon curses it, it alters its future vision. So to everyone’s shock, they see Rinne holding a stack of cash in this altered future. Rinne thought this could be his lucky day. He thought his 2,000 Yen could bring lots of savings. However he missed the deadline and finally when he bought and won the lottery, he won only 1,000 Yen. Cheated? You bet Rinne is going to help Annette find a cure for this even if he has to work for free! She has something in a box that would cleanse this curse. However she lost the key. And her house is messy. Better start looking. They see visions of Rinne stealing money from her wallet. Could this be fake? Rinne’s attempt to find Masato hiding in her house has him stumbled upon the wallet. Rokumon and Masato try to convince him to steal it since this is all Annette’s fault to begin with so this ‘compensation’ is nothing. Annette almost kills him but in her wallet she finds her key. But now the box is missing. I guess she got lazy to find it so she thinks it’s easier to beat up Masato and break the curse. So the house becomes even messier and chaotic. During all that, the box is found but you need to pay 1,000 Yen for its contents! Rinne got his bill stolen by Masato so Annette uses her own money. It’s a clean cloth? Anyway it did wipe away the curse. Hell hath no fury like a Rinne who lost his money so he beats the hell out of Masato. In the end, Annette and Masato got reprimanded by the former’s mom and grandma who returned only to see the house in a total mess. Annette blames Masato…

Episode 17
Annette seeks Rinne’s help since she noticed a head has been watching at her at times before disappearing. It turns out that head isn’t a spirit but a human. Rei Kuroki is a student of the school. He admires Annette but she never teaches in his class. One day Annette held a flea market and Rei in disguised bought a funny suit thinking it belonged to her (it’s her grandma’s). After he put it on, he realized he became an invisible man and cannot take it off. Only those who can see spirits of course can see him. He tried to go to Annette for help but each time she beat the head away. Attempts to take it off failed. They see a note in the outfit that is supposed to free him. However it is in French and Annette can’t read it! Doomed? Luckily grandma returns to save the day. Guess who got reprimanded? Annette thought she could make it up to Rei by ‘dating’ him tomorrow but she conveniently forgot about him and stood him up. Poor guy… Rinne sees Raito and Refuto making an altar on his roof. They’re supposed to offer dumplings to the moon deity and in return will receive the spell for a prosperous business. So Rinne and Rokumon are hired to guard it and must endure the temptation to eat it. One dumpling gone and they have to pay compensation. However the dumplings attract other spirits so they have to guard it with their life. When the moon deity arrives, they can’t believe this fat rabbit doesn’t want it. He is on a diet and has a cavity but the siblings force the rabbit to eat them all. So what’s the spell? Can’t hear him with his mouth full. If you’re curious, it’s telling them to go find a part time job. And Rinne is bugging for his payment. Kain has the shinigami participate in the saury festival. They realize they have been duped because they are to repose a giant saury who wasn’t grilled properly. They don’t want to work but Kain says the reward is food. Yup, the saury they will repose is the main dish. But it is shooting fireballs and coming onto land?! They thought it is easier to just purify it but Rinne realize at this rate they won’t be eating it. So he borrows all their scythes and place it over some high grade charcoal to make a big grill. The saury is then relaxed and when it is time to eat it, it got purified. And so they have their meal with the saury. What a bummer.

Episode 18
Rinne loves Sakura feeding him food. It’s the food, not her. However she soon turns into Matsugo! Weird dream. This happens several times as they soon discover a dream demon is responsible for this. Tracing it back, it belongs to Matsugo. He is in some training from his school to catch the dream demon. Yeah, he dreams of having gay time with Rinne but Anju always ends up with him. Apparently some dream incense connects all their dreams together and you’ve guessed it, Matsugo illegally put one in Rinne’s room. Until the dream demon is caught, I guess they’ll have to relive this dream-turned-nightmare. Hence Rinne is forced to ‘sleep’ with Matsugo to put an end to it. He has to put up with the gayness and can’t wake up or else the entire thing will restart again. With the rest slowly falling asleep, we see a helter-skelter mess. Besides the usual Rinne and Matsugo dream-cum-nightmare, we have Renge dreaming of Kain but is always busted by Rinne as well as Tsubasa having a nice life with Sakura. A big heartbreak for Rinne when this Sakura hates him. With Rinne trying his best to stomp out the dream demon, the rest are trying to sabotage him because they don’t want the dream to end. Eventually Sakura falls asleep as we see her dream is for Rinne repaying her in full the money she loaned him as well as the food she cooked for him. It’s the truth but Rinne feels hurt by it that and tries to punch it. However he accidentally squashes the dream demon and everyone is back into reality. Well Rinne, let’s hope your promise to repay won’t remain a dream. But when the dream demon returns and Matsugo continues to invade Rinne’s dream to continue his gay dreams. That’s because since the case was solved by a person outside his school, Matsugo has to redo it again. Stop the gayness!

Episode 19
Rinne can’t believe the steamed bun has no fillings. Ageha thought she could soothe his heart and steal it with hers but they are all empty too. Turns out some steamed bun spirit is on a rampage devouring only the fillings. From the entire football team’s snack to Sakura who purposely bought some for him. That’s it. No more nice guy. It is revealed a guy next class created this ‘mascot’. During the cultural festival, the class was to do steamed buns and he was in charge of marketing. When he has made the mascot, they changed their minds to something else. Hence, the regret of not being used. But eating up all the meat isn’t going to solve the problem so Rinne puts the steamed bun over his head and instantly it purifies. The guy gives them red bean paste buns as reward but it is also empty. Oh, did he tell you he made a ‘girlfriend’ for the mascot too? A steep hill part of the school’s marathon route is what the students dread the most. However they cannot go up further and those who do will get their face slapped. Turns out Rinne has put a barrier there. As students run up, they give out negative emotions that has built up over the years. He is about to cleanse the monster devouring those negative emotions but gets accidentally hit by it and is now lazy. Tsubasa tries to do his job but is also hit with the same fate. It is all up to Sakura as Rokumon says only this big ball is able to purify it. How is she going to throw something this big? Roll it downhill! Case solved. Rinne receives a prized matsutake mushroom from an unknown sender. Believing this must be a trick to make him pay later, he is about to send it back but Rokumon betrays him and decides to eat it himself. Rinne is hot on his tail as they both try to outdo each other. In the end, the mushrooms get grilled and since there is no turning back, they both make a truce and decide to eat it. However it tastes horrible since they’re supposed to grill it in a foil. Wasted. The sender turns out to be Tamako who forgot to write her name.

Episode 20
What’s this?! Masato trying to do good?! But it is just a façade to trick others. However each time he does it, something bad befalls him. Turns out he is cursed with angel wings?! When he went to illegal dump something at a swamp, amidst the garbage there were angel buns. So happen an angel was living in the swamp and liked it and blessed him with angel wings. At this rate, Masato will turn into an angel. Hence, Rinne will go all out to help him turn back into a demon by making him do bad stuffs. How nice of him. Turns out Rinne too has ulterior motive because today is a day shinigami get points for eradicating evil spirits. No matter how Rinne gets back at him, Masato doesn’t get mad. Wow. Rinne looks like the bad guy. When he has exhaust all avenues, Rinne goes into depression and so Masato arrogantly laughs at his pathetic state and refuses to help him. That is when he got back his demon wings. Oops. A hippo at a zoo just passed on. Shouma as part of his school’s assignment has to reign it in but is having trouble. Ichigo helps out with the intention to fulfil her unfulfilled desire of not being there when Rinne was younger. Actually, it is to sell Shouma tools she bought at double the price. Eventually Shouma succeeds but Ichigo has earned tons of money from it. Shouma gives a gift to her as thanks. It’s a cute bunny doll instead of money as she hoped. Maybe he has a crush on her? When the broadcast at school plays a cassette tape and everyone hears a girl screaming in it, Rinne and Sakura investigate the broadcast room that has this eerie feeling ever since it was played. Turns out there is a ghost haunting it. Though taking the tape away, the haunting stops, the ghost, Oribe is ‘stalking’ them. He mistakes Sakura to be a girl named Miya whom he has a crush on. He tells his story that he and Miya were fans of some old band. She managed to get a live recording of that band’s performance. When he played it, he is shocked to learn she was with some other guy. Perhaps she already got a boyfriend. He couldn’t concentrate and accidentally record over the tape. This made Miya mad and hence that scream. Oribe feared she would hate him and decided to go find if there is another recording. At that time his parents changed jobs and he transferred school. Luckily there was a guy in the new school who had this recording. Happy but sad. Because he soon died in an accident. So they trace this Miya girl who turns out to be Sakura’s mom. Oribe manages to give her the tape and passes on. Too bad Sakura’s household has no tape player anymore. All CDs. Luckily mom has a CD recording of it. She confirms she was on a date during that concert but won’t say if it is her husband.

Episode 21
A vending machine at school seems to eat students’ money and not give anything in return. Worse, the money put in goes missing! This has everyone suspect Rinne stealing it and even Annette’s crystal ball sees this. The accusation gets worse when the pennies he won from a dart game drops out from his pocket. Rinne is determined to get to clear his name as he examines the vending machine. There is a portal in it that sucks him it. It leads him to some black monolith that sucks all his money. But each time he hits it, a few more coins drop out. The monolith flies away as he gives chase and the rest try to follow. Unfit Annette decides to rest at a nearby convenience store but its vending machine is out of order. Turns out the old lady running the candy shop nearby says it is going to be shifted as her store is closing down. Long ago this place was bustling with kids so it could be the spirit of this vending machine. True enough it is and it returns to its rightful place once Rinne strikes it dry till there are no coins left. Good news: Nobody accuses Rinne anymore. Bad news: That is after he returns all the money. Easy come, easy go. There is a notice at an alley that tells students to use this shortcut. It leads to a dead end and the granny of this house is a spirit. It seems she tries to help late students to use her place as shortcut. However she opens up a portal and the students often get lost as it sends them everywhere. So when Rinne wants to close it, she is reluctant and instead pushes him into the portal. Rinne has a hard time finding his way back since there are many other portals inside it. Luckily Tamako is here doing a job to close them and tells him this granny is on the high list of spirits that must be purified. Meanwhile Sakura and Ichigo hear her story. Her late husband was the school’s former vice principal and he was friendly enough to let students pass through. But a few years ago he died and although the students attended the funeral, they continue to use the alley as if it was nothing. Granny was mad at first and set up several traps like tying the grass as knots. But she fell victim to it and passed away. She felt bad when those students also attended her funeral. The reason why she is reluctant to close this portal is because she painted the fence behind it with sticky pine tar. She regrets it now. After passing on, Rinne and his family now have a serious discussion about the money they spent on tools to close the portals.

Episode 22
Ageha calls the gang because it is her last chance to save Bijin. Apparently Sabato proposed to her! So what does this mean? Bijin will be Rinne’s mom! No can do! After Sabato has Bijin stamp on a paper, lucky the gang intercepts. They find the paper is actually a sales contract. So he is making her buy the ring? Bijin still believes in him till many rings and contracts drop out. This is when Bijin gets disappointed. She returns to being an elite shinigami and is coming for his head! Sabato doesn’t learn his lesson as he tries to sell the ring and contract to others. It is discovered that he is commissioned to sell 100 of them. When he does so, he gets a free trip to the hotspring and he wanted Bijin to be the last one so he could take her there. Now she is back on his side. Later the gang receives a photo of their trip. Turns out to be a company trip and Bijin looks so disappointed. Something is wrong when Rokumon doesn’t want food. It is already a week and it is discovered he has been eating food in place of a cat’s spirit. He never told Rinne because he couldn’t eat cat food anyway. Talking to this cat spirit, Tora, they discover granny puts food for her to eat. That’s all. That is as far their relationship goes. But Tora died somewhere and granny might not know about it so she feels bad and that is when she met Rokumon and struck this deal. Further investigations shows granny knows Tora is dead because from the photos she took, Tora looks transparent. Can a human camera do that? Probably Tora can’t rest in peace is because she never let her touch her. Too bad anybody who does so would immediately get scratched. Good thing or not, granny is allergic to cats. Knowing that Tora has always thought of her, granny is happy. Tora also feels at peace and soon passes on. I suppose granny isn’t going to feed Rokumon from now on… Sansei participates in his first black cats’ children’s meet. He teams up with Rokumon, Oboro and Suzu for an obstacle race in which the winner gets a year’s worth of expensive food. This race is also to test their aptitude and with Sansei being afraid of ghosts, Kurosu is going to write it all down till Kuroboshi bribes him not to see anything. Meanwhile Suzu is having fun teasing Sansei by dragging ghosts to him. As the obstacle race gets tougher, many other teams fall victim to traps that typical cats love to distract themselves with. Rokumon’s team manage to bypass all the obstacles after cheating by stamping every page with the same stamp. However they fail in the last obstacle and nobody wins it since they fall for the comfort of the kotatsu.

Episode 23
Rinne sent his scythe for maintenance and it got stolen! Turns out Sabato is the culprit because some good luck wax put on it makes it a magnet for coins. You bet he is going on a coin magnet spree. Luckily there is a cream to get rid of that wax but do you think Sabato is going to give up that easily? In the end, although Rinne manages to apply cream on his scythe, Sabato still refuses to give up. He waxes his entire body to become a magnet himself. Too bad all the coins hit him like a bullet. And yeah, they must return all the coins to their rightful owners. A mannequin chases after Rika and it turns out it is trying to get her coat. Rika remembers she bought it from a flea market dirt cheap and lots of other freebies were thrown in. That should have probably given us a hint… Further revelations from the coat reveal that the coat and mannequin used to hang out together at a display shop till it closed down. That’s when they were separated. As the coat got new owners, the mannequin often pops up, scaring the owner and making them to sell it off. The coat thinks the mannequin is jealous of her new life and when they lure the mannequin out, the coat gets violent on her! Of course we have to listen to her side of her story. After the shop closed, the mannequin was thrown into the dumpsite. She realized something a long time ago but never intended to tell her as long as they were together. It seems there is a broken needle stuck on the back and she tried to warn her and hence looking like a stalking ghost. The coat feels bad for suspecting her. They make peace and pass on. Rinne hands in his claims to be processed and is typically told he will get his money by the month’s end. When the time comes, nothing is done and there are other unhappy shinigami complaining over this as well. Turns out a ghost goat is eating all the receipts! With Kain washing his hands off this like a typical government employee (come back again next month), everyone tries to catch the goat. Good luck about that. After all the mishaps, Rinne finally captures it. He is furious to find out Kain purposely didn’t process his claim but since he owes him for this, he will make it his priority. A month later when he comes back, all rewards and claims has been offset with the compensation of damage.

Episode 24
Ageha missed a class and is forced to take a supplementary class to catch fierce dog spirits. However there is a dog with a human face (Jinmenkei) that is making it tough for her. She conveniently lets Sakura handle it while she ‘forgets’ and goes on a ‘date’ with Rinne. When Sakura finally confronts her to take back the responsibility, it is revealed the Jinmenkei is actually a human but the collar Ageha put on him turned him into a dog and confused him. However he still wants to put on the collar? It seems the guy is a rocker running late for an audition. He forgot his choker and ran back to get it but was met with an accident. Rinne takes him back to be purified. Sakura is with Ichigo at the food bazaar when she notices a strange person. Ichigo points out that is the money spirit and it is over once you notice it. Legend has it money that has been kept in drawers become spirits to come down to the human world to spend money to relief some steam. Once its identity is found out, something bad will happen. Tsubasa tries to confront it head on but is beaten up and all his money taken. Rinne and Ichigo try teaming up to steal his money without making him notice. But Renge has a better plan. She sells to him food and rips him off at an expensive price. That’s how it’s done. Rinne thinks he has no money and hence nothing to lose and attacks head on. The money spirit realizes he has been discovered and escapes. So what does Rinne get? Just his food receipts… Renge seeks Rinne’s help to help out an evil spirit haunting a ramen store. The owner wants to give Rinne free ramen but the evil spirit always ruins it. I’m sure Rinne would want to force purify it but Renge could have done it herself. Instead she wants him to help talk to reveal things. It is learnt the evil spirit is jealous of this current ramen owner’s success seeing he was the previous owner of this ramen shop but ran out of business. However he did save up 300 million Yen but can’t remember where he put the money! So that’s why. After further help, it seems he hid it in a safe in his attic. So it becomes a race between the poor souls to get it. But the safe is empty? Further revelation shows there is no way a stack of 300 million Yen could have fit into that small safe. What actually happened was he bought lottery tickets and hoped to win that money. But he got drunk and forgot about it. Yeah, he still has those tickets. None are winning numbers. After force purifying him, Rinne and Renge are so dead even if they got a free ramen as payment. You don’t know how much 300 million is worth…

Episode 25
Rinne is invited to Matsugo’s school’s cultural festival. At first he is sceptical because you know, gay moments. But Kuromitsu assures he is working on the committee so no time for gay. Rinne brings his friends along and they really see him working. Could this mean he is really over Rinne? He invites them to enter this haunted house. But they have to follow this Orpheus Rule in which boys cannot look back and girls cannot go ahead of the boys. Doing so results in disqualification. Pairs who made it to the end will receive a free yakisoba! You bet those misers are going for it seeing how ‘expensive’ everything else are sold here. Soon Tsubasa and Renge are tricked and taken out. Rinne and Sakura are the only ones left. However this haunted house has a ‘curse’. Couples who made it eventually break up. The logic is that when a girl screams for help, the boy can’t look back and help because of the rule and hence continues to move forward. This causes the girl to be mad and soon after breaks up. And you bet this is part of Matsugo’s plan to break Rinne up with Sakura. But as he tries to scare Sakura, we all know she is so accustomed to spirits so nothing really works. However Matsugo exploits this loophole. Because Rinne cannot look back, he doesn’t know if Sakura is behind her. Thus Matsugo switches place with her after dumping her in a pit. Luckily Anju foils his plan and lets Rinne look in the mirror. I guess that is legal. But this causes another dilemma. Although Sakura is back behind him, Rinne doubts if it is the real her. On the other hand, Sakura too starts thinking Rinne places more importance on the yakisoba than her. When Sakura yet again falls into another pit, Rinne is faced with his big dilemma. Head forward for the yakisoba or turn back to look for her. He chose. He decides Sakura is more important and looks back. But she isn’t there. He goes to find her but unknowingly steps on her head while she is crawling out from the hole! Rinne sees lot of mad couples and fears that Sakura might be doing the same thing. When Sakura comes to, she thinks Rinne has gone ahead without her. She looks a bit sad she lost to a yakisoba. By the time Rinne gets to the exit, he wonders if Sakura has passed through it. Nope. He could still hear her voice. Where is she? Fallen down another pit! He helps her out but gets disqualified. Well, Matsugo’s last laugh, you could say. In the aftermath, it is a good thing Rinne didn’t go for the yakisoba because it tastes horrible! Although Sakura didn’t find the haunted house scary, it was scary in another sense for Rinne. But now he can breathe easy. Just when Rinne thought he could have a private picnic with Sakura alone, all the other characters of the series pop up together to ruin it. Because. Last episode.

Poverty Is Not A Crime But It’s A Sin To Be Poor
Say… Since there is nobody announcing anything about another season in the final scene of the last episode, does this really mean this series isn’t getting renewed for the fourth season? What’s more, when you have the entire main and supporting casts gathering together for one big group picture and saying thank you to us, it is a big sign that it has already reached the end. Is this the end of it? A trilogy of seasons and that’s it? Or is this part of their sneaky plan to announce it later when nobody least suspects it? Either way, no more Rinne for now. By the way, that last group picture I managed to pinpoint all the main and supporting characters but I noticed Bijin is missing! Holy cow! Is she not considered part of the casts? Did they somewhat forgot about her? Oh wait. Matsugo and Kuromitsu aren’t there either. And Anju. And Kuroboshi too. I feel like I’m forgetting someone too… Oh well. Not so complete either. I mean if they can feature Rika and Miho…

Well, sad to say that this season doesn’t feel any refreshing as the last. It is very much following the same formula with Rinne and the other characters getting into their usual antics. Those hoping for big developments would be mostly disappointed. I’m not saying there aren’t any developments at all but if you are hoping for something that will turn the series upside down or head in a new direction, you’re not going to find it in this season. In fact, I believe that this season has more short antics than the previous seasons combined. What I mean is that in many of the episodes, an episode is split into 3 short stories. If the story is a bit long, maybe 2 per episode. This season alone has more than 3/4 of such episodes. That is 75% of this season consisting only of short story antics. It is both good and bad because if you really love random funny moments from the gang, it’s cool. But it gets tiring after a while and since we’re already in the third season, perhaps we have come to expect something more than just casual pieces. I’m not say that it is entirely bad and as an overall, but just that it feels like there is no meat left to advance the plot so they resort to this for some little laughs.

Hence the only most interesting plot for this season comes from the revelation of Rinne’s mom, Otome. Seeing the direction of this season as mentioned in my prior paragraph, the age old question of what happened to Rinne’s mom has finally been answered. It was indeed a mixed of bittersweet emotions to learn what she has went through and at the same time a little weird because now his mom who was as old as a typical grandma is now a young little girl and could be one the youngest characters in the series. Sadly, I thought Otome/Ichigo would be more prominent after her debut halfway through this season but alas she didn’t make as much impact and hence relegating her to other supporting characters of the series.

Which brings me to my next topic: The characters. This season, only a handful of mainstays make their debut. As mentioned, Otome/Ichigo and the other being Annette and Sansei. That is all. Both good and bad, this means with the wide line up of characters this series has introduced over the seasons, the screen time to be focused on them is very much reduced. There is only so much characters you can bring into one story and making it even worse is how short the stories this season feel. I can’t even make head or tail who appeared more or who appeared less like Tsubasa, Ageha, Renge and Kain. Of course Rinne being the titular character takes up the bulk and I believe could be the only one who appears in all the stories. I’m sure Sakura is next in line. But for the rest, it’s like playing musical chairs. Even Masato feels so much less here as well as Matsugo (I’m figuring they don’t want to spam and overplay that gay antic). Heck, all those bunch of black cats that were introduced last season felt even lesser here.

