Mai is a primitive animal at heart. Yes, yes!
This is the end of the curse arc and I must thank all the commenters for shedding some light onto the plot on the previous summary. With no frills and thrills and fills, it’s time for the summary and thoughts! Oh yea, sorry for the extensive summary once again, as I have difficulties trying to reduce my words T_T;
Episode summary
We see Kasei laughing hysterically in the biology room with, as Naru was brought to the hospital, with everyone worrying over him as an ambulance was called. Mai was blaming herself for holding on to Naru when she fell, causing him to be injured severely in the process. On that night, Mai, the witch and the monk burned the dolls and poured the ashes into the river, ending the curse for now. As the witch and the monk returned back, only to see Mai was not at the headquarters. She had confronted Kasei, with Kasei saying that even Mai suspected her of doing it. However, Mai reiterated that she knew that Kasei was not the culprit. Just then, a student interrupted them, saying that there was a call from Shibuya.
We then transfered to the scene in the hospital, where the monk and the witch were surprised that the ward did not have the name of Naru. Still, they went in, seeing Naru in a rather stable state. The reason given for the faint was due to anemia and it was nothing serious. Mai then rushed in and was glad that he was all right as all the concerned parties were gathered in the hospital. Naru said he found out who the true culprit was. Naru then asked whether Kasei told anyone about him being an yin-yang master. The teacher then said that she overheard it. After that, Naru asked for the birht location of the teacher and as the teacher answered it, he said he was sure now.
He then deduced that it was the teacher who did it. During the case of the desk incident, he said it was clear that the person who had cursed the table did not exactly know the person who was at the desk. Hence, since the voodoo art required the full name of the person, at the situation when everyone was looking out for the culprit, it was impossible for the teacher to find out then. That was why the curse was on the table, not on the person itself.
The teacher said it was a big assumption to state that she was the culprit simply from that. Naru then said that the only people who knew his full name was the principle and the teacher. For Mai, it was only the teacher and the principle did not know her full name. Hence, as the curse of the person required the full name of the victim, it must be the teacher who did it. Her intentions was that Naru being the yin-yang master would realise who did it and Mai, with her very strong intuition, might discover it. Hence, it was the best way by eliminating them. Kasei was distraught and tried to push the blame to herself, but Naru told her not to shield the teacher anymore.
Naru then took out a magazine as he checked out the background of the teacher. It seemed that the teacher was part of the Geller’s children, during the boom when everyone was professing to have PK abilities. After that, the media started reporting and trying to label these people as frauds. On one occasion, due to the fluctuations of energy, she was caught by a journalist to be cheating, as she could not feel the power in herself. After that, the teacher finally admitted that she was the culprit and then, there was no one who told her that she need not force herself.
Naru then said Japan did not have the ability to test whether PK users were true or fake. The teacher then said that it was merely a small prank to disturb the school. That was when the teacher started to use the voodoo arts to curse those as she hated people who doubted PK abilities. Naru picked out an old news article that wrote about the journalist that had reported her making a fraud to suffer from a car accident, apparently the same way as the Track and field teacher. Naru said he had no way to verify it but it would soon be more fatal incidents if she continued.
As the teacher went to place the flowers, Naru saw that she was slipping something in as Lin charged to investigate. He then saw that she had tried to curse Naru again as Mai looked on, wondering if having special abilities were a good thing or not. A few days later, Naru made a check and said that Mai in fact had latent ESP in her, in which she had the feeling of sensing trouble against people with bad intentions.
It was something like a very strong sense of self-protecting mechanisms. Mai smiled until Naru added that it was like an animal. In anger, she revealed Naru’s spoon bending feat, as Lin stood up in horror, asking him why he did it. Eventually, Naru did it, only for the monk to state that it was a fraud. Naru then promised Lin that he would not do it again as Mai thought about whether Naru was doing a fraud or not then.
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Thoughts
HaH, for once, I guessed almost everything right in an arc. The teacher was obviously the culprit in this case, which is made simpler after the clear explaination by Naru. It seemed to me very surprising in a way that the teacher was in fact one of the Geller’s children. Uri Geller was an interesting fact file to include inside the story, as he is considered to be one of the most famous people that is alleged to have the abilities of psychokinesis.
In a way, the usage of the media being a source simply for exposing fraud makes it reasonable why the teacher had that much of a hatred toward people who doubted PK. That made the reasoning much more palpitable in my opinion and hence resolved it in a nice way.