Having said so, this means that some of the main issues that have been bugging us from the start remains unresolved. What do I mean? Will it be Rinne or Tsubasa that ends up with Sakura? Or will it be some other guy? Yup, the romance factor here feels very much non-existent and if you’re new to the series, you won’t really guess that there are very subtle crushes between these characters. That last episode was just teasing-cum-trolling because to have Sakura for once this season stating her concern that she loses out to a yakisoba in Rinne’s books is just to get our hopes up. Then it all goes back to square one. That’s not what we want! They’ve been on so many exorcism and misadventures together and it’s like second nature for her to join in (fate, as some might call it) each time something supernatural happens. So it doesn’t really quite cut it that the final episode merely hints about this but as usual doesn’t even develop the slightest from there. Most probably the typical status quo is needed and often played out in series that relies on polygon romance because once a romance is ‘solved’ (a couple is officially paired), it causes a domino effect and breaks the chain connecting everyone. The fun ends. That is why you won’t see much about Renge ever getting closer to Kain or if Anju would ever stop stalking Matsugo or Ageha would smart up in some ways to win Rinne’s heart. So I guess those pictures of Rinne and Sakura dressed very nicely together in the ending credits animation are just to troll us?

In the end, the characters all remain the same as they are as we know them from the start. Rinne is still the poor shinigami who cries blood each time he has to spend more money, pushing him further into the red or when he loses all the cash. He is so poor that even the slightest normal treat sends him into ecstasy. Yes, it is that bad for him. It’s like a running joke to keep him poor because that is where all the comedic moments come from. The mind boggling thing is that seeing that Otome has gone through reincarnation and somehow retained her memories, shouldn’t Rinne try something similar to have a better chance to escape poverty? Yeah, that wouldn’t be fun if Rinne looks different. It is also mind boggling that with Ichigo doing all she can to help Rinne, it makes me wonder where all the money she makes go. Because as I can see, Rinne is still living the poor life. Unless she isn’t making enough to turn things around.

Therefore all the strange shinigami tools that he buys and introduced throughout the seasons feel like one big damnation because he can’t solve the case without the tool but when he does so, the rewards aren’t enough for him to be compensated or reimbursed. Speaking of those tools, I know this is the nature of the series to be comedy but sometimes I feel that the tools are just so much more of a convenience than anything. It’s like there is a tool for almost anything for the right price. It is like an excuse for all the antics we see and the plot to head in that certain outcome. Shinigami tools. Bane or boon?

What else can I say for the rest? Still the same. Sakura and her poker face sarcasm. Tsubasa throwing his holy ash (though I feel he doesn’t use his Bible’s corner as often or that power stone. Remember that one?), Tamako still giving Rinne a noogie as he continues to call her grandma, Rokumon still a loyal black cat to Rinne (except when it comes down to money and food – though he is totally loyal to Ichigo after she somehow won over him), Sabato continues to be a greedy sneaky swindler, Renge is still a sly devilish fallen shinigami, Kain still picking his fight with Rinne and using rules of the census to his advantage for free labour, Masato still picking a fight with Rinne but his stupidity gets in the way, Ageha still the dumb one and it proves money can’t buy intelligence, Suzu still the dumb troublemaking simpleton, Oboro still doing the bare minimum and causing trouble for Ageha, Kurosu still working strictly from 9 to 5 and moonlighting to earn extra income, Raito and Refuto still trying to scam Rinne in buying their useless products via hiding it behind some ‘good’ deal, Rika and Miho still running away the moment they see spirits popping up before them (and they have no qualms flirting with guys who would spend money for them. Or they think they would – that’s you, Tsubasa). Oh right, I almost forgot. Bijin. The only other interesting revelation of this season is that this is her real name! Shocker, right? And you thought that was some sort of moniker or something. Dad must be a real confident guy to name his daughter like that at birth.

As for the new characters, they do add some variety and colour to the already extended casts. Like Annette who is quickly established as a shady fortune teller because she too is lazy and tends to blame others for her own wrongdoing. She is also a cheapskate miser but seeing Rinne is willing to work for peanuts like as though he never got ‘this much’ before, she often gets to hire him. But you know what they say, you pay peanuts, you get… Heck, I think Annette and many others who hire Rinne usually end up not paying him eventually when the case is solved. I mean, do you not notice how many times this running joke that Rinne is seen bugging them for his payment when the story ends? Sansei is less memorable seeing the only trait that stands out is his phobia for spirits. I have already said for Ichigo earlier on but I suppose she is the most disappointing of the new characters in terms of appearance. No doubt she makes her debut halfway but I thought she could have done more but alas that wasn’t the case.

With the previous seasons’ casts retained, the few new ones are added and I only recognized Miyuki Sawashiro as Annette. I didn’t realize it was Megumi Hayashibara behind Otome/Ichigo. It has been such a long time since I heard from her so did I start forgetting her voice? Or did she grow old… Oops! Sansei is voiced by Emiri Katou (Akatsuki in Log Horizon).

For this season, the first opening theme, Shiny by Yoru No Honki Dance doesn’t sound appealing. Generic rock piece with the lead singer sounding like a gay. Really. However it is the second opening, Setsuna Yumemishi by Keytalk that gained my attention. Because this song sounds so freaking familiar to the best song (still is) of the series, Ouka Ranman! Like as though it is a spiritual successor! Or did they just copy and do a little tweaking? Anyhow, it sounds great. Of course, it is sung by the same band too and that is why it sounds familiar. I still like Ouka Ranman best but this one isn’t so bad after all since the other themes weren’t so catchy and this one came as a surprise. The first ending theme is Suki Nano Kana by Softly. A bit of hip hop and a bit weird itself. Not that bad but I would rate it as just slightly above average. The second ending theme is Puzzle by Mone Kamishiraishi. Not really liking this one. In both these ending themes, how come the singers sound like they’re singing softly? As in, they’re lacking energy in singing them. Plus, don’t they sound the same? I tried Googling but I couldn’t find any results about them being related seeing how generic that word is. I know I’m lazy… Damn it, hit that Roberta Flack search results again…

Overall, the third season is still as enjoyable in its own right but it still doesn’t resolve anything and those hoping for some sort of progression would be disappointed. Not to say that the short comedy bits are bad. They are okay and entertaining but it could be a double edged sword since the jokes are more or less the same thing and this could be boring to some looking for something refreshing. But like they say, if it isn’t broken, why fix it? Oh Rinne, even if you are fated to be poor for the rest of your lives, at least you are rich in the sense that you have a bunch of characters, allies and enemies, winners and losers, all hanging around you. What’s that you say? They don’t put food on your table? Well, have you ever considered paying Sakura back a little? Well then, I guess you’ll have to be content that you are ‘rich’ with so many people around you. It sucks to be poor…

Kyoukai No Rinne S2

As per that cheeky request as seen in the final scene of the first season, thus Rinne has kept his promise and will give fans another season of Kyoukai No Rinne! After all, there are still a lot of things that needs to be properly developed and resolved. Especially the relationships and Rinne’s poverty issues. Yeah well, even if Rinne is still as poor as a church mouse, the production company still has enough budget to make another season. And possibly a third??? I’ll leave that aside for later but for now let’s see where this second season will take us and Rinne and his friends.

Episode 1
Young shinigamis are trying to catch snake spirits set loose. But Ageha won’t seeing she hates them. However a black cat boy plays a snake prank on her. Before he gets away with it, Rinne catches him. It is revealed Oboro is Ageha’s contracted black cat (like how Rokumon is to Rinne). They don’t get along well. It all started a year ago when they were supposed to catch an anaconda spirit. Oboro knowing she hates snakes played a prank on her. In retaliation she dropped a boulder on him in which he was stuck there for a year. So Oboro released the snake spirits recently to get back at her. Heck, their love-hate relationship goes back to even when they were small. Oboro’s family have been serving Ageha’s family for generations. So whenever the duo play, they always play rough and ended up fighting. Of course they can just terminate the contract but Ageha wants to make him suffer before doing that. So she makes the lamest trap to lure Oboro. He could have easily got it if not for some mongoose spirit intervening. With the contract now in its hands, they give chase as the contract change hands several times till the mongoose swallows Ageha. Oboro thinks he is free from Ageha but she manages to fire a missile at him. Rinne wants Rokumon to bring back Oboro because the penalty for a familiar leaving his master is 5,000 Yen! Oboro is surprised that the contract is in his possession and a note from Ageha that she allows him to be free. He thinks this is a trap seeing this is too easy. On his way to save Ageha, he remembers Ageha did defend him when he made a major blunder so she isn’t all that bad. Rinne enters the mongoose to find Ageha has set up an emergency shelter. Looks like she is having fun. This is part of her trap to lure Rinne in and have a good time with him. Before anything suspicious can happen, Oboro and the rest break into the shelter. The contract with Oboro is actually real. She is firing him because she wants to spend time with Rinne. Besides, doesn’t he hate her? The rest realize maybe Oboro doesn’t want to leave her and was waiting for her to stop him somewhat. The duo sheepishly reconcile but they end up in their usual argument and fighting. Part of the contract falls into Rinne’s hand as he is shocked to learn the compensation by the employer is 500,000 Yen! Oboro should keep his job… In the aftermath, Tamako reprimands Ageha and Oboro for being the source of this incident.

Episode 2
Rinne is called in to help the tennis club because the tennis balls always go missing. Rinne smokes out the spirit and it turns out to be a tennis club player who has been amassing tennis balls. His story goes that when he joined the club, he was relegated to only picking balls. A year later before he could play a decent game, an accident occurred. So he hates everyone who plays tennis as he just wants to play a decent match. Rinne has Sakura and Tsubasa join in to play doubles. But the tennis boy sucks at playing tennis and gives up. Rinne gives him a better racquet laced with some spirit to help him out. It then becomes an intense grudge match between Tsubasa and the racquet. So the guy just settles for practising swings with Sakura. Enough for him to find peace. And Tsubasa’s fight with the racquet ends with a double knockout. Were they playing tennis in the first place? Tsubasa attends a client whose son is ill ever since they opened a box of love letters in their shed. Through enough, a spirit named Yayoi is clung onto him. But after Tsubasa exorcises him, Yayoi now follows him. Her back story shows that she was in love with some guy. Eventually he married a rich girl since he was poor. Yayoi died of heartbreak later. In order to pass over, she wants to date someone even if it is pretend. So we see Tsubasa going on a strange date with Yayoi but mishaps always befall on him. Rinne deduces she is an evil romantic spirit bent on taking Tsubasa to the next world with her. Despite knowing all this, Tsubasa still continues to date her and tolerate all the misfortunes. Because he understands how it feels not to be loved back. Is he hinting something at Sakura? When Rinne notices a number at the bottom of the box, he goes back to the shed to investigate. It seems Yayoi’s crush had other women sending their love letters and he labelled them via numbers. Learning about this might have turned Yayoi into an evil spirit. When Yayoi tries to hasten Tsubasa’s death, Rinne warns her even if he manages to kill him, she will be sent to hell and Tsubasa sent for reincarnation. They will never be together. Yayoi laments she lost another love and hopes he will date her when they reborn again. After Yayoi passes on, Tsubasa is admitted into hospital where he thinks he is lucky to have been alive. Yeah, because after he has been through, he should be dead.

Episode 3
A black cat girl, Suzu is looking for Rinne. She drops him a reminder to pay up for his monthly shinigami membership fee. However Rinne clearly remembers he never missed a payment no matter how poor he is. He goes to the census to complain but serving him is Kain. There are no records Rinne paid. Could it be Sabato swiped him? He ascertained that too so nope. With Kain maintaining his stance he has not paid, Rokumon asserts that he was here at the counter to pay it. So where’s the receipt? No receipt? Well there you go. Instead of haggling with him, Rinne will investigate and set the truth straight. With Sakura, they retrace their steps on that day. It seems Rokumon detoured to several shops that offer free samples and discounts. Hard to resist, right? Rinne has him describe the person he handed the money but it seems that person was wearing a mask just like him. Wait. What? They trace the mask to be from a rice store in which they only give away to kids. So the person at the counter was a kid? Suzu is Kain’s familiar. He picked up this abandoned cat simply because of the ‘free’ word. Poor people… But look at her mask. Doesn’t that look familiar? Next day, Kain finds Rinne and Rokumon doing their investigation behind the counter. They bought a kit to take fingerprints but Suzu wipes the place clean. Rokumon remembers it was her who accepted the payment. When Suzu hands Kain the task for today, he sees the payment. He remembers he was away from the counter that day and Suzu might have come by then. Now he pretends not to receive it. This means if he passes it across the counter, it will be deemed not received. Using Suzu as distraction, he puts the envelope back to Rinne’s side. However Rinne won’t pick it up. It means acknowledging there will be late fees. So he also uses Suzu as distraction to shove it back to the counter’s side. This goes on until Rokumon accuses Suzu to remember. She doesn’t. But when Rokumon wears the mask, she instantly remembers and claims to receive the payment. Kain then waives the late payment fee. Rokumon is upset because he didn’t even apologize but Rinne doesn’t want him to waste his breath. Apology won’t earn him a penny. However Rinne has bought a very expensive recorder and has recorded Kain’s misconduct. Kain threatens him to report since it won’t earn him a penny. This isn’t about money. It is about pride. Few days later, Rinne finds coupons worth as much as the recorder. He knows it is a bribe to keep him quiet. Making it even sweet is that the recorder is just a cheap recycled junk.

Episode 4
Rumours have been surfacing that the student council president, Naomi Yuuki looks nice but mugs people. Miho as her secretary doesn’t believe all that till she gets mugged by her. Despite dressing up a bit different, Miho can tell she is Yuuki. However Sakura knows better that this girl is a ghost but why can her friends see her? Talking to Rinne about this, they catch her vandalizing the wall with graffiti. She acts like a punk and Rinne deduces her speech is old gangster talk. When Yuuki confronts her, she is shocked of their similarity but asserts she doesn’t know her. This causes delinquent girl to be mad as she thinks she is playing dumb. Rinne goes after her and learns that she is Ranko and she believes that is her twin, Rinko. They are like day and night. While Rinko is all proper, Ranko is more of the gangster type and since then everybody has shunned her. Only Rinko tried to talk to her and didn’t treat her like trash. Sakura confirms from Yuuki that Rinko had a twin and she died around this age. Sakura would like to talk to her mom but he is away on vacation in Hawaii. Tracing the truth from the umbrella Ranko always has, it seems she has a strong desire to apologize. Talking to Ranko again, they want to know why she is angry seeing Rinko was always on good terms with her and never understood why she was mad. Ranko remembers on that day she did something unimaginable and left. That was when she got into an accident. She realizes she is dead and this wasn’t Rinko’s fault as she did something horrible. They believe Yuuki’s father has something to do with this so they seek Yuuki’s permission to get an item that her father used a lot during his school days. A guitar? Further revelation reveals Ranko knows Rinko loves Yuuki’s dad. One day she wanted to tease them and left a love letter in her twin’s name and even dressed up like her to meet up. As Ranko was in coma for 3 years after the accident, it is natural her memories stopped at that point. Rinne uses a tool to replay what happened on that day. When Ranko met Yuuki’s dad, he was singing his lame song. So lame that Ranko beat him up! She declared he hated him! It was then Ranko realized he loved him too. It was enough for Ranko to apologize to Rinko (Yuuki acting on her behalf) and pass on. In the aftermath, Rinne shows Ranko how Rinko and her husband are doing. His guitar still sucks after all these years. She doesn’t even want to believe…

Episode 5
Rinne and Sakura visit Tamako’s mansion to help clean up. In return he gets to take anything for free. They discover an album in which Rinne was a bad delinquent. But isn’t that Sabato? Sabato hands the real album in which Rinne is all proper and nice. What is Sabato doing here? Trying to help clean up too? Or just stealing?! Tamako puts the brakes on his theft and then they resume cleaning. Once done, a giant black cat crashes out from a closet. He is Kuroboshi and Tamako’s familiar. Rinne has never seen him for so long so he thought he retired. Apparently when Tamako had him put something away in the closet, she forgot all about it when delivery of new furniture arrive and dumped it blocking the closet. So he has been sealed in there for all this time? Well, the place is in a mess now.

Sakura knows there is trouble when Sabato comes asking her for money! He pleads he wants to buy a gift for Rinne’s birthday. But he doesn’t even know his son’s birthday! Luckily Rinne is here to foil his plans. Apparently Sabato was trying to rob Kain’s house too and bluff Ageha that Rinne was in hospital for money. As they all try to figure why he is so desperate this time, Bijin explains that loan sharks came this morning and took away everything in his office. There was an item on his desk that he is willing to pay to get back. This shocks everyone. What is so special that this swindler is willing to buy back? They guess right he will be in the recycling shop where seized items are. They see Sabato rummaging through his seized items. Even more shocking he is ignoring the expensive items around. Is this the real Sabato? It is revealed one of the seized items is a photo of Sabato and young Rinne together. It’s his only copy. So heart-warming that Sakura agrees to lend him a thousand yen although she expects never to get it back. But a few days later, she is shocked that she got it back! What gives?! It is revealed behind the photo contains 50,000 Yen! Too good to be true as always…

Rinne and Tsubasa follow Sakura to her friend’s vacation cabin, Kana Noroi. It seems her brother, Taishi found demon tags around and has been burning them in his bid to summon a demon. Of course they warn him how demons kill the summoner or drag your soul to hell but there is only one tag left to burn. When they realize Kana’s neighbour is Masato, they get a gist he is behind this. True enough, it is his plan to make Taishi finish the summoning so he could drag his soul back to hell. But if Rinne and Tsubasa are here, this means they’ll beat the crap out of his ass and he doesn’t want that. So they make Masato stay for the BBQ instead of escaping. Accidentally Taishi completes the final ritual and Masato thinks an army of a thousand demons are going to descend and cause havoc. However there is a note saying they are on vacation. Masato’s pride is shattered to pieces. You were saying about the threat?

Episode 6
Shouma is a young shinigami in training and a brat who is under a homestay programme with Rinne. However trainees his age should be exorcising pets instead of humans or vengeful spirits but why is Shouma doing it? It seems they earn him more points compared to simpler ones and once he achieves 50 points, he can get out of this homestay. Besides, I’m sure he is just complaining living alongside Rinne’s poor life. Despite his cocky attitude and big talk, he can’t even get close in purifying one and Rinne always has to finish his job. One night when Sakura and her friends walk home from karaoke, they stumble upon the rumoured alligator faced woman ghost. It is no surprise when Shouma hears about it the next day, he is going to purify her. Worse, he stole Rinne’s scythe thinking he can do the job. Of course he fails. Sakura then meets a woman who looks exactly like the alligator woman, Onee-san. It is revealed she is the owner of her alligator pet, Chibi who has been masquerading as her in order to look for her. There is a monologue in which she explains how she bought Chibi on the streets (unknowingly it is illegal) and they become like best friends. But one day her pet escaped and went missing. It has been a year. Shouma stokes trouble by making Chibi visible. This freaks out Onee-san since she doesn’t believe her pet was this big. She runs away in fear rejecting Chibi. This is bad because Chibi won’t find peace and in time it will turn into an evil spirit. Sakura tries to talk to Onee-san that her pet has died but she refuses to believe. Rinne and Shouma chase Chibi into the portal and back to the living world. They get to hear its monologue how it escaped its cage and the weary ‘adventure’ it had trying to make it back to its owner’s place. It eventually died of exhaustion. Unfortunately Shouma fell asleep listening to its story and this pisses off Chibi. Now turned into an evil spirit, it attacks Shouma. Still can’t do anything, huh? When Onee-san is here again, she could sense familiarity in this alligator. It then returns to its small size and emotionally reunites with her before passing on. Good news for them but bad news for Shouma because since the owner was the one who calmed the alligator, Shouma didn’t get any points. And so Shouma’s poor days with Rinne continues. And so does his whining.

Episode 7
Shouma can’t stand living the poor life now. He bumps into Masato who is willing to help alleviate his ‘suffering’. Masato tricks Shouma into reaping some grumpy granny spirit. If Shouma reaps wrongly, not only Shouma will face the consequences, because he is related to Rinne’s homestay, Rinne will also be punished. That is what Masato wants. Luckily granny defends herself and even lectures Shouma about respecting your elders! Masato escapes when Rinne is here but leaves Shouma a letter. Rinne warns Shouma never to go near that demon again. But you think that stubborn kid is going to listen? Even more so when he finds a 500 Yen in the letter! That’s it. Masato is definitely cooler than stingy Rinne. Money swayed his heart. Masato gives him an evil spirit sensor. Shouma is thrilled when evil spirits gather around him. Little did he know the sensor is turning innocent spirits nearby into evil ones and Masato is collecting them to be sent to hell. Although a single evil spirit is enough for him to earn points and pass this homestay, he wants to earn thousands to brag to his friends. Sakura and Rokumon try to stop him but he gives them the slip. Once Masato has enough spirits, he reveals the truth and is going to drag Shouma to hell too. Lucky is Rinne is here to the rescue. Because heard the penalty for this is a hefty fine! Masato throws a bomb decoy at Rinne to escape into the portal. Shouma feels guilty for the wrong he has done. He struggles with Masato in a bid to free the spirits but clearly he lacks strength as a kid. Rinne manages to catch up and throws his hoop to bind Masato and free the spirits. But they’re not out of the woods yet as Masato threatens to report. But Rinne beats him up and threatens! Enough for that dumb demon to shut up. Till next time. In the aftermath, Rinne has remorseful Shouma guide a few innocent spirits to the afterlife. They will be enough to help Shouma score the required points to pass. But first he has to listen to their lecture that lasts for 3 days! Patience is a virtue…

Episode 8
Sakura and her friends visit a shrine where a cursed straw doll is rumoured to be. When they see the ghost, the friends and even the ghost run away, leaving Sakura alone to inspect the doll. She finds a picture of Suzuki in it. She talks to Rinne about this as they investigate the site again. Who would curse Suzuki since he is a popular and nice teacher? The ghost appears again when Rinne picks up the photo. Yoko Kanou explains she was a student in their school. At that time Suzuki was a trainee teacher and she became interested in him. She was happy to learn he had no girlfriend and became close to him (as in a normal teacher-student relationship). When his internship ended, she gave him her email address but he never replied. A year later, Suzuki became a full teacher and she was happy. However she became angry upon learning he had a girlfriend. So she went and followed the ritual to curse him late that night. She didn’t die from slipping down the stairs, falling into a manhole or attacked by dogs. It was the morning after when she regretted her actions did she die of food poisoning. Her regret is the fear of someone else discovering this curse. Rinne suggests asking Suzuki in person. Teacher doesn’t remember her at all. You mad now? Suspicious why Suzuki doesn’t remember her, they spy on him and surprisingly see him visit Yoko’s mom and paying his respects to her altar. Mom shows him Yoko’s diary in which she wrote she was in love with sensei. From anger to embarrassment. When Rinne and Sakura confront him about this, he is forced to tell the truth. He does remember Yoko and has a hunch she likes him (he couldn’t get denser than this since Yoko was always making lunches for him). On his last day, Yoko gave him her email address in which he shortly lost it. When he came back a year later, he wanted to apologize to her but she avoided him. He thinks he hates her. At the shrine, Yoko thinks she can pass on now but Suzuki is here and sees the doll and the picture. He thought he got rid of it. As explained, the night before Yoko’s death, he saw her coming down the shrine. Because of the darkness, he lost her. A few days later he heard from the priest about this picture in the doll. Before Yoko is overcome with guilt, Rinne makes her visible so she can talk it out with Suzuki. He assures the picture never bothered him and acted he never knew her to protect her name. Since they only know this, let this be their secret. Yoko finds peace and she moves on. Suzuki then remembers he forgot to thank her. Because shortly after he lost her email address, a woman found it back for him. That woman is his current girlfriend! Oh my. It is a good thing Yoko didn’t hear that… She will never be able to rest in peace.

Episode 9
Rinne is disheartened that the usual repair and maintenance shop for his scythe has increased in price. Then comes along this bunny girl, Raito who offers free service at her Mikazukido shop. FREE?! Of course he won’t let this offer slip. She introduces to her twin brother, Refuto. Apparently they are in this business for generations but ever since their father passed on, people refused to use their service as they believe Refuto’s inexperience won’t do. However Refuto has a penchant to badmouth others so could this be the source of their poor business? Rinne agrees to give him a chance as Refuto forges his scythe back to normal and even adds a faster purification deal. When he returns to Sakura, there is a vengeful female spirit who died after being dumped by her boyfriend. Rinne purifies her but she slaps him before passing on. As Rinne purifies other spirits, it seems they beat him up before moving on. He complains to Refuto that the after effects have the spirits taking out all their anger on him before passing on. He won’t have this and wants him to remake it again. However he is told they forge his scythe for free and the next will cost him. Could this be a scam that they reforge it in a way so that they can charge exorbitant fee to change it back? Refuto puts his pride on the teachings of Waga Hansei books. But when Rinne points out a disclaimer how this teaching was discontinued, Refuto agrees to reforge it for free. But they realize that each teaching has a disclaimer and could it be that these are just records of mistakes? Yup, it is. Raito returns Rinne’s scythe all fixed up back to normal and for free. But this time she is trying to sell her special wax. Sakura then reports about the gym being mysteriously covered with filth each time it is cleaned. They see dirty rugby uniforms doing the mess. Rinne tries to purify them but each time his scythe gets dirty and the uniforms got away. Rinne goes back to Mikazukido and finds out they are the ones behind this uniform scam. This is when they play an ‘advertising’ video. It shows the manager of a rugby team fed up of washing their uniform and chucked them in a corner of a shed. When Raito came to free them, they were happy of their freedom but felt they cannot pass on being dirty. That is when she recommends the wax so they can pass on happily. The twins try to throw in special price and freebies until Rinne accepts the deal. He easily purifies the remaining uniforms and believes he just purchased a good deal. However no more dirty spirits ever showed up so his purchases were useless. Money wasted. And the twins might be going out of business too because they lost money with many product refunds. Time to discontinue the product?

Episode 10
Rokumon asks for Rinne for a day off tomorrow as there is a gathering for black cats to celebrate Eisei Kuroida’s reincarnation. But a poor moth enters their room. It takes away their wealth. Enough said. So better catch it. However Shouma and his black cat, Kurosu are also trying to catch it. Both sides struggle and sabotage each other as Rinne and Rokumon see Kurosu swiping Shouma’s money and pretend he didn’t do it! Kurosu also doesn’t work overtime so when it is exactly 5pm, he leaves. It is then Shouma catches the moth. The black cats gather as they witness Kuroida’s rare public appearance. He is all white for a black cat. No surprise since he is very old. It must be a challenge to blow out 700 candles on the cake! Before he reincarnates he wants to leave his estate of high quality cat food. But there is a condition. Sakura and her friends are at a cat shop and see an ugly cat. It is being possessed by an envy cat spirit and it seems Rokumon needs to catch it as the condition. But Kurosu is also on the hunt as he sets up various tricks and underhanded tactics to get the spirit. But because Rinne was the one who caught it eventually, Kuroida can’t grant Rokumon his estate. Which isn’t the cat food by the way. It’s just gifts for the guests to be given out later. The real estate is inside this box which contains his life’s testament. The one who can take it from his hands claims it. This time everyone goes all out to get the box. But when Rokumon senses something wrong with it and throws it away, Kuroida senses his great integrity that he has no desire for power and money. He gives the box to Rokumon but he seemingly doesn’t want it. But as Kuroida is being forceful to pass it on to him, suddenly its contents burst out. Tons of debts! 700 years of debts! No wonder he wants to give it away! Then the loan sharks come in to claims their due and Kuroida disappears. Well, at least Rokumon can take heart he got the cat food. Rokumon remembers it was the poor scent the box had which was similar to Rinne that made him stay away. When Sakura talks about Kurosu being a poor person too because he was the only one who jostled with Rokumon for the cat food at first, the actual fact is that he just hates kids. I don’t know how he put up with Shouma.

Episode 11
Sakura’s friends talk about some dancing people spirit since the festival is near. Sakura stumbles into one but that looks like an ordinary human slapping himself making him look like he is dancing. So when she goes to tell Rinne about this, they discover the cause to be mosquitoes that are supposed to be sent to the other world but the coil was instead set in reverse and thus the mosquitoes swarming humans. Rinne tries to get the coil but fails. He thought some old method of using his own blood to seal it but he got anaemic instead. Tamako solves it but turning the dial on the coil to its correct position and just a simple incense would do. Sakura and her friends meet up at the festival. Tsubasa is there too but he has to be their sugar daddy. Isn’t that why they call him to join them? Then they see Rinne on a date with a hot chick! Now, before you succumb to jealousy, let’s hear him out. Apparently Natsumi Motoba already has a boyfriend. Each year they come to the festivals, he always needs to play the shooting gallery and target this teddy bear. He always loses and ends up crying. So in order to be freed for this curse, she hires him to be her boyfriend. I guess you can see why Rinne is eager to hop on. She’s paying for everything! So he can’t quite bail out when he sees Sakura. Natsumi threatens him he better live the end of his contract or else! At the shooting gallery, the spirit of Natsumi’s grandpa appears as he explains 10 years ago Natsumi wanted the teddy bear so grandpa tried to shoot it for her but failed. He would love to try again next year but passed away a few days later. But when Rinne tries to shoot, grandpa sabotages him! It is revealed he is behind all the sabotages as he will not allow his granddaughter to date other boys. But Rinne makes a deal with him that grandpa will pass on if he manages to shoot the prize. And grandpa will also let him date his granddaughter. But it is going to be tough since grandpa is possessing the teddy bear and making it move around. Rinne manages to shoot it and then makes grandpa visible so he could make his amends with Natsumi. He gives her the prize but it seems there was a mistake. Then, it wasn’t the teddy bear she wanted but the fashionable bag next to it. But now she wants him to get a more expensive branded bag! I guess grandpa is ready to pass on and leave his granddaughter in Rinne’s hands. Bye. Too bad Natsumi won’t get the bag. Natsumi then returns to her real boyfriend and this spares Rinne from explaining this dating business. As they have fun for the rest of the festival, Sakura notes Rinne never showed him that smile he did for Natsumi. That was his business smile. So it costs money?

Episode 12
Sakura is at the beach and so is Rinne and Ageha. It seems the lifeguards are complaining every time of this year, there would be somebody out on the boat at sea waving for help. But when they arrive, it is gone. So as they go check out the ghost boat that is happening now, they see a pretty YOLO lady as the source and being attacked by an umibouzu. After Rinne saves her, she explains she setup this prank so as to get the lifeguard she likes to come rescue her. However an old ugly fisherman is the one who tried to save her. She tried to escape but of course cannot out-swim him and drowned. The umibouzu is an imaginary monster she cooked up. Rinne gives her a doll in which she can imagine her lifeguard crush onto and then pass on. But since she cannot remember his face, Rinne’s image will do. Ageha will not accept this and ruins the doll. There goes Rinne’s investment. When another imaginary monster appears, a tanned Tsubasa comes to her rescue. She totally falls in love with him and you thought she would pass on after that. However she continues to bug him to date her in which he constantly rejects.

Sakura and her friends investigate a haunted tunnel when a staff warns them never to go through it. When they hear and see Tsubasa at the other end, once he enters, he gets beaten up and thrown out. There’s black ink all over his face. Rinne is also here to exorcise the spirit upon request from the guest house union. When it is revealed an octopus spirit is guarding the place, they try to lure it out but all the traps do not work. They remember stories about a truck transporting octopi and one went missing after passing through the tunnel. It is believed that octopus is making this tunnel as its hideout. Their motivation to get it out is to make takoyaki and octopus related dishes? I think that only makes it even madder. When Sakura finds a dried up body of an octopus, they release it back to the water after realizing its regret of being a dried up corpse. The octopus gratitude? Shooting black ink in Rinne’s face. But they can take heart that the union treat them to takoyaki and octopus related dishes after that.

When a handful of guys try to hit on Sakura and her friends, she notices they are also attracting spirits. Tsubasa exorcises them. In fact, this beach is filled with spirits. As they go look around for the source, they realize that it is this Nehanya guest house formed by Rinne and Ageha to lock in spirits of the beach. They take up this part time lifeguard job to gather the spirits and help them pass on. So there is this judo dude who can’t pass on because he died without a girlfriend while he was training. He targets Sakura but instead of going on a one on one date but she says she has a crush on somebody else. So in the end, judo guy ends up with YOLO girl and they pass on. Of course what Sakura said was just a white lie and it was a big relief to our concerned guys. Or is she?

Episode 13
Renge Shima is the new transfer student in class. Starting off as weird because she has a Marilyn Monroe spirit following her, Shuuto Saka the ace of the football club stalking her and his girlfriend, Erika Sawa jealous as f*ck! Although Renge claims she has this misfortune of making other couples break up, it soon becomes suspicious when she seems to lure Shuuto in trying to kill himself if he wants to prove his love for her is real. Luckily Rinne saves him. That night when he investigates, he finds Tsubasa’s lifeless body and a letter from Renge pleading for his help. He manages to dodge Renge’s attack. Renge reveals herself to be a Damashigami working under Sabato. Her artificial Marilyn spirit is not only to trick love struck boys and lead them into the portal but to also weed out humans who can see spirits. Rinne gets mad when he learns Sakura is in danger. Speaking of which, she just regained conscious in Renge’s hideout and besides her is Tsubasa’s soul. Conflicted to go save the boys or Sakura, Rinne then throws Renge’s pheromone spray on Tsubasa, causing the guys to go after him instead. He follows Renge back into the portal but it’s a trap. Renge returns to her hideout and throws away Tsubasa, supposedly to some soul vault. He is the 99th soul and she will send all back to the afterlife once she gets the 1ooth. Want to guess who that soul is? Speaking of Rinne, he is fighting for his life.

Suddenly Renge claims she wants to be Sakura’s friend because all girls despise her. She agrees but unknowingly this is Renge’s plan to make her become her subordinate when she drinks her tea. Luckily she won’t since Rinne crashes down. Renge forces them to hear her back story. She was a top shinigami student and did well in exams. On the day of her entrance exam, she bumped into a food thief no other than Sabato. She fell into the river and by the time she got out and reached her exam place, it was already over. No choice, the only other offer that came to her was the Damashigami school. Of course she aced and on the opening ceremony, imagine her anger when she saw Sabato as the head giving his speech. Of course she has no grudge on Rinne for that but she has a bone to pick with him for getting in her way. As they fight, Renge steals his robe and this sends Rinne and Sakura back to the real world. Without his robe, he cannot enter the portal and this means he cannot follow her to where she keeps her soul vault. Rinne returns home to request Rokumon to open the portal but he is busy trying to hush the noisy souls next door. So… This is where Renge keeps her soul vault?! In the end, all the captured souls are released. Renge returns to school the next day and acts nothing happened. But it is tough for Tsubasa because all the guys still love him! Oh sh*t!

Episode 14
After Rokumon helps Tama the granny black cat with chores, she treats him to tea. So when he serves this high quality tea to Rinne, Sakura and Tsubasa, suddenly they become paralyzed. Turns out Tama works under Renge and this tea controls one’s mind. Renge puts the effect into test but having the guys punch each other. I’m sure they love to beat the crap out of each other but Renge then has them love each other! OMG! Gay moment! Getting to serious business, Renge orders Rinne to get more souls for her and Sakura to deceive hapless guys. When her friends wonder why she is hanging out with the boys instead of being in class, Renge wants Sakura to tell them off she is no longer their friends and have Rinne take their souls. Luckily the tea effects wear out and they put a stop to Renge’s scheme. Thanks to Rokumon’s frugal behaviour, he only used very limited tea amounts, that is why the effect wore off faster. Renge now officially moves in next door to Rinne. When real charms help students fend off their sleep paralysis, this affects Rinne’s business since nobody is requesting for his help. Turns out they were made by Renge as atonement for what she did. Rinne leaves her alone since the charms are real and it does purify the school. But this means no business for Rinne and he is starving to death. No choice, Rokumon pawns some items to have some food. That is when the school is suddenly filled with spirits and trying to possess students to kill themselves. All part of the bigger plan of Renge. Despite the charms are good, they have an expiry date and once over, the evil spirit inside it will seep out. Rinne cannot purify them because his scythe is replaces with plywood! Rokumon was the one who pawned it thinking he didn’t need it for the time being. Sakura has her friends help out to spread the word the charm is cursed and gather it all as she tries to put them away at a place no one would go. However now all the spirits are attracted to her. Renge is shocked when she sees the spirits running away from Rinne’s room. Renge realizes the poor aura in his room is much scarier! She admits her lost and returns to her room. Rokumon then returns with Rinne’s scythe. Where did he get the money to buy it back? He pawned Renge’s furniture! A week later, Rinne still has no business. His poor aura must be really that bad, huh?

Episode 15
Raito and Refuto give Rinne a free sample of a recovery cream in which it can repair his scythe to good use. Rokumon has a toothache and rather than going to a dentist, he would rather do it himself (aside from being poor). The tooth comes out and touches the cream. It turns into an evil version of Rokumon. Heck, the evil one is much stronger than the original one. Raito and Refuto reveal they were trying to use Rinne as a test subject before they market their product. But they didn’t expect it to have some effect on living organisms. As it repairs blades back to normal, a tooth being from a living thing means it turned it into some biological weapon. Raito had a neutralizing solution but it was damaged. Then the rest realize the solution is just plain water. Thank goodness it starts raining and the evil Rokumon returns being a tooth. The siblings scrap the product and though they want to give them to Rinne to fix his scythe from his battle with evil Rokumon, he wants them to fix it normally for free.

There are rumours of a girl who lost funds haunting the storage room. As they investigate, it seems there is a seal on the locker and Rokumon doesn’t want Rinne to open. The supposed ghost girl pops up but she is a teacher. When they remove the seal, there is a cursed box. However it is just deception as inside contains money. They belong to Rokumon. Of course it is his hard earned money and if he was to put it in their room and it goes missing, who do you think the first suspect is? Trust issues, eh? Even best friends fight over money. So while they argue, the teacher tries to take advantage and steal it. Luckily she is roped in. When she explains her story, they realize she is a teacher of the school from the next town. Apparently she likes borrowing money to buy luxurious stuffs. So when loan sharks start appearing at school, she hid in the storeroom. When they came knocking on the door, she jumped out the window and died. This is when she realizes she is already dead and free of her debt and passes on. It is revealed Rokumon created the rumours so everyone would stay away but it backfired because it created a negative aura and attracted the teacher ghost. As Rinne and Rokumon reconcile, he is still not lending him a penny. Oh, money…

The black cats are on their annual mushroom hunting in which they can use for food or sell as medicine and other stuffs. They stumble upon the notorious Kuekuedake mushrooms who eat everything in sight. Despite they taste like crap, they fetch a cool 100,000 Yen price tag! So you bet Rinne is going to jump in for this haul. Of course the catch is their price tag wouldn’t be so high if they weren’t so hard to catch. Kuekuedake release toxic fume spores each time they attack. So when the gang are guided to a field of high quality matsutake mushrooms instead, they think these friendly creatures who never attack back is showing them this place in exchange to be spared. Touched, they take these mushrooms back. Sometimes you have to let go of money to make money. But when they are back at camp, the Kuekuedake spores over them sprout and they start eating all the mushrooms the others gathered so hard. Although Kain catches them, Rinne will get nothing since his matsudake catch is the same as the cost of all the other mushrooms. I don’t think he’d appreciate the Kuekuedake canned food either. They still taste like crap.

Episode 16
Ageha sees a fortune teller about her love woes. She in returns is given a breakup kit but is warned if she curses the wrong person, disaster will happen. Of course Ageha blatantly does the ritual right before Rinne and Sakura’s eyes and nothing happens. So as she explains herself, here comes Renge and it seems the duo know each other from shinigami elementary school. Renge hates Ageha because of her stupidity. She is only popular among other kids because she is rich. It doesn’t take long before they fight as Ageha mocks Renge’s poor status and turning into a Damashigami despite her top scores while Renge taunts Ageha’s failed sister. When Renge realizes Ageha has forgotten her kit, she hatches up a devilish plan. Renge is looking for her kit and follows the trail to Renge’s room. All in good timing, Renge has brought Rinne to her bed and make it look like they just did something. Ageha is pissed as Renge gives her back the kit knowing that if she curses the wrong person, something bad will happen (remember, Renge is not dating Rinne for real). Angry Ageha whips out a breakup sword from the kit. When she cuts the space between Rinne and Renge, a basin named ‘Disaster’ drops on Ageha’s head! So this is the disaster? Since Ageha is dumb and Renge is vengeful, she makes her use other various items in the kit to make Ageha feel the pain. Then the rest saw a disclaimer. It states initially the disaster will fall on the buyer but after the fifth time, all affected parties will experience calamity. And with the bad luck they have, it reaches the fifth time. A big sand pit tries to suck them all in. At the bottom of it is some mini god that will cut your romance/relationship ties forever! For once, Ageha takes responsibility and beats up the god. Then she and Renge fight over the god’s scissors to get back at each other. Eventually when everything fails, the duo go back to the ol’ fashion showdown of clashing scythes. Sighs, their nasty relationship could sure use some severing…

Episode 17
Rinne receives an invitation for his old shinigami school reunion. 3000 Yen to attend?! Not coming! Suddenly Masato is here slapping 3,000 Yen in his face! He explains while he was setting a trap for him, somebody came to steal his wings. He left the money and a pawn card in Rinne’s name. Of course Rinne has no obligation and would love to cash in the pawn card but instead of becoming the bad guy, he goes to help solve Masato’s predicament. Following the address on the card, it leads him to the hotel where the reunion is held. Many of Rinne’s old friends recognize him but Masato has to run when the rest chase him out as a demon. They confront the perpetrator but it seems Rinne can’t remember his name. Not only him but everyone else doesn’t remember who this guy is. An imposter? It sees this reunion was set up by him with plans to humiliate Rinne. He gives Rinne a hint by materializing a balloon demon. Rinne remembers the class was out on a practice hunt for balloon demons and teamed up with the most timid kid in class. It ended in some disaster as the balloon popped. Rinne realizes that timid kid is him, Matsugo. Matsugo has his balloon demon attack Rinne and his scythe got stolen and automatically pawned. While everyone thinks Matsugo is being a dick, Rinne can’t remember why Matsugo hates him. All he remembers is that they were good close friends. Yeah, really good friends. Like girls? Matsugo continues after that balloon demon training, he woke up and saw Rinne kicking him into the river. He was saved by the teacher but Rinne whispered to forget about this. Like a threat? Ever since that day, Matsugo studied hard and changed himself in various ways. Rinne partially remembers something. On that day itself, he ate a pill to erase part of his memories on that incident. Matsugo is bent on making him remember why he kicked him into the river and has a heavy ball drop on his head. Rinne dodges and is able to get back his scythe while saving Matsugo from the ball. But cutting it in half has more mini ones dropping on Rinne’s head. Now he remembers. He talks to Matsugo privately. After the balloon demon popped, Rinne saw Matsugo wet his pants. Fearing everyone would tease him, he pushed him into the river. As precaution he might rat it out, Rinne took the pill. Matsugo now understands but makes Rinne eat the pill again. He has new respect for Rinne and even blurts out how much he loves Rinne! Oh my. WTF?! Everyone heads home after the reunion. It’s like as though they’ve forgotten something… A week later, Masato is not pleased they forgot to get his wings back and already used up the pawned money.