Mai DID have latent ESP. I have been very curious over the dreams, as well as the abilities of her sensing trouble and having strange thoughts. From this episode, it is clear that it is a sign of her having the ability to sense people who have bad intentions and it is clear from Kasei that she had not the hatred nor the true ability to carry out such a curse. Only someone with a strong spiritual energy can do it as there is a need for strong spiritual pressure to create such dolls. That was why Naru told the teacher that she needed rest as she had spent most of her energy trying to curse him, when Lin discovered the curse that she attempted to slip through the flower vase.
Now, the question. Is Naru a fraud? I have this suspicion that he is definitely NOT a fraud. Yes, the thing that he did in this episode is clearly a trick but it is impossible to do it until it breaks, no? I personally went to try the method that was deduced in the episode, where the thumb is used as the fulcrum to push the spoon off. Of course, I did not do it as coolly as the people in the anime, but I realize that it is nearly impossible at that posture to BREAK THE FRICKING SPOON.
The worry that Lin had clearly showed that there was something going on and that the usage of such powers had side effects in which Lin is worried about. I presume the fainting due to anemia could be one of the side effects from using his energy but I am just over-assuming since he did say it was a case of anemia. What I am deducing is that it does affect his bodily abilities.
Hence, Naru is definitely a man of mystery and simply heightens the suspicion that I have that he made use of Mai’s strong intuition to send messages to her through her dreams.
So ya, Episode 10 is done and over with. Cheers and do clarify things if I confuse stuff. Hope to hear your comments!
21 Comments
Hi!
I think this episode was quite a disappointment, sort of like an anti-climax. To think that the horror part of the show was really frightening, but the whodunit part was pretty obvious. I think we all kinda knew it was the teacher. I still think the explanation part of why the teacher does it is pretty lame.
Anyway, I still like all the characters (Naru, Mai, Lin, Monk, Miko, and the other two), and that’s what keeps the anime interesting! (and funny). I bet Naru really used his powers to bend the spoon but he purposely use fraud the second time. Definitely one big mystery guy!
He’s cute too. *heh*
that he did. I am sure by doing just that, he smartly avoids the whole topic of whether he has any PK or not. Remember the sudden shock of Naru when Mai said it. I am sure she does not know the full implications of it.
What implications, you ask me? No idea, but i know there must be something behind his power…Maybe he has a fox in his body. Ok, bad naruto joke.
Hahaha, i like Masako more ~_~ more of her please.
Is there ANY romantic plot in this show? Thats kinda why I didn’t watch it in the first place
YES, there’s a well rather one-sided romance plot in the show between Mai and Naru. Masako, well, is trying to …flirt with Naru too.
So yea, there is a bit of romance. However, it is not really the key point and it is usually dealt with a humor stance.
So you tried to bend a spoon & actually managed to bend it somewhat? That’s cool. I never tried it. Nice to hear it actually works.
I never thought of Naru using his powers (whatever they may be) as a partial reason for why he collapsed or was hospitalized. But now that you mention it, Naru’s comment to sensei about how using one’s powers can drain you does tie in with his current condition. It makes sense.
I’m glad you explained about the flashback involving the hand on the windshield. I didn’t understand what was going on with that flashback. I thought it took place in the recent past, something that had happened in the past day or two. I didn’t realize that it was something that happened to the journalist who exposed sensei way back when. (I’ll have to check the manga again. I don’t remember that from the manga.)
This was a great review as always. Yours is the first blog I’ve seen on the episode. Congatulations and thank you for posting.
ya, and i could not bend it like them -_-;;; I did bend it slightly though, well…..quite pathetic. Still, I always like to try and debunk spiritual things when I can do it, since I am someone who is a rather scientific driven person when it comes to solving issues. You should try it but do not expect them to really bent all the way. It might, just a bit. Well, at least enough to see the change
Yes, I am not sure whether that is in the manga but it is clear that the journalist suffered it. However, it is just an accident, with no “REAL PROOF” whatsoever that sensei is the one doing it. It is implied that Naru feels she did the same thing to the journalist ten years ago like how she did it with the T&F sensei.
I wonder if it is the fall or the use of his powers + lack of sleep to solve the situation that caused it. I remember that an intensive lack of sleep causes anemia. Not too sure since I threw my biology textbook out the window…so long ago.