Episode 18
Rinne couldn’t understand why despite taking up many shinigami jobs, they are still poor. Sakura suggests cutting down on the shinigami tools they always buy. Too bad it’s tough for them as they barely succeed. Rokumon stumbles upon a black cat ranking test. Initially Rinne is against it as it is worth 500 Yen and he doesn’t think Rokumon is mature enough to enter. When he hears higher ranking black cats have more discounts for shinigami tools, he immediately changes his mind. So in the written exam, Oboro is bloody confident, Suzu is just bored and scratching the wall and Rokumon has studied hard enough. It is no surprise he scores highly. But Oboro scores zero! He forgot to write his name. Even Suzu who failed all questions even got marks by writing her name. For the practical exam, their shinigami owners join in. But they find it weird that their scythes are tied to the end of the obstacle course littered with a cat’s favourite stuffs as a signal for their black cat to finish the test. It seems there are bugs eating the scythe so your black cat better hurry and end the course. As expected, most black cats get distracted. Even though Oboro wasn’t (because he is bored with rich Ageha always providing him everything), he went out of bounds and argue with the examiners. Rokumon could have aced it if not for being distracted by free fish! Eventually Suzu wins because her short attention span has her move along quickly. The next test is the cooperation test where both shinigami and their black cats must make their way up. The winner will get a free scythe repair coupon. You bet Rinne is going go all out and win. At the top is only a door that black cats can enter to retrieve a key for the door their shinigami master can enter. But inside this room is Shouma studying and Kurosu accompanying him. It’s hard to get the key since Kurosu throws everyone out for being a distraction! Rokumon gets an idea to defeat him but needs everyone’s cooperation.

Episode 19
Rokumon has everyone divide into teams to raid the room. However with Kurosu throwing snacks at them, everyone is back to being selfish individuals. When Oboro takes Shouma hostage, Shouma becomes mad and accuses Kurosu for abandoning him. Rokumon uses this commotion to steal the key and open the door. It is a mad dash for the free coupon at the top and eventually Ageha and Oboro win. Because they are so rich and don’t need the coupon anyway, they tear it up! The final test is a battle royale in which the last standing black cat in the ring wins. Each black cat is given coupons to buy weapons but if those coupons are not used, they are given free to their master regardless on the outcome. So you bet Rokumon is going to win this on a tight budget despite his small size disadvantage. Oh, Suzu wasted it all on food… Rokumon is going great guns with his recycling method of attacks but of course it breaks and he has to spend more. He teams up with Oboro to take out the rest who are obviously more brains than brawns. They have been waiting for the field to narrow down before swooping in. Rokumon is smarter as he has them participate in a true or false quiz whereby the correct answer sends them out of the ring. Oboro is out when he slips on Suzu’s banana. Then she gets sleepy and bored and walks out of the ring herself. Rokumon and a handful of black cats are left. Everyone teams up against tiny Rokumon who is forced to dodge all their attacks. This is when Rinne tells Rokumon to spend the remaining coupons for weapons. Even if he fails, Rinne will sponsor his exam the next time. He’s crying blood over it… Rokumon buys a cannonball and swings everyone out of the ring. Rokumon wins and is promoted. Apparently Suzu and Oboro who won their previous tests also got promoted. Rokumon also wins MVC (Most Valuable Cat) but the trophy is just a piggy bank. Actually, maneki neko design.

Episode 20
Rinne is so poor he can’t even have a decent oden meal. So he can’t shoo away Ageha when she brings high quality ingredients for nabe. The new goddess of his life! Because Ageha kicks out Rokumon, he returns with Tsubasa and Sakura to join them. They notice there is this little samurai spirit inside the pot. Rinne tosses him away as Tsubasa starts ranting about the nabe magistrate and all that importance crap. Why, Tsubasa has also certificate as a certified nabe magistrate and is willing to take over this duty. You know what? Rinne doesn’t give a damn because he is the law! So as they enjoy this heavenly dish, Rinne notices there is only one radish left. Everyone notices the spirit eating the rest of them. This in turn makes the guys fighting over the only radish but surprisingly Ageha splits and shares it with everyone. Then Rinne notices there is only one egg left. Yup, the spirit swallows the rest. History repeats itself. The guys are fighting over it. How do you split an egg anyway? With the spirit also jostling for the egg, Renge and Tama come in to see the commotion. The egg slips off and into Tama’s mouth. While the guys sink into depression, the girls continue enjoying their nabe meal. Yeah, what’s all the fuss about anyway? Masato is sick and of course being a demon, the doctor tells him he needs to spread the virus to others. The more he spreads the faster he is cured. This means Masato is going to pick on Rinne. But that guy is also sick. This gives Masato a chance to cough all his virus and double Rinne’s pain. However Rinne has a kind of virus that temporarily sucks out your soul! Wow. This is much more dangerous. So as they try to outdo each other, Masato is then cured and heads home. However he caught Rinne’s virus so this means from time to time his soul would temporarily leave his body whenever he sneezes. In the end, both guys are cured but unfortunately Tsubasa caught their virus.

Episode 21
Rumours of the Strangler Scarf appears and strangles a guy whenever his girl presents her scarf as present. So to solve this case, Sakura is going to knit Rinne a scarf. You don’t know how happy he is. But she doesn’t know how to knit, she learns it from Haruka Igawa, the knitting club’s president. While learning, Strangler Scarf almost strangles Igawa but Rinne was there in time to stop it before it disappears again. Rinne and Sakura call out Igawa to witness their scarf giving. However Sakura still has not finished hers and lets Igawa help finish it. That is when Strangler Scarf appears again. This time Rinne manages to catch it and Igawa is surprised to see it. She knows this scarf. Apparently she knitted it for a senior she had a crush on. But she saw another girl gave him a scarf. Heartbroken, she threw it away. After Igawa apologizes for throwing it away, Strangler Scarf becomes obedient. They deduce it wants to be given away to find peace. While Rinne has plans to receive Sakura’s scarf, he is forced to act this one out just to close the case. However he got strangled. Maybe Rinne isn’t Igawa’s type. The scarf tries to escape but is caught by some plain judo guy. Since this guy is Igawa’s type, she gives it to him and Strangler Scarf is purified. While Rinne is sad he couldn’t get Sakura’s scarf, he can be happy that a few days later she managed to finish it and give it to him. All nice and warm.

There are rumours of a ghost shoving people at the skating rink. Sakura sees a little girl, Yukina furiously waiting for her friend, Shizuka Arakawara to show up. When she tells this to Rinne, he says he too got a request from Shizuka. This guy has a letter from Yukina to come to the rink where she’ll teach him how to skate. Apparently Yukina died a long time ago so he isn’t sure why this is happening. Shizuka never liked skating and his parents forced him to take up skating class. Yukina trained him and was nice to him at first but suddenly ignored him. When he received that letter, he was sick that day and couldn’t come. At the rink, Yukina couldn’t recognize a grownup Shizuka so Rinne uses a balloon device to materialize a young Shizuka. But this lad doesn’t want to train and instead says he hates her. She blames him for his fault because of that kiss. Shizuka doesn’t remember and this irks Yukina. She uses her ice attack but Rinne saves the day. It is then Shizuka remembers when Yukina was training him, he tripped and fell over her. Their lips met and everyone thought they saw them kissing. Yukina ignored him ever since. The reason she eventually wrote that letter was because she was going to move away due to her dad’s job. She might never see him again. Shizuka and Yukina skate together for one last time before the latter passes on. But now the rink staff wants them to pay compensation for destroying the rink and Rinne who was a total noob in skating suddenly quickly skates away. He learns fast when money is involved.

Episode 22
Renge is about to make an illegal underground purchase when Kain comes in to bust this join. Although she escapes, she dropped her purse. Kain traces the purse back to Rinne’s room and accuses him of trying to do something illegal. Renge comes in during the commotion as Sakura returns the purse to her. Renge is glad to have her entire fortune of 700 Yen back but is shocked when she sees Kain. Seems they know each other during school. She sympathized and admired him for wanting to take down scums of society. Read: Damashigami. If only Kain knew what Renge is now because he still thinks she is an honour student. Renge threatens Rinne and Sakura not to spill the beans or else. Sakura can tell Renge has a crush on Kain and she is willing to risk her entire fortune to keep her identity a secret. Because of that, she heads out to steal some souls to make some money. Luckily Rinne intercepts. When Kain also comes into the picture, Renge runs away thinking her identity is busted. However Kain thinks Rinne is the one who is trying to steal the souls. Renge laments as she thinks back her failed confession to Kain. On graduation day she wanted to confess to him but other girls got in the way. She never managed to. Now that he knows her true identity, she feels it is a good thing she never confessed. He must have thought she is an awful person. But seeing that Kain wants Renge to be witness over Rinne’s atrocity, Renge is more than happy for Rinne to take her blame! Die for her sake! Kain offers the 700 Yen if Rinne confesses to his crimes. He actually hesitated before disagreeing. When Kain uses a seal to make the purse return to its owner, Rinne takes Renge to escape through the portal. Rinne is willing to help her out under the circumstances but for a price.

Kain talks to Sakura that he heard about rumours that due to unfortunate incidents, Renge missed the entrance exam and never made it to the prestigious shinigami school. Unlike everyone else, he refused to believe it and was scared to find out. He still believes in Renge because she is poor like him but she is studious and gets good grades. It’s as though he is living his dreams through her. Sakura thinks Kain might also like Renge. Kain’s search dogs detect the purse as they continue the pursuit. Kain spots Renge and Rinne ahead but the search dogs surge past forward them. Rinne is actually using a doll decoy to make it look like another party is stealing the purse. All the traps and contraptions just within the 700 Yen budget. Of course the doll soon leaks (it was on cheap sale by the way) but Rinne makes it sound like the culprit got away. Shortly, Sabato appears and swipes the purse. Might as well blame him as the culprit. Although he escapes, the purse is empty. Remember, Rinne used them all up. Sakura advises Renge to give up being a Damashigami but she won’t seeing how she spent her entire fortune on this. When Sakura tells her what Kain said about her, she starts flustering. Although Kain is relieved that Renge is not a Damashigami, if she ever turns into one, he will not hesitate to throw her into prison! He adds Renge has not changed. She is still pure, true and beautiful. This gives Renge a reason to quit being a Damashigami. When she asks him out for tea, he rejects her. He has no free time or money so she shouldn’t waste her time hanging around him and should study hard to become a great shinigami government. A dream that he could never achieve. So this was his actual dream? Are you disappointed? I think so because Renge really thanks Rinne for once. It might look like she might take some time to recover from this heartbreak but the next day, she is back to normal in hunting down souls to recoup her 700 Yen.

Episode 23
Tamako sees a job to exorcise a black fox spirit that pays a good 50,000 Yen bounty. As she goes to pick up her special scythe, she sees Sabato stealing it. Luckily there is a security barrier that zaps him. However the scythe falls into Sakura’s hands and registers her as its owner. Apparently the security barrier prevents males from touching. If Sakura wants to unregister herself she has to purify 7 souls. So Sakura has to do a shinigami’s job? Rinne and Rokumon are suspicious of Tamako leaving them to train Sakura because they guess right she is going after the bounty while they are training. Tamako explains that scythe is Oihagizuki. It is able to purify any spirits possessing something without the use of accessories. You know how much this will save Rinne, right? Therefore it becomes a race to see who can catch the fox first. Rinne is eager to begin Sakura’s training and I believe there is another motive why he is happy to be with her… When Sakura is trying to purify a vengeful spirit and cannot handle it, Rinne is forced to give up chasing the fox to save her. He might be thinking quality time with Sakura is way better than having the money but then he starts imagining the amount of food he can buy with that amount… Renge is also after the fox so when Rinne clashes with her, the fox owns them. They drop their scythes and Sabato steals them. He tries to run but gets possessed by the fox. Only Sakura can save the day. Renge tries to use Oihagizuki since she is female but since she is not the owner, it becomes limp. Renge then tries to smoke the fox out and the scythe accidentally drops on Sakura’s food. Rinne is devastated over the wasted food that Sakura prepared for him for the training. Even more so when the fox starts devouring it because it is its favourite food. This allows Sakura to purify the fox and also complete her quota as Oihagizuki deregisters her. However Tamako returns with bad news that Sakura cannot claim the bounty because humans can only help purify spirits on special months. So the bounty is annulled? But Sakura is more than happy to give back Oihagizuki to Tamako. Next time, Tamako and Rinne bug Sakura to go spirit hunting with them and make money in the upcoming month but she refuses. Once is more than enough.

Episode 24
You bet Ageha is going to buy a choker believed to make her be destined with her loved one forever. When she tries to put it on Rinne, Matsugo returns and tries to take it to pawn it. He believes Rinne is not appreciative of this choker which is also some sort of stalker surveillance. Matsugo and Ageha fight each other over Rinne. Wait a minute. Is Matsugo being gay for Rinne? No matter how he puts it that he wants to repair his friendship with Rinne, we can all think this leads back to being gay. Oh, he has no other friends too. After Matsugo disposes Ageha and the choker, he gives Rinne his present. Turns out to be the same type of choker. Rinne gives it to a dog leaving Matsugo to stalk the dog. Next day Matsugo returns to give another gift of a picture of them in a bowl. Rinne is not impressed because he already got many other gifts in this similar fashion. To deepen their friendship, Matsugo invites Rinne to come to a shinigami mixer. At first he didn’t want to go but Sakura would like to come too and help end Matsugo’s unhealthy fixation on him. Besides, she is okay to pretend to be his girlfriend. Don’t want to miss this chance, right? At the orientation, Rinne tries to introduce Sakura as his girlfriend to Matsugo even if it is a lie but Matsugo won’t hear any of it. Also, there is Matsugo’s classmate, Anju who seems to be mocking Matsugo’s failed friendship. From a distance. You can guess Anju likes Matsugo although she doesn’t admit it. Because when she badmouths Rinne a few times, it is clear she wants Matsugo to end his obsession on Rinne. There are a few free charms along the way but with limited stock. Rinne hurriedly takes Sakura to get them. This has Matsugo racing to help his friend out so he could show he is the better one. This means setting up traps to separate them with his black cat familiar Kuromitsu. In turn, Anju also uses this chance to admonish Sakura for not doing enough for her boyfriend. With the girls eavesdropping, Matsugo asks Rinne why he likes Sakura (so he could find out what she is good at and be better than her). Because Sakura is kind like an angel. Aww, don’t make her blush. Because Sakura feeds him and lends him money. Oh… When it rains, they take shelter. Sakura is clearly upset when she tells Rinne to go get the free charms with Matsugo. She’s not angry, she says. Yeah, right. Rinne knows he said something bad. His luck runs out when the charm is also out of stock.

Episode 25
Sakura follows Anju who is trying to trace Matsugo. Using his hair for a gadget to pinpoint his position, it only leads them to his black cat familiar, Kuromitsu. Nearby, they see a pool containing examinees with regrets and they are turning vengeful. Meanwhile Matsugo tries to throw a lavish party with great food and facilities in hopes of cheering up Rinne. But Rinne is more concerned about Sakura misinterpreting his intentions that he prefers Matsugo because he is rich. Anju tries to purify the spirits but they put up a great fight. Rinne sees the commotion and it seems his charm is the only way to solve this. Obviously, we can see how reluctant he is to let it go but eventually has to. Despite so, this only makes Sakura more disappointed in him. When a portal opens up supposedly leading to the next shrine, Rinne quickly takes Sakura through, leaving the rest behind. Anju tries to drill it into Matsugo’s head that he has been dumped but he isn’t listening… Rinne thought he could talk to Sakura alone but she is clearly in no mood and tells him to get the charm or he’ll miss it. He is further devastated when he hears her say she knew he got close to her for her food and money. Sure, it is partly true but it isn’t either. When Sakura turns around, Rinne is gone. She was just testing him and thinks he chose the charm over her. She feels a nasty feeling in her heart. In fact, Rinne has fallen through a portal. It has him pop up near the shrine. Because other shinigamis are also racing to get the last charm, nobody could get it because random portals get in their way. Rinne sees Sakura’s backpack containing her homemade lunch. He realizes she too has fallen into the portal and must find her quickly because normal humans cannot get out on their own. Sakura bumps into Matsugo who seems very happy that their relationship is failing. Even when she says they aren’t even in a relationship, this makes him happier. Rinne finally finds Sakura but she ignores him, believing he doesn’t think of her as much as she thinks of him. He tells her he wants to eat lunch with her. It makes her happy as she has the same thoughts too. They couldn’t care less about the charm (Anju got it by the way) and ignore everything else around them as they happily enjoy lunch together.

Still A Poor Soul
If this season doesn’t feel any much refreshing or without any closure and that it feels more or less like last season, take heart and know that there is going to be a third season! Hmm… So I am guessing from my previous blog that this series is slowly trying to build itself up to greatness to go over 100 episodes like other works under Rumiko Takahashi that was adapted. Instead of airing a series straight, it is more feasible to have breaks in between especially animes that are going to be long running and have many episodes. At least in this way it tries to counter the boredom and staleness if it was aired consecutively. Of course there is the downfall that the hype may not be there because as far into 2 seasons into this series, I can see that everything seems more or less the same thing.

Because there is no real story plot to follow like Inu Yasha, Kyoukai No Rinne is more episodic with lots of random antics like how Ranma 1/2 is. This season follows this exact same pattern with nothing greatly developing or progressed. They might introduced a few new characters but you can see the overall progress between the romance of the protagonist (which is partly the main draw and attraction for viewers of the series) continues to be stagnant. So if you are hoping for some sort of great turn in events or a terrifying twist in the plot, you will be sorely disappointed.

Let me start off with the new characters making their debut this season first. It is nice to see fresh new faces like the fallen shinigami Renge whose predicament is as similar to Rinne, the friendship obsessed Matsugo, the blacksmith bunny twins who are always trying to push hard to promote their samples for any sort business (thus inadvertently scamming Rinne) and a host of black cats such as the very dumb and carefree Suzu, the arrogant Oboro, the kid hating working-from-nine-to-five Kurosu and Tamako’s long lost black cat Kuroboshi. Despite bringing in something a little new, I can’t help feel that overall it doesn’t really bring any great changes to the series. They are just like one more character to remember. Of course I am not pointing that out in a negative light. Having said the nature of this series, how do you expect them to contribute greatly to the overall plot and story?

With the second season having the same number of episodes as the first, with these new characters joining in, this means some of the older ones would have to share or sacrifice their screen time with them. Take for instance, Tsubasa. It feels like he appears lesser and plays a less prominent role even for a main supporting character. Because there are no stories that really involved him directly, there is no reason why he was to be featured prominently other than becoming the third wheel or as the comical character. Same goes to Sabato and his Damashigami Company. Last season was because Sabato is revealed to be Rinne’s father and they have all sorts of misadventures and exploits as one of the stories. Once that was somewhat done, Sabato now in this season feels even more reduced to a petty thief. Well, he actually still is. Even pettier since he doesn’t make any more appearance than as last season.

Other than that, the other characters predominantly stay the same. Very much the same. Like Rinne and Rokumon will forever eternally be in poverty, Sakura continues to help out and make some deadpan sarcasm with that deadpan face of hers, Tamako still hates being called a granny or else be ready for a noogie, Ageha continues being another dumb idiot trying to get Rinne to fall for her, Kain still despises Rinne, Masato still trying to get back at Rinne with his pettiness and Sakura’s friends still have this habit of talking about ghost/spirit rumours and when it pops up before them, they run like hell! Oh yeah. All too familiar. So it is either you will love them because they tread in familiar ground or you will be bored because they’re still the same people we know back from the first season. But at least it is good to know that no matter what kind of character they are, all of them have their silly side that makes them funny and lovable. Some just more idiotic than normal.

So going on to my next point is the love polygon. New characters do amplify the love chart but as far as we can see up till this season, it is still simple enough for anybody to follow. I mean, have you ever seen or try to map out the love chart for the characters in Ranma 1/2? Yeah. Complicating and messy as hell. So be thankful that as for now the relationships and love interests between the characters are still relatively simple since the character pool is still relatively small. For those hoping to see something moving between Rinne and Sakura would also be disappointed. Basically nothing much changes. Nothing much progresses. They’re still like that. Believe me, if they are going to drag this series out to over 100 episodes and possible reaching 200, it is going to be frustrating for us hopefuls who would love to see them come together as a couple. Because for those who watched Ranma 1/2 would understand the pain of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for Ranma and Akane to just f*cking say those magic 3 words to each other but it never happened. At least not in the anime.

Sure, in the final couple of episodes they might have hinted something a bit more because it is like Sakura is seemingly enjoying being in the company of Rinne. There might be a few and obscure indicators throughout the season about hinting their feelings but none as this obvious. Of course the initial misunderstanding that strains their relationship for some added drama. But eventually they’ll go back to where it has always been. Then they put in lots of drama in the last episode to troll us if Sakura really likes Rinne but then it all goes back to square one. Seriously, Sakura’s face has always stayed the same from start till finish and even Anju like as though trying to break the fourth wall, points this out for us. You don’t know what she’s thinking so you can’t tell if she truly loves Rinne. But our guts says yes. Same case for Rinne if he is being nice to her just for food and money even though he says he isn’t but that is only if you consider he is thinking about his long term future. Again, our guts says it is true love. But don’t hope for any sort of confirmation whatsoever. So fans, keep your fingers crossed. But then again, don’t really have high hopes. Otherwise it will inhibit your enjoyment of the series. Ah well Rinne, looks like money can’t buy you love after all.

Sometimes I think up of the silliest and drastic thing Rinne should do to escape his poverty. You know, become like that Kaiji guy and take ultimate risks to gamble! Holy cow! After all, what has he got to lose, right? Well… I guess it is a lot. Imagine this series turning from a light hearted romantic comedy with some supernatural action into a dark psychological thriller. That would be just sick. But if it is the risk for him to break out of the poverty cycle, then why not? Hmm… I guess there are some things that aren’t worth the risk. So carry on what you always do, Rinne. So I understand a bit why Sakura was upset when she misinterpreted Rinne stuck by her because of money and free food. She did it out of the goodness of her heart and you compare her to being your banker and mother? Poor choice of words even if that is reality.

My other sentiments for this season is mostly the same of what I had for the previous so putting it down here again might be repeating what I said. Yeah, I’m that lazy. Okay, okay. I’ll just give an example. Like how Rinne and Rokumon buy or show shinigami tools they bought and as usual the narrator will inform us its use and how much it costs. But sometimes it gets a bit annoying because there are some things repeated so often that it becomes irritating. Like how the constant reminder why people cannot see Rinne because he is wearing the robe and why other shinigami characters cannot be seen or heard by ordinary folks. We get it already. For those who don’t even get this basic fact at this point of this series shouldn’t continue watching it.

Well, at least there is one slight improvement. Last season I mentioned how boring the mid-intermission illustrations were because they were all basically the same picture. This time around, they put a variety of other characters and poses so it is not all that bad. Although the end card is still the same picture in all episodes. Also, a handful of trivia to spot if your eyes are quick and sharp enough to spot characters from Rumiko Takahashi’s other works like Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura.

This season’s opening and ending themes didn’t really attract me. They still can’t beat the first season’s Ouka Ranman by a mile but at least they are not as bad as Toki No Wa. Yeah, that one was personally atrocious. The first opening theme is rock based, Melody by Pile and the second opening theme is Ainii by CreepHyp. I thought the latter, the singer’s voice sounds a bit drowsy. You know, he might have been drinking too much last night and he is struggling to hit the high notes in some of the verses. Also to note, the second opening credits animation feels a bit weird because of the kaleidoscope effect. The first ending theme is Hanashi Wo Shiyou by Glim Spanky. It is quite a nice and lovely ballad with nice guitar strumming. The second ending theme is Beautiful Life by Shiggy Jr and sounds more like a dance song with all its techno effects.

Normally I would want to skip doing a list for the seiyuus this season. But since I have to ultimately note that Mamiko Noto made a cameo appearance as Onee-san, I guess I am obliged to do the rest. With old ones retained, new recognizable ones are Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Oboro, Rie Kugimiya as Anju, Shizuka Itou as Raito, Ayako Kawasumi as Natsumi, Ami Koshimizu as Ranko, Kana Hanazawa as Chibi and Akira Ishida as Kurosu. Wow. That’s pretty a lot. For those I didn’t (sorry), they are Shizuka Ishigami as Renge (Mito in Shokugeki No Shouma), Suzuko Mimori as Suzu (Kanae in Teekyuu), Taishi Murata as Matsugo (Ibusaki in Shokugeki No Shouma), Katsuyuki Konishi as Refuto (Oga in Beelzebub), Yumi Uchiyama as Kuromitsu (Ruri in Nisekoi) and Yuko Sanpei as Shouma (Seita in Gintama).

Overall, the second season is still enjoyable especially if you very much like the comical and story style of Rumiko Takahashi. Of course it still doesn’t resolve anything so those wanting to find some sort or closure or get hyped for some sort of development would find this season to be the same boring formula as the first. Because if Rinne breaks out of his poverty and has enough money to live a comfortable life with no enemies coming after his ass, he wouldn’t be going this far in doing all this. Or would he still? Yes, Rinne. Even with your great shinigami thriftiness, you still can’t get the girl of your heart. Indeed, money can’t buy you love. But remember, without money nobody loves you! It sucks being poor…

 

Kyoukai No Rinne

From time to time when I’m feeling a little nostalgic about anime, usually I would go back in time and think of all the animes that I could remember that I have watched. And without a doubt that I have the anime series Ranma 1/2 to thank for as it is the very anime that got me hooked into Japanese animation and turned into a self proclaimed otaku. Ah, those were the days. So when I heard that there was going to be another anime adaption from the author of Ranma 1/2, I didn’t hesitate to put it on my watch list. No, it is not a remake of Ranma 1/2, but another work of hers, Kyoukai No Rinne. I have not read any of her manga works and so far the only anime adapted works that I have seen from her are Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha and Maison Ikkoku. But having watched the latter trio, I can safely assume that there is going to be some sort of pattern and trademark that is uniquely Rumiko Takahashi. Right? Supernatural. Polyamory romance. A bit of action. Comedic moments. Yeah. Sounds a lot like her work. Ah well. Time to dive into more nostalgia even though the setting is in the current modern era of Japan.

Episode 1
When Sakura Mamiya was young, she found herself at the border of this world and the next. Though, the ghost lady tells her to leave and forget about this place. Fast forward to the future, Sakura can still see ghosts but chooses to ignore some of the pesky ones. There is a seat in class next to Sakura by Rinne Rokudou who has been absent for a month. Today he makes his debut. However judging from the reaction of the teacher and classmates who still act like Rinne is absent, could this mean he is a ghost? She witnesses him summon a giant Chihuahua that eventually devours him. The next day, here he is again but surprised! Everybody can see and talk to him. When Sakura talks to her friends, Miho and Rika about some haunting ghost call, Rinne interjects and he knows a solution. He tells them to leave some food offering in some thermometer shelter. Although Sakura sees Rinne blatantly take the food and eat, her friends see it as the shelter opening and the food disappearing. They freak out and run away. Sakura grabs Rinne and wants an explanation. Seems this robe from the Underworld allows him to be invisible to human eyes but somehow Sakura is an exception. She is not amused he created some superstition to trick her friends but he asserts he did not and needed to support himself. After Rinne picks up a call from Miho (Rika dropped her handphone), subsequently another threatening call from a guy to meet behind the gym. As they wait, he never turned up so it is concluded he might have died. It is time for Rinne to do his job. Sakura wants to help but is told to go home. Although she could see spirits, she has never done any exorcism job before. Rinne’s job is to guide lost spirits for reincarnation. But since he needs some money to make a call from his ghost phone to trace the call, he lets her tag along.

They find a student cycling when a pot was dropped on his head. They bring him to the gym but he is amnesiac and without any clues it will be hard to find his lingering attachment and make him pass over. When their teacher, Suzuki passes a second-hand jersey to Rinne, he is so happy to keep it but the ghost reacts. Sakura asks Suzuki for a back story so he explains this jersey belonged to his friend who also shared the same name. They accidentally swapped jerseys and he wanted it back. That is why he called to meet. But he never turned up and he has been keeping it ever since. But Rinne doesn’t want to let go of the jersey! Sakura shows the ghost guy to Suzuki and he confirms it is his friend. Rinne reluctantly gives the jersey and passes over. Suzuki remembers getting a haunting call after the day he died so he changed his phone. That number eventually ended up in Rika’s phone. On the way back, Rinne catches that Chihuahua ghost. That pesky ghost is also here and it seems his lingering attachment is that he never got the chance to talk to girls but Sakura was the first one. Somehow he merged with the dog and Rinne could sense he is becoming an evil spirit. When ghost guy asks Sakura out, she rejects him. He turns malicious. Rinne takes Sakura and flies away to the border world. He explains his attachment to Sakura is what made him stay. He dragged her along so as to guide him back to reincarnation. He begs her for 500 Yen so he could buy some fire wheel to separate them and send them over. That is just what it did. So how do you convince the lonely guy to pass on? There are girls on the other side too. And he is on his way… Sakura has a familiar feeling she has been to this place before so Rinne apologizes for bringing her to this place as no living thing should be here. She asks him who he is. A shinigami. Sort of. Back in school, the thermometer shelter rumour spreads and Rinne takes full advantage of it…

Episode 2
Sakura hears all her classmates having the same threatening dream to leave offerings at the thermometer shelter or risk being cursed. Thinking this is the work of Rinne, she catches him in the blatant act of hauling all the offerings (he is invisible of course). However he denies ever doing such evil things because whenever there are offerings made, he still helps out with the wishes. Tamako pops out behind Rinne. Woah! This young lady is his grandma???!!! She hates being called that and loves being praised as young. Sakura has a strange feeling of seeing her somewhere before. Tamako admits she was helping Rinne out with the threatening dreams. Otherwise how could he have gotten so much offering? Since he is unappreciative, she confiscates it. He follows her back but Sakura accidentally tags along. His robe rips and she falls down into the woods. Luckily she manages to find her way out to the temple festival and after dodging a persistent granny trying to sell her some golf stick, a rabbit urges her to come along with her on a boat ride. Rinne enlists Tamako’s help to find Sakura and bad news she is at the lake that will lead her to reincarnation. Since Sakura is alive, this act is very much like killing herself. It took Sakura a while to realize that all around her are contented old folks. They even ask her if she is sure to move on and has got her affairs in order. She is so affected by their contentment, she believes she has no regrets. However the thought of not giving back Rinne’s ripped robe bugs her. This causes the platform below her to give way. Rinne saves her but the rabbit intercepts. While he fights and defeats the rabbit, Sakura remembers something familiar. When she was young and went to visit grandma, a rabbit lured her and she found herself at the temple festival. If not for Tamako, she could have been dead meat. That is when she remembers of coming to this place. As explained, that rabbit is a Damashigami (fake shinigami) and is trying to trick living humans into reincarnation to fill their spirit quota. Remembering who Tamako is, she asks her the reason why she is able to see ghosts ever since. Normally you can’t unless you eat something in this place. Oh wait. Tamako may have bought her some snacks when Sakura requested. So it’s her fault? Rinne leaves with Sakura back to the living world. He declines Tamako’s invitation to live with her. Sakura wonders why he can’t do that. It’s because she is a shinigami. So? Rinne isn’t one but a human. Sort of. Hey wait. What? I’m confused. Meanwhile, Riko and Miho see Sakura and think she is going out with Rinne.

Episode 3
Confused, Sakura asks about Rinne’s background. It all started 50 years ago when Tamako went to collect the soul of a handsome young man whose life was shortened by illness. Charmed by his sweet words, she fell in love with him. They married and due to some arrangements, his life extended for another 50 years before passing on. You can guess Rinne is their grandchild. As she asks for his parents, he is not willing to speak. Miho calls Sakura about the will-o-wisp she saw at the old clubhouse. She wonders if the spirit is mad due to its upcoming demolition. As she wants to ascertain it, she hopes Sakura could follow her. The next day they go there but a giant monster cat scares Sakura’s pals. Rinne shortly chases it away. This leaves Sakura wondering if the monster cat is a ghost since her friends can see it. Along the way, she sees an injured kitten and takes it home to treat it. She then sees it trying to steal some rice tuna she offered. As she chases it, she enters a portal that brings her to the clubhouse. The kitten turns into a little cat kid, Rokumon who claims he is doing this for Rinne. That will-o-wisp is just a candle. I suppose some explanation is in place. Because he is so poor, he needs a place to live rent-free after being evicted from his grandpa’s place. Rokumon as he came from orders from Tamako, wants him to sign a contract since shinigami and black cats work together but he won’t citing he cannot pay him. Rokumon tries all dirty tricks to make him sign including tempting him with freebies but Rinne just won’t.

After Rinne sends Sakura home, Rokumon continues explaining about Rinne’s predicament. After Tamako married grandpa, there were some conditions. One of them was to allow her to stay in the human only when her husband was alive and the other she must meet the spirit quota 10 times. She agreed and of course failed. This means Rinne has to bear the debt now. As he is not a full shinigami, he needs to consider buying to tools to help in his exorcism. That is why Rokumon wants to help him. He has a favour of Sakura and that is together a crowd at the clubroom. His plan is to scare them so they will offer lots of offering and thus end up with a high paying contract. Too bad Rinne sniffed out his plan as he found the real letter from Tamako. He was fired and was told there might be a job opening with Rinne. The clubhouse demolition is about to begin but ghost mice start running out in frenzy before turning into a giant rat. Looks like it doesn’t want his home destroyed. Rinne fights it and doesn’t want the freeloader to hog his home. Look who is talking. Rinne needs to borrow money from Sakura to buy shinigami tools but she forgot her purse. They can’t win at this rate. Suddenly Rokumon pounds and defeats the rat. All for free. The demolition is cancelled as they think it is a warning from the gods. Rokumon is about to pack his bags and leave but Rinne offers him to stay by his side. Though happy but poorly paid.

Episode 4
When Rinne goes to see any requests from the thermometer shelter, he sees a ghost guy pleading for help before being attacked. Rinne is also attacked by Tsubasa Juumonji thinking he is a ghost (as he is in the robe) but he manages to flee. Rinne picks up a dropped picture of young Sakura with several ghosts around her. Tsubasa turns out to be the new transfer student in Sakura’s class. First thing he goes up to Sakura and asks if she remembers him even though they were in the same elementary class for a short while. Of course she doesn’t. Heart breaking, isn’t it? Time for a short flashback. As Tsubasa could also see ghosts, it makes him awkward to make normal friends. As he was to give up, that is when he met Sakura and learnt she could also see ghosts. They become friends and he instantly likes her. However as he comes from a family of exorcists and his dad frequently has to move around the country, Tsubasa was forced to follow him around and left without saying goodbye. Now Tsubasa asks if she would like to go out with him! But here comes Rinne. Tsubasa is surprised he is not a ghost. Is the cat fight starting? Although Rinne claims he is not interested in such stuffs (and Sakura doesn’t belong to him, blah, blah, blah) but you can clearly see his annoyed reaction. Like as though he cares but is too tsundere for it. Tsubasa continues to be persistent in asking Sakura for an answer. But since it is not like she is dating Rinne, I guess she’s fine starting out as friends with him. Happy enough? Rinne is trying to help that ghost guy hook up with Miho since he likes her and died before he could have a chance to enrol in this school. Miho agrees to go out with him when Tsubasa interrupts. With Sakura trying to intervene too, Miho suggests a double date. Well… Tsubasa doesn’t know what he did but he is so happy he already is going on a date with Sakura. You gonna be okay, Rinne? So as not to be left out and for more excitement, I guess that is when Rika asks him if he would like to join in with her too.

At the amusement park, while Tsubasa pays for Sakura, since Rinne is willing to pay for ghost guy (seriously, he has no money), he is also forced to pay for Miho and Rika. Sakura sees through Rika’s plan to clean him out. This month is going to be really tough. Because of his poor state, Rinne aces at the crane game as a way to save money. Tsubasa tries to impress Sakura with it but sucks so Rinne takes over and gets the dolphin doll she wants. She is grateful and will forever cherish it. He is somewhat smitten with her sweet smile. While taking a break, Rika talks to Sakura if she plans to go out with Rinne. Although he was her date, she could see him staring at Sakura all the time. Well, now he is staring at his empty wallet… During the Ferris Wheel ride, the ghost guy is very happy with his date that he passes over. The girls are distracted by the fireworks so they didn’t see him disappear. But they start realizing he is a ghost at the end of it. Luckily they didn’t fear him since he was such a good ghost. Back home, Rokumon asks Rinne about his date but he denies it is that and all part of his exorcism job. Yeah, that was one hell of an expensive exorcism job. Rinne can’t get Sakura’s smile out of his mind. Starting to think she’s cute?

Episode 5
Rinne is happy to see a wanted ghost poster. This means he can earn some money. Meanwhile in Sakura’s class, there are child handprints all over the place but on Tsubasa’s table, it is even worse with writings of vengeance. When Tsubasa smokes the ghost out, it runs. Hey, doesn’t it look like the wanted ghost? Rinne sees it and captures it. Back in his room, his joy is short-lived when the ghost turns into the world famous elementary school toilet ghost girl. Unfortunately Rinne has no idea who Hanako is! She relates her aggravation that Tsubasa exorcised her out of her favourite toilet and she was left wandering in the sky (that is why people heard less about her these days). She is back to get her revenge and won’t pass on till she does so. Well, the rematch with Tsubasa… She wraps him up with toilet paper and flushes him down with toilet water. Literally, isn’t that playing dirty? But she’s not done yet. She wants more revenge. She has that wanted ghost, Toichi to help with her vengeance. Rinne talks to Tamako to find out more about Toichi. It is made up of many evil spirits and it is giving Hanako its power. As Hanako initially didn’t possess the power to harm others, she must have taken out a ‘loan’ with Toichi’s power to do so. This means if she fails to repay it, then it might take payment another way.

Now Hanako is ‘vandalizing’ the toilets with her trademark. Sakura feels sorry for her after hearing her story but Rinne notes they have to act fast for Hanako’s sake. Tsubasa has returned with a special bazooka with more power to exorcist Hanako. She runs and wants Toichi to grant more power. Before she could take it all, Rinne saves her and reminds her about the fine print. In exchange for all the power she gets, the price to pay is ultimately herself. Toichi preys on weak spirits and will soon absorb her and make itself bigger. Tsubasa thought he could do the honours by finishing Toichi but his bazooka only made it split into several smaller parts. Rokumon returns with Rinne’s scythe. He once had it but had to pawn it off to cover his living expenses. He took a loan for it. The scythe purifies some of Toichi. Who’s next? Toichi decides to target Hanako as a ghost like her is a great power source. Tsubasa realizes it was his fault that made Hanako’s grudge. After apologizing to her, he takes out his Bible and starts whacking Toichi! Now I know another use for the trusty heavy book. Rinne then purifies the rest. Hanako wonders why Tsubasa saved her. Had he allowed Hanako to be absorbed, his conscience would never let him rest since it was his fault that she lost her home. Hanako forgives him and with no more regrets, she is ready to pass on. Rinne thought his poor life is over after collecting the reward. However it was immediately seized to cover some of his debts. Back to square one. Tsubasa wonders if Sakura likes Rinne because she can smile to him like that. Or maybe she is just pitying him.

Episode 6
When Miho helped a lady, she warned her about a shrine by the street that has voices. Curiosity got the better of her as she brings her friends there. They really hear voices. But the voice of several kids. Sakura even sees ghost of hands of the kids stretching out! She goes to report this to Rinne but he is in the middle of attending a client. This guy feels something is wrong with his little brother, Hiroshi. When they visit the family home, they can tell this is not the real Hiroshi. This monster cat is impersonating as him and wreaking havoc in the home. Rinne is going to exorcise him but his scythe breaks! As Tsubasa goes after it, the rest learn that Hiroshi’s friends have gone missing except for Taichi who is still safe. Sakura senses something amiss and brings Rokumon to the shrine. They confirm those voices are Hiroshi and his friends trapped in here. Even Taichi is here. Eh? When Tsubasa follows Hiroshi to Taichi’s place, it seems Taichi is also being impersonated by the monster cat as they paralyze him. Hiroshi explains who it all happened. When the friends walk home one night, they stumbled upon this lady who told them about a monster cat sealed inside this shrine. Curious, they accidentally break it open but found nothing. On the way home, the monster cats attack Hiroshi and Taichi for breaking their home and subsequently capture the rest and place them inside the shrine. Rinne comes to Tsubasa’s rescue but since his scythe is broken, he has to use his fire wheel. Since the monster cats love moving things, they chase after it.

Rokumon thought he could scare them but he got bullied. Thanks to his encyclopaedia, Sakura informs Rinne the method of sealing the monster cats to free the kids. They have to put stuffs they like as bait to lure them back inside the shrine and seal them. So what are cats’ favourite stuffs? Fatty tuna! Rinne shoots down that idea because fatty tuna is freaking expensive! Is there any other cheaper way? Rinne uses his broken scythe as a cat toy to lure them back into the shrine but the lady won’t allow it and knocks a kettle on his head. Although the kids are freed, Rinne and the monster cats are trapped inside it. The lady is actually a Damashigami. Tsubasa reluctantly frees Rinne (because Sakura is pleading) and calls it even. He takes over the exorcism. First, he orders a jumbo plate of tuna sushi the monster cats can’t resist. Then he fires a special flavoured holy ash filled with catnip to make them drowsy before exorcising them. The kids regret what they do and will reflect their actions after being lectured by Rinne. Hiroshi gives a thousand yen as thanks and suddenly that guy starts prostrating as thanks. Suddenly no class… With this money he is able to fix his scythe. Meanwhile the Damashigami reports back to her boss about her failure thanks to a certain shinigami. As he asks her to describe that person, she says he has the same red hair as him.

Episode 7
When Sakura hears her friends talking about some biker dude crashing into a pole in an accident, she sees his spirit stuck there. Then there is this bat guy (sorry, not Batman) writing a curse on his forehead (he spelt wrongly) before taking him away. In school, Sakura sees Rinne dumbfounded with a request. She notices the note has lots of spelling errors. Then they go meet their clients, Suzu Minami and Tomoya Tadano who also have the similar letter. Sakura takes a look at it and recognizes the same handwriting and spelling errors. Suddenly the biker spirit tries to strangle Suzu but thanks to Suzu’s wrestling moves, the spirit runs away. She explains the biker guy is her boyfriend, Reiji. He was on his way to pick her up when he got into an accident. Rinne realizes he is not dead yet. They see him in coma at the hospital. They must quickly retrieve his spirit and bring it back to his body to wake him up. When Reiji comes back, Suzu and Tomoya can see him. Seems Reiji is jealous thinking Suzu is dating Tomoya after he crashed. Of course this is just a great misunderstanding. Rinne is going to use his underworld vacuum to suck him back into his body but intercepted by that bat boy, Masato who is a demon. He knows Rinne and has a deep grudge. 6 years ago when Masato was out to collect souls as his school project, he tried to reap the soul of a dying rabbit but was intercepted by Rinne who told him the rabbit isn’t really dead yet. He even nursed the rabbit back to health. Each time Masato tries to reap a dying soul, there Rinne is to foil his plan. And so he failed his assignment and that is when he vowed to get his revenge. Yeah, so petty and narrow minded. I guess that is why his name is so. Oh, he even spelt his name wrongly! Masato takes Reiji’s spirit back to hell and is going to let Rinne pay back all the humiliation with interests.

With Masato twisting Reiji’s mind, they have to bring his spirit back fast or he’ll turn into an evil spirit. Sakura suggests talking about good memories to hasten his will to want to come back. Let’s see, all the good memories are those of her doing wrestling moves on him. Those are their happy memories? Or is it hers? It’s amazing he is still with her. Rokumon is not pleased that Rinne is going to work on this case free since Reiji is a casualty of their spat. However Masato left a cash card and Rokumon thought of cleaning it out since an easy pin number is written on it. Could it be a trap or is he just stupid? Although Reiji’s ghostly haunting on Suzu is weak, Tomoya gets motorcycle tracks run over him! This causes Suzu to be upset over his stupidity. She hates him and won’t visit him anymore. Reiji feels heartbroken and this is all part of Masato’s plan to break their bonds. He also mentions the cash card trap but it is lame and non-life threatening. Just a Jack-in-a-box trick? Sakura tries to convince Reiji to get back on track but as long as the curse is on him, he will still be under Masato’s influence. It gets even worst when Masato throws him a Photoshop picture of Suzu and Tomoya kissing. Rinne returns and uses cleansing sheets to remove the curse. Although Reiji regains his normal personality, what he has done cannot be taken back. He believes Suzu must hate him. Resigned to his fate, he tells Sakura if Suzu ever finds it, throw it out. Masato traps him in his bottle and brings him to hell. Rinne follows closely behind. Sakura tries to find out what Reiji meant but Suzu is unsure of what it is. Because on the day he crashed, it was her birthday. He must be trying to give her something and Sakura believes he lost it at the crash spot. It must be very important to him since he became a living spirit to look for it.

Episode 8
How can Rinne enter hell without a pass card? He needs to pay if he wants to enter. He just breaks through! The guard is going to arrest him for illegal entry but Rinne uses a conveniently placed banana to slip through. That banana was placed by Masato to see how far Rinne will go to save Reiji. Sakura and Rokumon scout the area for Reiji’s lost thing. They find a little present and give it to Suzu. Inside is a pair of rings she always wanted. That guilty feeling now. Rinne continues to chase Masato wondering why he is interested in Reiji’s spirit. After breaking a few more stuffs, Masato reveals his plan to make Rinne rake up debt in hell and be put in the lowest level of hell. Because the eternal manual labour is never paid, the debt can never be fully paid. That is where Rinne will forever perish. Reiji’s spirit is just bait to lure him here. Masato throws it deep down into the depths but Rinne dives down to save it. Rokumon brings Sakura to hell and explains about the many hell sections as well as the sophisticated technology it currently adopts. They see all the destruction Rinne left behind and this is not a good sign. Sakura clearly has not enough to pay all this. Don’t worry. Rokumon kept all the cash cards Masato threw at him then. One of them is real because it written on it. Is it a trap? Or is he that stupid? The ATM is gushing out with cash!!! Rinne grabs the bottle but it is fake. Masato shows him the shopping arcade in hell. There is also the branch of the repair shop where he sent his scythe. Because Rinne has no money, he cannot claim it so Masato buys it on his behalf and tries to kill him with his own scythe. Rinne thought he could work part time fast to earn fast cash but since he is dealing with a typical government, he isn’t going to get paid soon.

Sakura and Rokumon fly down to throw him all the money from Masato’s savings. But Masato isn’t alarmed. This is yet another trap because that account is filled with fake money and the moment they use it in a shop, they’ll be jailed. However Rinne uses the bills as part of his tornado technique to slam Masato down. The guards want to know who forge the bills and this is severely punishable. Surprisingly, Rinne stops Rokumon from revealing the culprit and instead says he doesn’t know. Although he admits he did damage some property, he claims his ‘friend’ here will pay for him. Why would he go so far as to defend Masato because had he revealed the perpetrator he could be exempted from paying the admission and all the repair fees. Instantly Masato would gladly pay for Rinne’s part. After retrieving Reiji and making their way out, that guy is still gloomy. Sakura tells him to look at his left hand. He sees the ring and remembers. Soon, he wakes up in hospital and Suzu and Tomoya couldn’t be happier (the latter because he wants him to pay back the money he lent for the rings!). With the case solved, Rinne is impressed with Sakura and says she could be a first rate shinigami with training. Not interested but instead she reminds him the money he owes her. He quickly changes the subject back to shinigami training…

Episode 9
It is the cultural festival at Sakura’s school. While taking out the trash, a blonde wig flies out and back to the drama club where it continues to fly around and annoy the members. As the gang finds out, the drama club found some old props in the storage and wanted to get rid of it and that’s when this wig started harassing them. No matter how they get rid of it, it comes back. Rinne deduces this wig is some sort of tsukumogami, an object old enough that a spirit inhabits it. Talking to it, they find out it was cut out from some play and the only way it is ever going to find peace is to be reinstated in that play. However the drama club has been playing so many plays, it is like a middle in a haystack. The wig doesn’t remember its role except that one of the props was glass slippers. Isn’t that Cinderella? However no girls would want to wear this creepy wig. Then it hints to Sakura. She has no qualms wearing it but warns she can’t act. As they rehearse, when certain lines take place, it isn’t happy and starts kicking. When they go through the script, they find a line cut out. Seems like the Cinderella play didn’t want a horse then and cut it out from production. So this wig is actually a horse’s tail? Case solved. When Rinne returns to his home, he sees a ghost pumpkin seeking his help. Back in the maid café classroom, Sakura’s friends point out to her that their friend Mari is talking to herself. But Sakura sees her talking to a handsome guy. Could it be a ghost? Tsubasa senses and evil spirit and smokes the entire place. Although the spirit is gone, it left a note for Mari to meet at the rooftop. He is trying to lure her to jump but luckily Rinne smashes the pumpkin into her face. Rinne is not pleased this Damashigami is using a dirty trick to lure those to their untimely deaths.

When Mari comes to, she has no memories of trying to jump off. She says that guy is Kimura, a senior from her middle school whom every girl admires. She tried to confess but he already graduated by then. That’s why she felt so happy when he came to see her today. Rinne breaks the bad news that Kimura died a year ago. This pumpkin is him. Apparently some pumpkin guy approached him and switched his face before he went to heaven. Now he is running rampage as all those admirer girls are swooning over him. He tricks them to vanish into his castle by luring them with their love letters. Mari cannot resist and also follows the fan girls. Rinne believes he will come back because he has laid out a trap. What trap? Next thing we know, Rinne dresses up as a maid! True enough that greedy fake comes back. I wonder how Rinne wrote that love letter amidst the chaos so fast. The fake mistakes Sakura as the admirer and takes her away. Rinne struggles with him and they get transported to his castle. Inside the room, they see all the fan girls being smitten by Kimura clones. It is the Damashigami’s plan to gather all the victims and send them to the afterlife all at once. Rinne uses some magic wand to turn the clones into dolls and switch Kimura’s face back. But now all the girls are fixated with the real Kimura. While Rinne fights pumpkin dude, the latter is disappointed to find out Rinne is a guy. He really believed he was a girl?! But there is a problem. Because the girls are willing to die to be with Kimura, they can’t leave this place till their obsession with Kimura is overcome. This is when Kimura reveals that he likes older woman! MILF lover! Oh, the heartbreak… The disappointment! So disappointing that pumpkin dude just ‘died’ and that is how everyone is freed and returned to their world. In the aftermath of the festival, Rinne wins the drag queen contest and receives supplies of instant noodles. Not bad, eh? All thanks to the maid outfit! All hail the maid outfit!

Episode 10
Rokumon tells Rinne they can earn some money if they catch Damashigamis. However Rokumon has flu and it spreads to Rinne. A doctor and nurse come to check on Rinne as sent by a relative. However it is soon discovered that they are Damashigamis in disguise targeting him. Rinne easily defeats them but before they could talk, something shut them up. After Rokumon goes to get the reward, he tries to cash it out but finds the account not only zero balance but negative balance! Then pops up Rinne’s twin brother, Sabato. Wait a minute. You mean this young looking dude is his FATHER???!!! It seems Sabato is the one responsible for the ‘vanishing money’. Because Rinne is the guarantor, whatever loan Sabato fails to pay will fall back on the guarantor. So Rinne is working to pay back this loan and not Tamako’s? Sabato claims he perpetrated the Damashigami attack for his sake. Outside, Sabato’s underlings are trying to reap the souls of all the guys in the school but were quickly stopped in their tracks. Sabato wants Rinne to return with him and become a Damashigami. He is sure his son will come. His mother wished for it too. For the record, Sabato is the boss of his own company, Damashigami Company LLC. Now that Sakura and Tsubasa heard this, I guess there is no point in hiding this embarrassing story. Rinne thought he could go back and rest but Sabato took his tatami! Why that evil father! And so Rinne chases after him (see, what did Sabato said about him coming to him) but it is just bait as he gets absorbed into the tatami. Flashback shows 10 years ago when Rinne was still living with his grandparents, Tamako had just successfully cleared her loan. Sometimes Sabato would come home to steal Rinne’s piggy bank, cooking up lies he is saving to go see his mom. Gee, Rinne clearly remembered he told him she died.

Sabato takes Rinne to a hall where a bevy of beauties are excitedly waiting for them. What is this? They are all part of a competition to see who gets to become Rinne’s mom? And it feels like an audition because there are going to be several rounds… Interestingly, they are all Sabato’s girlfriend and they love him not because of some spell. Well, he does provide them luxurious items. So that’s where the money went. That’s where the debt came from. So I suppose this guy loves them all so much that he can’t choose which and decided to hold this tournament, eh? Son is not amused. But Sabato captures his friends and threatens if he doesn’t get engaged and take over his company (which is of course filled with debts), he will send his friends for reincarnation. Too bad Rinne didn’t stay long to hear him rant as he is already starting to look for them. Although Sakura and Tsubasa are separated, they easily escape their cage since it’s unlock. Sabato isn’t fazed because getting out of it means food for the Damashigamis. But he didn’t count of them being such weak asses. Rinne has a hard time trying to fend off all the girls trying to get a hold of him. Tsubasa is displeased that he is frolicking around with other girls (does he look like it?) but still saves his ass. He wonders what Sakura sees in him. A shady fortune teller wants to sell him a charm that will increase his love chance. Tsubasa knows it is a scam but eventually succumbs to it. Sakura is about to get owned by a couple of Damashigamis but Tsubasa saves her. This has him to believe the special love charm he bought for 5,000 Yen worked. Yeah, he just got ripped off. They arrive in the banquet hall where the ceremony is to take place. It seems this isn’t only the induction of the new president but an engagement announcement too.

Episode 11
Sabato thinks he can fool everyone with a puppet of Rinne saying he agrees to get married. But here comes the real Rinne to dismiss all that. Why would he not want to marry a pretty girl? Unless… There is someone he likes! Is it a human girl? With Rinne trying to change the subject, everybody knows he is a big failure in trying to hide this. Rinne is here to take down his company and not inherit it. I’m sure all those memories of how daddy swiped his money with lame excuses that he’ll hold on to it or get better stuffs for him is making his blood boil. Thus Sabato accepts his challenge but of course if Rinne loses, he’ll have to inherit the company. Sabato has a trick up his sleeve. With his blood sucking fire wheel, anything it touches will turn the objects into money! I don’t know what the idea is when Tsubasa buys all the cutlery for Rinne to throw as it only turns it all into money and Sabato could be laughing all the way to the bank. Even if everything he converts is company’s property. A mysterious seal returns Rokumon to Sakura as well as a map to Sabato’s office. When a supplier is here to collect payment, Rinne uses his tornado technique to direct all of Sabato’s earned cash to the supplier and paid off all the bills! Sabato is defeated but is confident Rinne can never escape from him for he has a forged seal in Rinne’s name and with that he can use it to access his account and use all his money. Speaking of that, Sakura and Rokumon are in Sabato’s office and find a safe. It’s a really easy to remember password (based on Sabato’s name). Inside contains all the stuffs that Sabato converted to cash with his fire wheel.

When the safe security alarm goes off, everyone rushes to there to stop Sakura but Tsubasa and Rokumon get in their way. Sabato won’t let Rinne got to Sakura’s aid and instead will take drastic measures. He is trying to force Rinne to put his thumbprint on his loan debt! Luckily Sakura returns with his scythe, earning the ire of the other girls who think she is trying to get ahead of them in Rinne’s hand in marriage. Sabato can’t use his fire wheel because the seal is juggling with it. Suddenly marriage registration forms scatter. Sabato shoots paint all over Rinne and uses banana peels to make him slip. Aha! Now he’s got his hand mark on the form. Sabato is about to declare Rinne’s bride when he realizes this is actually a loan form guised as a marriage registration form. It was his own doing. All the girls are upset that Sabato duped them. They want to settle this themselves when Sabato surprisingly admits defeat and wants Rinne to smack him in the face. The rest knows it is a trap because it is his scheme to get his handprint. Luckily Rinne punches him. The seal reveals to be Tamako who puts her foot down on Sabato’s farce. The other girls wonder who this old grandma is. Wrong word! Please respect the president’s mom! Hope they learn their lesson. Tamako then announces Rinne is dating Sakura! Rinne know this is a lie to get them out and end this situation but is Sakura okay with this? Well, she doesn’t seem bothered since it’s just a lie, right? Tsubasa must be damn relieved. Sabato wants to shake hands to make up. Why is he wearing gloves? He doesn’t learn, doesn’t he? Rinne and co return not only with a new tatami, but also his account book, forged seal and some cash to pay off the debts. Though, Tamako said he couldn’t get him out as the guarantor. Maybe Rinne is cured from his influenza illness. But I can make a good guess from another kind of ‘illness’ he is suffering since he continues to be bothered if Sakura was bothered by that turn of events.

Episode 12
When Ageha was young, she admired her sister who was a great shinigami. One day she left to defeat the Damashigami boss and never returned. Rika is happy she scored 100% in her test thanks to this pencil. Hmm… Doesn’t it look creepy? Rumours have it that the pencil is only sold by some shady salesman and those who use it and get 100% in their test will go missing subsequently. Rika brushes off the rumour and makes her way. To where? Rinne spots Rika and the rest of the other students with the pencil entering a portal. Rinne follows them in hopes of catching the Damashigami behind this. However he is attacked by Ageha who mistakes him for the Damashigami. When the shady salesman pops up, she realizes her mistake. They go after him to his shady warehouse. Rinne gets motivated to take down the warehouse because there’s bounty. In the end, all of them are rounded up and the victims are freed. Ageha is impressed with Rinne and the way he thinks especially he was thinking about the victims unlike her who was only obsessed in taking down the Damashigami. She tells him he can keep the bounty as there is a reason she is chasing down Damashigamis. Too bad he isn’t here to listen to her entire story. Sakura is relieved Rika has thrown away the creepy pencil but notices a camera staring at her. Rokumon and Rinne joke about Ageha willing to give them all the bounty and she might come back after changing her mind. You don’t say… Here she comes! Instantly Rinne hides the money and kicks her out! Don’t worry. She still doesn’t want your money.

She tells him about her family background. Her family was once an elite shinigami doing their responsibilities well. But over a year ago, her sister vanished. Then recently she got a postcard from her sister. Seems she is having the time of her life with her new boyfriend! Hey wait! Isn’t that Sabato?! OMG! Good thing or not, she cannot see the resemblance between father and son. Suddenly a Damashigami pops up to pass Rinne an invoice. It is for the emotional damages he suffered thanks to the flu he passed. He quickly tears up the invoice and will help Ageha in her quest. She is so happy that she holds his hands. Sakura walks in and sees this. Oops. Ageha runs away in embarrassment and I supposed when you’re in love, her memories start to get a little off. Her mind portrays Rinne as a cool guy. Rinne explains the misunderstanding to Sakura that Ageha isn’t her friend and just met her the first time today. They catch the camera spying on them before it self destructs. They figure somebody is spying on Sakura from the afterlife. But who? The culprit is no other than Sabato. His secretary is Ageha’s sister, Bijin. She wonders why Sabato is fixated on this. He believes Rinne is attached to the mortal realm is because of this human girl. He needs to do something about this. Sakura walks home and her mind is bothered by that holding hand incident. It’s really bugging her. Before she knows it, she is surrounded by lots of ghosts. Meanwhile Rinne is also bothered by Sakura sawing them hold hands. I guess his worrisome means his memories are off too because what the heck is that staring competition between Sakura and Ageha?! He senses a portal opening and that Sakura may have gone into it. Time to go after her. Ageha returns to Rinne’s place but he is not around. She sees the portal and also heads in.

Episode 13
The ghosts are bugging Sakura to help them rest in peace. She tries to ignore them and wandered into the portal. She senses something amiss when they tell her to deposit a large sum of money for them to pass on. Noticing a zipper, she unzips them to reveal their Damashigami identity. Now it has come to this, they’re going to take her to the afterlife. Luckily Rinne saves the day. Bijin pops up and is impressed with Sakura for she had watched her all day (revealing herself as the peeper). She gives Rinne an engagement ring to give to Sakura because if they’re married, they can inherit the company. She also gives them an invoice for the ring! However Sakura says she can’t accept it as they are only classmates. Still bothered about that hand holding incident? I wonder how Rinne is holding up after hearing this. Not good. Ageha pops up to fight Bijin. The latter’s mask cracks and Ageha is shocked to see her sister. It gets complicated when Sabato is here too. Bijin explains she fell in love with Sabato on her own will and not by some trap or something. She became her secretary to be close to him. Sabato takes the engagement ring and thinks of giving it to Bijin. I mean, they’re going pretty steady, right? After all, the ring is paid for by his son. More complication when Ageha realizes Rinne and Sabato are related. She is mad for being deceived. Sabato escapes so the rest give chase. Ageha wants to know where Damashigami Company is but Rinne isn’t sure. Weren’t they there the last time? They were brought there. And since Sabato changes the route every day, getting there is tough. Like how Ageha fell into a pit trap after following the fake signs.

She is trapped in a spider web but a fellow undercover shinigami saves her and needs her help. Just sign on this contract. She is about to when Rinne saves her from being conned by this Damashigami. She almost got herself swamped with debts. Rinne painfully watches how Ageha casually dishes out large sums of cash to Damashigamis outright swindling her. He can’t believe she is this sheltered and naïve. Not sure if she’s being tsundere because she still won’t thank him after countless savings. Meanwhile Sakura also has her fair share of Damashigamis trying to con her. Especially Rinne clones! They’re trying to give her their engagement ring! Of course she refuses them all. Then the real Rinne cuts them up and claims to have gotten their engagement ring back. However he slips before he could put it on her finger and Sakura unveils him to be yet another Damashigami. Rinne returns to help Ageha defeat a monster (because it had a million yen bounty on its head). He continues reminding her that he also hates Damashigami. That is when she starts hugging him because she felt so scared! And then Sakura sees this. Oh no. Not again… Rokumon collects the bounty and Sakura has never been this eager to leave for home. By the way, Ageha is still clinging onto him. Rinne cannot sleep that night thanks the incessant worrying of that misunderstanding. Ageha too can’t sleep but for a totally opposite reason. Sakura on the contrary is soundly sleeping. But she seems to be sleep talking how naggy everyone is.

Episode 14
Sakura spots a ghost girl at the pool. She cannot hear what she says but it seems she is trying hard to communicate. Instead of always relying on Rinne (I think it is still getting to her), since Tsubasa offers himself, she tells him about this. Almost every photo taken has this ghost girl in it and a weird signature. So I guess this is an excuse for Tsubasa to go to the pool with her. Like a date, huh? Meanwhile Rinne is hearing out a couple. A boyfriend is in some spaced out state ever since coming back from the pool. With some information from Ageha and to meet at the pool’s haunted house attraction, I guess he is going too. Tsubasa must be happy to be alive to see Sakura in her swimsuit. They see the ghost girl, Rina Mizuki and try to talk to her. Seems she is some sort of idol trying to make her debut. Tsubasa misinterprets her to be a bounded ghost and fires his holy ash. This only scares away the customers and upsets Rina as she flees. I guess this proves she isn’t a bounded ghost. Meanwhile Rinne thought Ageha is here to play since she is all dressed up. She explains the haunted house has ties with Damashigami who are targeting couples. The only way to find out is to enter as a couple. I can think of another good reason why she is doing this. Rinne has to accompany her since she is loaded with cash. Sakura spots them… Tsubasa and Sakura’s investigation also takes them to the haunted house. Tsubasa thinks he can protect Sakura but he forgot Sakura can see ghosts and isn’t afraid of them. Seems there are real ghosts in here too so they try to go after it. Tsubasa is so happy he got to hold Sakura’s hands that his spirit almost came out from his body! Luckily hiding Rinne threw his sandal to knock him out. Actually he isn’t so pleased to see them ‘dating’.

Ageha steals Rinne and in the well she is trying to seduce him! Is she getting desperate now? She has information that whenever a girl gets close to a guy, after he blushes, his soul will get fished out. It means whenever the guy gets dirty thoughts, his soul is pulled out. Using this reason to catch the Damashigami, she wants Rinne to do perverted stuffs to her! Unfortunately… That’s right. Sakura heard the commotion in the well and takes a peek. Oh… Sorry to interrupt. Rinne goes after her and tries to clear things up but she ignores him. Ageha feels upset for being abandoned and unleashes her graveyard maze. Great. Now everybody is lost. Rinne explains about the fishing spirits thing and several of those ghost guys confirm it. Ageha is trying to find Rinne and stumbles several Damashigamis trying to fish souls and knocks them out. Sakura wonders what happened to Rina. She is at the stage trying to get everyone’s attention. Obviously they can’t see her and she gets mad they’re trying to ignore her. In her rage, she causes a power outage. Just when our gang reunites, the power goes out. Tsubasa and Ageha mistakenly hug each other thinking the other is Sakura and Rinne respectively. Their soul gets fished out. Rinne and Sakura discover a lonely ghost guy is the one responsible for this. He explains his story of wanting to come here with a girl once but died before he could do that. That regret has him ended up here. He gets jealous seeing couples close together. The Damashigamis? He thought they were interested in fishing and joined him. Rina is about to go berserk so what did Rinne do to calm her down? Ask for her autograph! Yeah. All she wanted was just to get noticed. Lining up all the other (temporary) ghost guys to shake hands with her, she is filled with happiness but why isn’t she passing on? She has bigger ambitions of appearing in shows, making albums and her debut in Hollywood! When the lonely ghost guy talks to her for one last time since she will be out of his league once she becomes a mega star, she realizes she is his type and suddenly retires. Now she passes on. Happily ever after? Not for our friends. Sakura cannot get that well incident out of her mind, Rinne regrets not clearing up the misunderstanding with her and Tsubasa and Ageha continue to be deluded. Hmm… At least somebody is happy.

Episode 15
Ageha wonders if she is in love. You mean she wasn’t sure?! She thought it was some sort of misattribution of arousal. To test it out, she goes to hug Rinne again. Sakura is looking… For the umpteenth time… You can tell that Sakura is being a typical mad woman. She totally ignores Rinne! Even if he is right before his eyes. Ageha thought a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and gives him her bento. Along the way, Tsubasa mistakes her for a spirit and attacks. She almost gets the wrong idea Tsubasa is gay when he declares he is Rinne’s love rival! After learning Tsubasa likes Sakura whom he feels pities Rinne because of his poorness, they both decide to cooperate. Rinne is forced to take Ageha’s bento since he is poor but the need to clear up the misunderstanding with Sakura remains strong. The silent treatment continues… Rokumon brings Ageha’s lunch and everyone is amazed at the extravagance. Rinne explains it is just for thanks but the way she draws a heart shape there? It’s got to be more than that. Sakura notices an evil aura permeating from it. Ageha gets a call from her grandma about the bento she used. Although it grants any wish, it is done so via a sealed evil spirit in it. In exchange for the wish, the ones receiving the bento will have their soul consumed by the evil spirit. Better get there fast. The classmates are somehow teleported outside the class (there’s a barrier barring their entry) and Rinne thought this is his chance to clear things up with them alone. Don’t look now but there is a giant wiener behind!

The wiener is bugging Rinne for his second wish (because his first was to talk with Sakura alone and thus the teleportation) so he wastes his next wish telling it to shut up. Rinne finally gets his message across. So? Now he is lost what to say next. Was he just imagining that she was mad? The wiener now bugs him for his third wish. However Rinne realizes that if such wish can come true, this could only mean that this is an evil spirit! The busted wiener attacks but is luckily defeated by Ageha. Rokumon bought a spray that dispelled the barrier. After all those crazy conspiracy theories Ageha and Tsubasa came up about them, I hope they’re relieved to see nothing happened. I think. Ageha then throws down the ultimatum to Sakura to stay away from Rinne. Why? Ageha is shocked at her nonchalant response. Seeing how calm she is, she thinks they are already dating and could it be she is just a third wheel? In her embarrassment she flees. Seems the wiener has divided itself and Tsubasa who knows better, is tempted about his wish to do anything with Sakura. Luckily Ageha snaps him out and needs his help to purify the remaining evil before it grows. Tsubasa wants to get Rinne’s help since there are too many but Rinne disagrees. She’ll ask him instead. The mini wieners are trying to grant others wishes but thankfully all ignore except for this broken hearted girl who found out her crush already had a girlfriend. She could have fallen into the trap if not for Ageha. Ageha learns a valuable lesson from her that falling in love isn’t something to be ashamed of. Meanwhile Rinne and Sakura finally get their much needed time to talk and reconcile. He still needs her help. So could she please lend him 500 Yen? Of course. And when things are seemingly going well, it goes downhill when Ageha comes swooping down, holding his hand and pleading he needs his help to hunt down evil spirits and she’ll pay him! Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just a side job, right? Right?! The ignoring has made its return…

Episode 16
Sakura remembers the Haunted Cedar tree in her elementary school. Despite its name, she always felt warmth from it. Tsubasa asks Sakura to accompany to dig up a power stone he planted at the base of Haunted Cedar. Due to nostalgic reasons, she would love to come. Her friends are ‘disappointed’ Tsubasa isn’t asking her out on a date but I guess he doesn’t dislike the sound of that too. Then they seek Rinne’s opinion that Tsubasa has ‘asked out’ Sakura. It’s none of his business. Oh really? But the haunted tree did spark some interest so he might come. Ah… Tsubasa is so excited that he waited in front of the elementary school gate since early morning. I hope he can contain his excitement. But luckily we know how Sakura always is, right? They are shocked to see deep hideous scars on the tree. The groundskeeper warns them not to get close to it as something bad always happens. There had been talks to cut it down but those assigned to cut it down were met with some accident. Ever since, everybody has become afraid of the tree. Sakura could also feel something strange. The tree is not as warm as it used to and cold. Tsubasa blocks an attack targeted at Sakura. Turns out an evil young boy spirit with giant razor yoyo is the one behind this. Sakura recognizes him as Youta, her classmate who supposedly died in an accident. He is shocked that she recognizes him but vows to continue attacking her. This time Rinne blocks the shot. So he came, huh? Just taking a stroll and coincidentally wandering into the place doesn’t sound convincing. Tsubasa notices his power stone is embedded on his yoyo and has been corrupted. Youta blames it is all Sakura’s fault.

Flashback reveals Youta is very adept in his yoyo. However he has a bad habit of mocking those who sucked and also used his yoyo tricks to flip up girls’ skirt. The only girl he couldn’t flip was Sakura. She was as good as him as she countered every yoyo move with hers. In the process, Youta always hit his own head with his own yoyo. Wait. Don’t tell me. He isn’t going to pass over till he flips up her skirt, is he? Rinne uses a special incense to choke him. He heard another voice and believes Youta has been possessed by an evil spirit. True enough, the true evil spirit detaches. However, it is still invincible as long as it has Tsubasa’s power stone. Rinne and Rokumon coerce Tsubasa into buying a launchable incense at a marked up price so that the evil spirit could cough out the power stone and Rinne purify it for good. It is concluded the evil spirit got attracted to the power spot and took advantage of its power. Youta wasn’t exactly stuck here and being manipulated ever since. Because now with the evil spirit gone, he is still reluctant to leave the tree. Noticing he has been staring at the same spot ever since (after his death, Sakura noticed his ghost kept staring there but when she approached, he disappeared), could it be the spot where Tsubasa planted the power stone? Actually it is the spot opposite. It is Sakura’s lost yoyo. He thought of burying it here for a while as a prank to get even with her as he could never best her. Now he wonders if Sakura is still mad at her. Sakura assures she isn’t anymore and will return this yoyo to her. Youta is happy and passes on.

Episode 17
Tsubasa is cursing Rinne. Last week’s Haunted Cedar trip was supposed to be a memory-filled trip with Sakura but that guy had to cut in. Worse, he ate with them (sitting between them too) and Tsubasa paid the bill! He also needs to do something about his power stone as it could feel it is getting more corrupted. Masato pops up before him but Tsubasa’s holy ash can’t exorcise a high level demon. Masato mentions he hates Rinne as much as him and gives him a Demon’s Tome. All he needs to do is put his hands on it and curse the person he wants. Tsubasa has not sunk this low to do that and declines this ‘gift’. Later Sakura gives Tsubasa some cookies. Her mom made them but he was so happy he thought it was she who made it. Then he saw a bag of cookies to give out. Rinne is one of them. Oh, speak of the devil. Here he comes and after hard deliberation (crying tears of blood), he wants to give Sakura an expensive canned peach. When Sakura returns Demon’s Tome to Tsubasa (Suzuki saw him throwing it away and thought of giving it back to him), suddenly lightning almost strikes Rinne but the can is destroyed. Tsubasa is shocked that the curse works and runs away. Back in Rinne’s room, he is delighted that Sakura gives him the entire bag of cookies when suddenly crows start eating them. Once more, Tsubasa is shocked that the tome returned to him and that the curse once again had worked. Is he going crazy? Well, the power stone is getting even more corrupted. As Masato notes, no matter how he tries to get rid of the tome, it will find its way back to him.

Rinne finds a locket charm in the thermometer shelter. It is supposed to deflect any curses. Of course it was put there by Tsubasa who thinks he has gone soft on Rinne. But when he sees Sakura and Rinne coming together (and Sakura having the locket instead), he starts getting jealous. He starts cursing and it only rains around Rinne! His food is ruined… Sakura requests Tsubasa’s help to find the culprit and this of course puts him in a spot. She’ll hate him if she finds out. He starts thinking when that happens, it is all Rinne’s fault! Another curse! A washbasin falls on his head. Tsubasa rushes to the temple to burn the tome. Masato watches as he notes the more curses he does, the more corrupted his power stone will taint his soul. It will be killing 2 birds with 1 stone because with Rinne defeated, he will then pull Tsubasa’s soul to hell. Rinne finds out Masato is behind this and fights him. Tsubasa makes a contraption to summon Masato when Sakura is here to return the tome. Oh no. With Masato and Rinne summoned, Tsubasa accidentally curses and the contraption falls on Rinne. Masato commends him for a good job and one more curse is all it takes to eliminate Rinne. Now that the cat is out of the bag of who is cursing Rinne, will Sakura hate him? However she still believes that Tsubasa isn’t that kind of evil person. Such a sweet girl. Tsubasa is in a dilemma. He is in a position where he’ll be damned if he curses and damned if he doesn’t. Especially with Sakura concerned about Rinne. He can’t forgive himself for being weak and curses himself. By dropping tofu? His power stone is half purified. As he is going to curse Masato, he dares him to do so because cursing others will only taint himself. That is when Rinne takes the locket and throws it at Masato, thus causing damage to Tsubasa. With his power stone completely purified, he summons its sprites (Humpty Dumpties?!) to send Masato back to hell. Tsubasa allows Rinne to punch him for the curse but is surprised he congratulates him for eradicating Masato. I think he can’t seek vengeance on an empty stomach. Get the hint? Yeah. Tsubasa has to treat him to food again. And he’s sitting in between again. Hey… The power stone is getting a little corrupted…

Episode 18
Ageha stops another Damashigami. However she is interrupted by Kain the Shirushigami who blames her for foiling his plans. He wanted the Damashigami to lead him back to its HQ and Ageha had to ruin it. Then he badmouths her for being a stupid shinigami especially having a sister who defected to that company. Of course Ageha is broken hearted but does she have to come sobbing to Rinne right in the middle of class? Remember, other mortals can’t see her. So they have to hear her out. Shirushigami is a bookkeeper who keeps records of lifespan of others. Kain suddenly attacks Rinne and reads out his debts so large that he couldn’t pay back in his lifetime. So what? What does this have to do with his job? Kain tries to kill Rinne and claims Rinne owes him a lot. He is here to collect the debt. Time for a little flashback. Kain was raised singlehandedly by his divorced mother. One day she took him to meet their new father who is no other than Sabato. You can tell she got conned right away. When Rinne popped up to stop his father, Sabato vanished and left behind junks and loan collaterals. Kain has been so poor that he had to give up going to high school and went to a census bureau. Blaming Rinne for it all, he is going to enforce the contract by force since there is a loan collateral in which Rinne is the guarantor. After Kain breaks his scythe, he takes his life force and robe that could fetch a good price. He gives the rest a chance to reclaim back Rinne’s soul. They must find Damashigami Company’s HQ by tomorrow 10am because that is when he will sell Rinne’s life and it will be over once that happens. Sakura feels the need to do something when Rinne’s spirit returns (he got plucked out when his life force was taken). He doesn’t want them to get involved as he goes in search of Kain but you know, they can’t just sit back and let him do all the work.

They are outside the census bureau where Kain works but the guards stop them. They have to flee seeing they sense living humans among them and want them captured to be returned to the mortal world. Kain realizes that if they are here, it means they don’t know where Damashigami Company is. As the gang hides, they are picked up by Kain’s mom. She brings them back to her huge mansion though it is still without electricity. She even orders lavish sushi and puts it on her tab. Since it is a bit dark, she uses Rinne’s life force as lighting! Rinne only gets back his robe. With Kain back, the friends learn she is the one who was conned by Sabato. Mom doesn’t think Sabato is a bad person as he sends her love letters every month. They are all asking for money anyway. So she still doesn’t realize she is being conned? Kain doesn’t want her mom to know about this. After Sabato fled, he discovered that Damashigami Company was formed and it means he used mother’s money as capital to form the company. Imagine how sad she’ll be when she finds out. Of course there is a loan agreement with Rinne’s fake seal. After Kain puts the rest to sleep and locking them in the shed, Sakura’s advice of not taking Rinne’s life out of revenge fell on deaf ears. Kain is going to force Rinne into reincarnation.

Episode 19
When they wake up, they see a box with a message instructing for Rinne to read aloud. Ageha tries to break it but a barrier zaps her. Rokumon says to bring it to Rinne as only he can open it. There is a hidden message on it that only he can read as this is to safeguard packages. Ageha blasts the shed as they try to deliver the box to Rinne who is in the midst of fighting Kain. Rinne recognizes the box as a gift from Tamako although he never got to open it because dad stole it. After reading the hidden words aloud, out comes a hoop. Kain steals his robe and this causes him to be attracted into the reincarnation circle. Sakura stretches out to give him the hoop. Did she make it because they both have disappeared. Kain knows he will be punished for letting a human girl get absorbed but he’s not panicking yet. That hoop is the Hoop of Judgment and a tool that brings its bearer to the criminal of their wish. This means they might be at Damashigami Company. However they are back in Kain’s house. And look what Kain’s mom brought in? Sabato! He is here to ask for money and wants to sell this life force. When Bijin comes looking for Sabato, Kain’s mom wonder who this girl is. Sabato of course lies she is his long lost sister and just got reunited. That’s why he needs the money. It doesn’t help when Bijin plays along. Rinne tries to take back his life force. Kain intercepts but the hoop protects Rinne. Sabato steals the life force instead and runs. But he cannot run far as Kain is before him. He tells him that life force is fake. Since the real one is collateral, he has prepared this just in case. Wondering where he could have hid the real one, Sakura thinks it is in the shed. But they find lots of life forces. One way to test it out. Tsubasa plays baseball with it and the real one will be absorbed into him. None. All fakes. Mom orders the finest unagi for their time out. As Rinne feels cold since his real body in the real world is being neglected, Kain’s mom shows him the fireplace. Being lit by a life force? He senses this is his real one and absorbs it. Sabato and Bijin escape but they return shortly to steal all the stuffs. Kain and Rinne anticipated this and corner them. Rinne’s hoop binds them. Although they still manage to escape, the goods are left behind. Sakura hopes Kain would stop targeting Rinne as he is also a victim of Sabato. But as much as Kain wants to torment Rinne, he can’t because his hoop is protecting him. But as long as he is Sabato’s son, Kain will continue to view him equally as guilty. Mom cools things off by ordering melon. Can you guess why she is always poor now? But the hoop cannot take them to Damashigami Company as Sabato has put a security lock on it.

Episode 20
Sakura notices that lots of spirits are passing through her house. Rinne is surprised to hear her bothered by it although they’re pretty harmless. He agrees to come to her house and take a look for a solution. You can tell how happy he is to visit her house the first time by the way he skips so gaily. Of course Tsubasa and Ageha sense something amiss and with Rinne skipping some shinigami workshop, they tail him. Sakura is surprised to see the entire gang at her doorstep. My, Tsubasa is dressed in his tuxedo and a bouquet of roses for her. What can Rinne offer? A can of mixed fruits? Since Sakura politely declines, he takes it back. The guys aren’t happy when they hear Rokumon has been here many times. Is it because he is a cat? Tsubasa wonders why Sakura didn’t consult him as he could have taken care of this easily. His dusty holy ash, that’s why. Ageha thinks her watchdog collar would do the trick. Although the ghost dog scares off everyone, it is untrained and chases Ageha around. Could it be just a trick so she can get close to Rinne? Sakura is about to lose hope in solving this. After all, they’re just harmless passing spirits. But this won’t do for Rinne. He vows to come up with a solution but needs to get rid of Tsubasa and Ageha first. Meanwhile Tamako is holding the shinigami workshop on its tools. She wonders why Rinne isn’t here as he never missed it since it gives out free samples.

So now Rinne uses all those past samples while Sakura is out in an attempt to get rid of the ‘pests’. Each time they come back, he uses more of those samples. The samples were discontinued because of some defect and putting it on them feels like he is being a bully. Finally he places a sticker barrier to stop them from entering. FYI, this product is real and on the market. Rinne asks Sakura if there is something she has thrown away or moved because the spirits never appeared up till yesterday. When she sees his samples, she remembers after meeting Tamako and leaving the border, she met a shinigami who gave her a free sample. She takes out that mini hourglass she has been keeping in her closet. To her surprise, it used to have shiny sand but now it is all black. Rinne now knows the root of the problem. That hourglass is an exorcism tool. Since it expired 2 days ago, that is why the spirits passed through her house. He has new sand that will make it as new again. Ageha and Tsubasa barge in (Sakura’s mom let them in and accidentally ripped the barrier after they simply ring the doorbell). In the process, the hourglass is broken. Don’t worry. Rinne goes to see Tamako to get a replacement. Unfortunately she says there are no more samples. It is not because it has been discontinued but rather it is now selling on the market. That will be 20,000 Yen please. Before taxes. The debt has just gotten higher. Rinne hands over the new hourglass to Sakura and since she is so happy and grateful, he cannot bear ask her for compensation. Just bear with it. Here’s a canned fruit for self reward then.

Episode 21
Kain returns with the bonus for the census. But upon opening the briefcase, there is an expanding balloon as it pops into party crackers. Word of the missing case goes around. Say, how come Rinne has that same case? When they open it… Loads of cash!!! OMG! Rinne ‘died’!!! He has never seen so much cash before! So did Rinne steal it? Maybe it is part of Kain’s plan to set him up. Before they can discuss what to do with the money, angry came barges in and suspects him of stealing the money. Well, at least we know this wasn’t part of his plan. To make things worse, Rinne runs off with the case! Rinne bumps into Masato whom he believes is the culprit. Not quite. You see, Masato went to buy a suitcase of party crackers. When he exited the shop, some Pegasus carrying lots of similar cases crashed into him. He was out for a good 5 minutes and when he came too, the mess was cleaned up and he didn’t suspect anything since his case was still there. His plan was to put the case in Rinne’s room and when he opened it, he’ll be surprised. But somebody switched it. When Kain comes hunting Rinne, Masato handcuffs Rinne to the case. He will enjoy seeing him suffer for a crime he didn’t commit. But Rinne won’t go down alone. When Kain comes breathing down his neck, he drags Masato with him and makes him sound like he is the accomplice. Masato wants to spend all the money since they’re accused of being guilty. Rinne knows better not to listen to him. Instead, he will prove Masato is innocent. Outside the firecracker store, the owner testifies that after Masato collected the goods, he didn’t pay. He even set off a firecracker prank that burnt down the shop! Masato acts dumb and wants to pay him off with the stolen money but Rinne won’t allow it.

Meanwhile the friends hear from Kain’s side of the story. After he collected the bonus, a trader and his Pegasus were passing by selling the similar suitcase. Suddenly the Pegasus goes berserk and it crashed into him, knocking him out for almost 3 minutes. He believes Rinne planned this in advance to set him up. Rinne returns to object to that theory and that Kain is the culprit. Everybody starts fighting everybody so the firecracker store owner gives Sakura a big net to ring everyone in. Once calmed down, Rinne begins his explanation. As the bonus case had the mark of ‘M’. It seems Masato’s case also had the similar initial. After the store was set on fire, a little piece of firework got onto the Pegasus’ skin. Of course it went berserk. First it bumped into Kain followed by Masato. In the process of the helter-skelter, the cases jumbled up. When Kain woke up, he picked the first ‘M’ case he saw, not knowing there is another similar one. The trader picked up the other cases and left the other initialled case next to Masato. Now that it is known it is Kain’s fault, Ageha wants him to apologize. Kain’s pride won’t allow him to do so and Masato is supporting him. Masato then steals the case and is going to burn all the money. Luckily Rinne has put a sticker seal on the case that turns it into some biting dog. In the end, Rinne doesn’t want an apology from Kain since it doesn’t sound like him. Instead, he takes a bill from the bonus as compensation for the sticker. Kain calls it even. But if the stickers cost only 10 Yen each, how come Rinne took a 10,000 Yen bill? For his troubles? Really?

Episode 22
Christmas. The day to steal your lover’s heart. So Ageha thinks. She goes on a buying spree and gets duped by a shady salesman to buy some Friendly Square contraption that is said to further a relationship between a man and woman. On her way back, she passes by a house with a dark aura. Rinne who is fresh from buying a little Christmas cake, spots a letter crying for help from a nearby house. As he enters, he thought Ageha was fooling around. Then he realizes he cannot leave. A barrier is preventing them in doing so. Sakura’s friends talk about the rumours of a decrepit house. When they pass by and see how lively the Christmas decorations are, they freak out. Sakura thought she heard something from inside and checks it out. Oh, it’s only Rinne and Ageha. Oops. Now she can’t leave. As they discuss about the previous family of the house who loved to celebrate Christmas and this might be the regrets left behind by the spirit, Tsubasa comes in to shoot down their theory. They are celebrating Christmas somewhere else and when they heard this house is celebrating Christmas on its own, they hired Tsubasa to offer some chicken. Unfortunately he left it outside the house. Now he’s stuck too. Because Sakura and Ageha bring out party goods and candles respectively, this makes Rinne in a dilemma if he should share his Christmas cake. Afraid Sakura might hate him, he is about to share them but the rest are preoccupied with how to take the chicken in. As tools can move through the barrier, Ageha uses her scythe with Tsubasa’s help to drag it in. Unfortunately the bucket is cut in half and all the cats and dogs finish the finger licking good chicken. As they argue, the commotion causes Rinne to slip and drop out his Christmas cake, dissipating the barrier. The cat is now out of the bag. Prepared to be admonished, he is surprised that Sakura thinks he wants to have a party. Ageha won’t be usurped by her and suggests a real party. She still has that Friendly Square she bought and is going to put it to good use.

Rinne is surprised to find a kotatsu in his place courtesy from Ageha. So this is the Friendly Square she bought. It’s just a normal kotatsu. It’s so warm. So nice. Don’t feel like moving. All is well till Sakura and Tsubasa had to pop up by bringing food. When Tsubasa suggests playing cards, Ageha gets an idea for the loser to do anything a loser wants. This is part of her plan to send the third wheels home and then make Rinne marry her. Unfortunately she lost to Rokumon. Many times. She is forced to go buy stuffs for them. It’s no fun anymore. The rest wanted to stop but she insisted in carrying on. Well… When she goes to collect the Christmas cake Sakura booked earlier on, she realized Friendly Square is a scam and is going to get her revenge. She trips and ruins the cake. I guess at this point you’d feel pity for this idiot who is so close to tears. All she wants is just to spend time with Rinne. Surprisingly here he comes putting a scarf on her. Everyone has the same and they wish her Merry Christmas. The scarves were knitted by Sakura’s mom for everybody. They return to the warmth of the kotatsu and as they’re about to open the cake box, they see a bomb placed by Ageha. Quickly she throws it out of the window and pretends all that never happened. Rinne is in tears after tasting the heavenly Christmas cake. Then it is back to more cards for Ageha. It’s getting late and everyone is sleepy but nobody leaves till she wins!

Episode 23
The census bureau is also responsible for cleaning evil spirits and turning them good for reincarnation. Via washing machine? Of course there is one that is too strong and escapes. Kain tells this to Rinne. In Tsubasa’s house? Seems this guy is sick and although it has got its perks like Sakura making porridge for him, the presence of those guys ruined it. Kain shows details of the escaped spirit as he believes it will appear before him. It is a nine tailed fox. Tamako caught it 100 years ago and sent it for cleansing. However its grudge was so deep that it still harbours the same hatred. It is believed it wants to get back at Tamako’s offspring. Therefore Kain is here to watch over him (not protect him) and catch the fox when it shows up. After everyone has left, the fox possesses Tsubasa. Next day he looks like he is fine but Kain tries to attack possessed Tsubasa to flush out the fox. He knows it needs a body to carry out its revenge. As Tsubasa is interchanging between personalities, it proves the fox’s powers are weakened and they’re fighting control of the body. Rinne has returned with information from Tamako about the fox. It is actually quite weak. But as to why she won’t tell him a way to defeat it, he unknowingly said that age related taboo word… When the guys try to force out the fox, its bag of tricks deflect and hinder their efforts. Since it could read Tsubasa’s mind, it can improvise his attacks to deal greater damage and even clone itself. Kain uses an incense to separate them but it only work halfway. Over the course of fighting and tricks, the rest start to notice that Tsubasa is being conscious and attacking Rinne on his own rather than under the fox’s control. Trying to impress Sakura and get back at Rinne? Finally a wash basin drops on them. This isn’t an ordinary wash basin. It is connected to the census bureau when dumped inside. A few hours later, the fox is purified and sent for reincarnation. As for Tsubasa, he is so squeaky clean that his skin is so shiny! Since he insists and continues to fault the fox for his actions, Rinne notes his heart is still not cleansed yet.

Episode 24
Rinne receives a request from the thermometer shelter that the boss of a newly opened ramen shop is being possessed. The payment in advance is tickets for free ramen! Would Rinne pass this off? You guessed right. The place is teeming with students but Rinne and co are shocked to see Bijin serving! Even more shocking she pleads for them to save her boss. This means the boss of this place is no other than Sabato who is working hard to make ramen! Are my eyes deceiving me?! Sabato working?! Is the world ending soon?! When everyone notices this place only serves ramen and no other side dishes at all, Tsubasa believes this means this place is pretty confident in its ramen. He takes up the challenge to order the best ramen. Sabato’s technique to prepare the best ramen seems impressive but will the taste be so? Then it becomes like those typical food themed animes. Tsubasa finds it so delicious and rants-cum-exaggerates his analysis on this exceptionally good ramen. Yeah. Whatever. When Rinne asks Sabato if he is already reformed, the latter replies that he really doesn’t want to work! Bijin explains that when they took over this abandoned building, they intended to masquerade as a ramen shop for their Damashigami operations. That is when the spirit of this place possessed Sabato and made him work like hell. Got what he deserved?

After they separate the spirit from his body, it is discovered this young man loves ramen and wanted to make it his life. He worked hard to open his shop but on that day he just died. Therefore he has regrets and wants to keep selling ramen like today for 100 years! Surprisingly Sabato agrees to help him. Hmm… That scheming look. Next day as Rinne and co visit the shop, they see the customers act strangely. The spirit is now working in a doll version of Sabato’s body and the ramen has some funny ingredient that sucks out the customer’s soul. When confronting Sabato (who is slacking as usual), seems he convinced the spirit to use the doll as he could use his body 24/7 without rest. Also he could use a special ramen ingredient his company created. They know the spirit is being manipulated but whatever they say or do cannot reach him. Because as long as the customers are happy, he doesn’t care. Sabato chides Rinne for his naivety he doesn’t understand the spirit’s true nature and that is how he manipulated it. Surprisingly Rinne admits his defeat and runs away! Later he calls and orders 500 ramen to be delivered to Damashigami Company. Revenge motive? Actually this is part of his plan to swap the spirit’s goal. As selling 500 bowls would be pretty satisfying for him, this would make him enough to pass over. But now the doll breaks down! Sabato who is going to return after a good haul of souls, the spirit possesses him and he is forced to continue working till he breaks down! Deserve it! In the end, the spirit passes on and all the stolen souls are returned. The ramen shop closes down and the customers lament they couldn’t eat anymore of those delicious ramen. They decide to leave a thank you note but of course in their eyes it is that Sabato guy. Don’t count on it that he has rest in peace.

Episode 25
Tamako gives Sakura a candy that will allow her to not see spirits anymore. If you’re wondering why it’s free, it’s because it is a prototype. Ah, the guinea pig… At the same time, there is this A-1 Grand Prix whereby evil spirits in a competition try to curse their target. As Sakura cannot see spirits anymore, she accidentally breaks a seal of a well and this is a sign for the competition to start. She has become targeted. Rinne works his ass off trying to fend off those spirits all while Sakura is unaware what is going on (she can’t see him too when he wears his robe). She might be relishing being normal for once but Rinne is going to get real tired in keeping all those occupation-themed ghosts at bay. Yeah. 5,000 competitors in total! Thanks to him, Sakura is saved from death many times. Tamako then plucks a hair from Sakura to insert it into some decoy doll. The doll will grow into a full size figure of Sakura and act as a decoy for the evil spirits. Furthermore, the moment they touch it, they’ll be paralyzed. It costs a whopping 30,000 Yen but don’t worry, Tamako is covering the cost. Rinne uses the highly effective doll as decoy. But Tsubasa thought it is the real Sakura and moves it out of harm’s way. After Rinne explains about the doll, Tsubasa gets the wrong idea that he is a pervert who makes this doll! The misunderstanding enhances when Sakura and her friends see this. They think it belongs to Tsubasa but he tells it is Rinne’s. They get the wrong idea that the reason why Rinne has been missing for a while is because he was making this doll!

Thanks to the doll, Rinne is able to purify many of the evil spirits. But the doll can only last 3 hours. Such a high price for such a short period. Rinne claims he is doing this not for Sakura but as his job as a shinigami. But why does he look like he is in a dilemma whether if Sakura is fine carrying on her life like this? At the end of the competition, Rinne helps Tamako to pick up the number bibs from those purified spirits because they get 5 Yen for each bib handed in. Although not enough to cover the cost of the doll but at least they get something back. Sakura goes to visit Rinne’s place but he is not there and she feels sad. When Tamako hands in the bibs to get her money, it is counted there is a bib short. The last spirit is going to have Sakura’s life. Luckily Rinne is there to protect her and get the job done. Sakura leaves and this makes Rinne a sad and lonely guy. I just keep thinking why doesn’t he just take off his robe if he wants her to see him? Anyway she suddenly trips on him. Looks like the candy effect has worn off. Glad to see each other again? She hands back the extra candies to him and wants Rinne to return them to Tamako. I guess she prefers seeing ghosts, huh? Knowing that Rinne worked hard behind her back, she makes him a delicious bento. Itadakimasu! Hard work does pay off.

Binbou No Rinne
It was fun. It was enjoyable. As expected from Rumiko Takahashi. I read a handful of comments saying that although this anime is still watchable, it isn’t as great compared to her other works as it is predictable. Hey, it is Rumiko Takahashi after all. How far do you want her to deviate from her trademark? Well, as I have said I have not read her manga and only watched some of her adapted works, as far as I am concerned, this is still a good watch as there are some pretty funny moments although very much done in her usual predictable ‘silly’ style. Of course it still cannot top Ranma 1/2, as it will still remain my anime of animes. But I can rank this series higher than Inu Yasha since that show has too much youkai and demons of the Japanese folklore and I am not really into that.

This series will get its chance to prove it can match and rise up to the rest of the other adapted series. You know what I’m saying? Yup. This series is going to get a sequel in early 2016. I guess it would be a shame for it to end with just more than 2 dozen episodes because many of Rumiko Takahashi’s adapted works usually cross over a hundred episodes. Yeah. Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha and Urusei Yatsura all easily surpass the double digit number into triple digits. Maison Ikkoku could have been too had it not been short of 4 episodes of a century. So far the only series I know that didn’t go beyond a season was Mermaid Forest and other OVA adaptations which of course I didn’t watch but that isn’t the point here. So my conclusion is that if Kyoukai No Rinne is going to be awesome and great, maybe it will have more subsequent season and breach over a hundred episodes over the next few years as you know this series still has a lot of material and potential to cover.

The characters here are fun although I have to say that they are generally so Rumiko Takahashi-like. Somewhat familiar with her other works’ characters. Yeah. Maybe that is why they said it was kinda predictable. For example Rinne himself. As the main character, he is like Ranma and Inuyasha and you can tell he is the main hero because, heck, like the other duo he also has his name in the title. Sakura is like the Akane and Kagome of this series. The girl who is always by his side and potential lover who will constantly irritate viewers and make them scream out for them to confess their feelings to each other already. Ageha as the other girl who likes our main character is somewhat similar to Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi and perhaps Kikyou? Tsubasa is also familiar as he is like the Ryouga and Kouga of the series (hey, don’t they all look pretty close to each other?). The friend-cum-rival (but more of the latter) who has a crush on the main character’s girl as well. Kain is more of a rival than friend so he resembles somewhat like Mousse, Kunou and Sesshoumaru. Ah, the pet mascot. You can’t have cute series without this. So Rokumon is the P-chan and Shippo of that. Then you have the baddie of the series (antagonist may be too harsh for a genre like this) like Sabato who is equivalent to Happosai and Naraku (okay, so this guy is so vile that he is really an antagonist). What about grannies? I suppose Tamako’s counterpart would be Cologne and Kaede. I could go on and on and relive the nostalgia times thinking about old characters but I think it is best I stop here.

Another series which has many viewers comment how similar Kyoukai No Rinne is would be Bleach. No, not the action fighting parts but rather the afterlife. As opposed to Soul Society, there is indeed a temporary place for souls to go and live before reincarnation. But the fact that there is some sort of administration that oversees this process makes it feel a bit like Soul Society again. Also, you thought that if the afterlife would be a place of peace and fairness, you have to deal with Damashigami who are a milder and comical counterpart of Hollows. Even more mind boggling is how the life in the afterlife takes so much after the living world. The process, the procedures and even some of the infrastructure are taken after what we normally see when we are still living. Even to the point that there are money transactions involved. Even hell too. It’s all about the money, money, money… Truly, it is a sin to be poor so you better not die a poor soul! So it goes to show that we can never escape this kind of ‘life’, huh? Well, at least it is good for the recently departed souls as they won’t get culture shock. Also, the use of the shinigami term is another reason why some see the similarities with Bleach.

So to sum up Rinne as the main character who must always have his own trademarks like in any other series, poverty is what sums him up best. You can’t blame him for being a scrooge or make cost-like decisions or display attitude like a miser. After all, money makes the world go round. Heck, you even need money in the afterlife to buy stuffs and all. So if he has to spend more or relinquish his ‘valuables’, the greater the value of that commodity will be represented in how much he cries blood out of it. Seriously. Parting with a treasured one is never an easy thing to do ;p. Considering his ‘tragic’ past coming from a mixed heritage of human and shinigami and a father who loves to con the hell out of his hard earned savings, Rinne is a pretty tough and cool guy if you think about it. I am not sure if all that made him numb throughout the years but he seems pretty cool headed instead of getting his raging emotions the better of him. Well of course the occasional sarcasm and taking out on Sabato when he crosses the line (like he always does).

Sakura’s only ability is to see spirits and thus the reason (or excuse) for her to join Rinne and the rest in their other worldly adventures. Otherwise she is just a plain girl and if I may say, a boring person! Sure, at times I feel her role is to play the rebuking role with her retorts. But saying with that kind of emotionless face, I don’t know whether it is supposed to be funny or not (of course it’s meant to be funny and a joke). There are times where she does put up a smile but that is as rare as it can get because mostly you’ll see her putting up that poker face although she’s born with it and it’s stuck for the rest of her life. I am guessing there is a reason why she is given this emotionless face in the first place. To confuse and troll viewers if she has any feelings for Rinne. Veterans would know she does and definitely Rinne too for her. There are some obscure hints but we veterans know better. After all, we’ve been through the ‘agony’ of waiting to hear Ranma and Akane say those magical words (which never came in the anime) and finally Kagome married Inuyasha and stayed with him at the end but that is only after over 150 episodes and another season. So would it be any different for Sakura? We veterans know better :-).

Other characters are fun too with their own unique and ‘idiotic’ personality. Tsubasa as Rinne’s rival only because he has a crush on Sakura but you know it will be unrequited forever. Unless… Ageha feels like the dumb blonde of the series (she’s purpled hair by the way) due to gullibility and her tendency to be easily conned. Yeah. Money is no issue to her since she comes from a rich family so I guess this spoils it for her. With her in the picture, there comes the love polyamory but so far, romance has been one of the weakest parts of the series and something you shouldn’t get your hopes up. Even if there are some seemingly romantic moments, it is all for the sake of comedy and you’d be much disappointed if you think it is going to come true. Seriously. Rokumon is needed as the cute loyal pet and sidekick if you’re tired at looking at all the dumb humans and human-like characters. Just kidding. No, really. But you get what I mean. I suppose somebody there is needed to share his pain and poverty and who better than his pet cat for it. Tamako… Nice old lady who might look irresponsible but she does have a caring and responsible side. Oh sh*t! I just said the taboo word! “Don’t me babe granny”. Better remember that even if you’re her grandchildren.

Then you have villains like Masato and Sabato who aren’t vile enough to be hated but ‘dumb’ enough to be lovable. Especially Sabato is such a sly character who tries to squeeze every penny out of everybody with the slightest chance he get, sometimes he fails so badly and get what he deserves but is always a step ahead from being captured, our ‘hatred’ for him is more like being tsundere instead of actual loathing. In short, he never learns. That’s why he has the most fun in the series. No wonder Bijin falls for this guy. Of course she was conned into it but if you can have so much fun without a care to others for the rest of your life, why the heck worry, right? In a way I feel she fares much better than her poor little sister (poor as in circumstantial). I feel there is some sort of running joke (that’s what I’d call it) for Miho and Rika. Well, in the sense that they usually talk to Sakura about some haunted rumours. Then when they go investigate it and something hauntingly pops up before them, they get scared out of their sh*t, running away and leaving Sakura behind, which is a reason for her to get involved with Rinne and the other supernatural beings. Typical, isn’t it?

Action and fight scenes aren’t intense but they are mostly for entertainment purposes and sometimes for laughs. Maybe it isn’t the focus but sometimes I can’t feel that the moves the characters pull off are repetitive and boring. For instance, Tsubasa’s holy ash. Is that all he has got as an exorcist? Sometimes he uses that corner of the bible book (for comedic effect of course) but other than that, holy ash seems to be the only thing he carries around all the time. And with that new power stone weapon, I haven’t seen him use it properly and if it was, it was against him! (Technically it was Kain who got owned by that familiar slapping farce but still, it shows Tsubasa wasn’t using it right despite he was possessed).

Rinne’s scythe is his trademark weapon but from time to time he would use his tornado technique or other accessories that he needs to buy in his aid to stop the menace. It is interesting to see that from time to time when he pulls out a new tool, the narrator would explain to us its effect and even how much it costs! Yeah well, if you actually need to buy such stuffs to fight and bring in evil spirits, it clearly shows that money is truly indeed what makes even the afterlife go round. Heck, that bonus money for the census bureau spills it all. Ageha in addition to using her scythe, I’m not sure if that coin tossing move is an actual skill or she’s just throwing away money. Sakura doesn’t possess any fighting ability and it is understandable but at the same time that is why it makes her so boring. Sometimes she does have a hand in help stopping whatever mess but she can’t usually do it alone. Even at least Rokumon has the ability to transform into a scary monster cat head although that is pretty much it can do.

I shouldn’t be pointing this out because it will be annoyingly the umpteenth time because you know, how freaking familiar the art and character designs are to Rumiko Takahashi’s previous works? Duh. You can see shades of certain characters from other of her other animes here. Because of that, the overall art style is not like today’s conventional Japanese anime. There is a slight retro feel to it although much of the artwork and even the setting are updated for today’s modern setting. Generally, the characters do look pretty and for non-human characters like animals and spirits, they are more of cute instead of scary. This might be trivial but I want to point out that Ageha looks a bit weird than pretty. I don’t know. Maybe it’s that lipstick. It enhances her dumb character. I thought Masato was some sort of vampire initially. With those bat wings and tuxedo (Dracula wears them, right?), I sure thought so.

I am not sure if other references from other works appear here but I do notice one and it prompted me to think of this. If you have watched Ranma 1/2, you would have known that Ranma’s dad turns into a panda. He makes his somewhat cameo here as he is the face of the afterlife’s currency! That panda too makes very few and short cameos as perhaps a part timer in such a suit handing out flyers. This is so far the only trivia I’ve spotted and I’m not sure about the rest. On another trivial note, I thought the mid-intermission and end card eyecatch are boring. They use the same picture every time. Sakura’s mug hogs the mid-intermission while Rinne bags the one after the end credits and next episode preview. The only exception was the Christmas episode with a Christmas theme. I mean seriously, couldn’t they just add a few other eyecatches of other characters?

Hearing Marina Inoue behind the voice of Sakura, I think she did quite a good job in making the character emotionless. If I am not mistaken, this isn’t the first time she has voice such a character role although rare. Because similarly she did Matsurika in Maria+Holic before. Surprisingly, I didn’t realize it was veteran Kappei Yamaguchi behind Sabato’s voice! It was shocking for me to find out because he certainly didn’t sound like his Usopp in One Piece or even his other main character of Rumiko Takahashi’s adapted works, the male Ranma and Inuyasha! He sounds more like a cool operator that befits the sly thieving fox Sabato is. If Tamako sounds pretty familiar, that is because she is voiced by Satsuki Yukino who is no other than the voice of Kagome from Inu Yasha. Same case for Masato because that’s Fairy Tail’s Natsu’s Tetsuya Kakihara. Other casts include Kaito Ishikawa as Rinne (Ledo in Suisei No Gargantia), Hitomi Nabatame as Rokumon (Margery Daw in Shakugan No Shana), Ryohei Kimura as Tsubasa (Judal in Magi), Rie Murakawa as Ageha (Hotaru in Non Non Biyori), Souma Saitou as Kain (Tatsumi in Akame Ga Kill) and Izumi Kitta as Bijin (Tomoko in Watamote). Youko Hikasa makes her cameo as Rina.

One of the best features is the first opening theme, Ouka Ranman by Keytalk. There is this very catchy tune to this rock piece with a slightly traditional tune to it. I wish they had not changed it halfway because the second opening theme, Ura No Ura by Passepied sounds so odd and it just takes the fun out of it (listening to the opening song, that is). The second one I feel the singer’s voice is so flat that even a tone deaf person could do better than her. I don’t know if she’s just reading the lyrics or something. But the funny thing about the second opening animation is how the main characters get a noogie by Tamako!!! Real funny. Other secondary characters get bonked on the head!!! Passepied who also sings the rock based first ending theme, Toki No Wa although I personally don’t find it attractive (that flat voice again), it is hell better than the second theme, Futatsu No Sekai by Quruli. I thought they were making a joke singing this song. I thought this is the kind of song that you will play at a low cost carnival seeing how ‘minimal’ it sounds especially using a voice with synthesizer effects feels kinda lazy.

Overall, this series is a fun and enjoyable watch from start to finish although it won’t be breaking any new grounds. And if you’re a big fan of Rumiko Takahashi, add this to your list. Indeed watching this and completing this does bring back memories of my early days of anime and especially Ranma 1/2. Oh yeah. Those were the good ol’ early days. If reincarnation is ever true, I would love to relive the same life as an otaku again, over and over. Won’t that be boring? With so many animes coming out each year (not counting the manga, games and other anime related events), I think I need more than a lifetime to cover it all! And I hope I have enough cash to buy it all too!