Glad that you enjoyed it. So, throwing this question to all, do you think that the witch had any form of spiritual power at all?
I say she’s a fraud ^+^
Ayako, the Miko, does have some spiritual powers. Think back to the Doll House arc. In the last of the 3 episodes, there are protective charms hung on all the walls of the house. Also, if I remember right, a protective charms is given to Ayame and Noriko when they leave the house. Ayako was the one who made all those charms. Since they worked at keeping the spirits from noticing Ayame’s departure, I’d say that Ayako does have some spiritual power. I’m not sure how powerful she is compared to the others. But she definitely has some form of spiritual power. That’s a non-spoiler answer to your question. (And with that statement, you can guess that there is further evidence in future story arcs.)
I’ll have to reread that portion of the manga to see if the journalist’s car accident is mentioned or not. Sometimes what the manga explains in a sentence or two is expanded in the anime version. Especially in this last story arc. I guess they had some trouble fitting everything that they needed to say into only 3 episodes. So the animators went to 4 episodes and expanded some scenes in order to fill the out the time. The car incident may be one of those expanded scenes.
hmmmm, ok. I still have some doubts about her having any power. Considering that she is scared of spirits herself (remember the time when she chanted and wanted mai to be with her at the well), I highly doubt her credibility. I mean, yes, she can do all those charms and all, but that should not really indicate spiritual power.
I mean, knowing how to draw talismans does not mean you have spiritual power, no? Something to that logic, i will wait until further episodes to see for myself.
It probably is one of those expanded scenes since it has been mentioned as one of the background knowledge that Naru used as his basis for his alleged accusation.
hi thanks for the review i erally like your blog heheheh!!
i wish this anime can be also more on romance….
i’m naruxmai fans!!!
hahahaha, i think i am evil but i am completely in the other camp. I am a Naru x Masako fan, hahaha~ Ya, i am queer to support this and thanks for the compliment. It’s glad to hear someone likes my blog ^+^
I disagree about making charms not proving spiritual powers. It does take some amount of spiritual power to make an effective charm. Simply drawing the symbols isn’t enough to make them work. You have to infuse the symbols with your spiritual power. If simply drawing the symbols was enough, then anyone could do it. But charms have to be made by certain people in order to be effective. So, I would argue that Ayako does have some degree of spiritual power. I don’t think she’s as spiritually strong as the others. But there’s no doubt in my mind that she does have some powers.
>Hahaha, i like Masako more ~_~ more of her please.
Agreed,if only to see Mai squirm ^^.
I must admit I was a little dissapointed in this ep; because it was so obviously the teacher behind all this.It resolved pretty much everything though I’d like to have heard more about the onibi. The Gellers amused me: here, in the UK, Uri Gellar is largely a figure of ridicule after his infamous spoon bending fame was debunked by various sceptics. He still appears on TV, using his ‘psychic’ abilities; I think he even ‘willed’ London to win the 2012 Olympics he-he.
I understand from LKK that we have a couple of stand alone character development episodes coming up next. Should be fun ^^
hmm, maybe i am being overly skeptical over Ayako due to the fact that I disliked her. Haha, I knew my biasness in people tended to blind my judgment on things. Yes, there is probably some need to infuse power with spiritual energy and this is in fact stated during one of the episodes on the usage of such talismans. It is minimal but it is accurate to say that there is some energy involved.
However, I do agree that she is not spiritually strong as the others and do not have the ability to really sense spirits like the monk. She is the….weakest link ?
Ayako as the weakest link? LOL I’ll agree with that. She also seems to have taken on the role of the group’s mother hen. A very sharp-tongued, vinegary mother hen. She’s always patching up any injuries the others get.
are u sure she patches things up or she makes things worse?
tee hee. T_T I am so mean to characters i dislike ^+^
i was disappointed by this episode. it was too predictable (almost everything i predicted turned out to be true, which sucks)
although that spoon thing, i’ve seen something similar on another talk show, where they had an “ESP-buster” kinda person coming talking about how those tricks work. what they did was a little different. so what you do is take a metal spoon, hold in your hand while explain how or what you’re gonna do (basically buy time) while you secretly rub the point you are planning to bend. so by the time your talk is over, that section of the metal is already hot, which makes it extremely easy to bend.
the technique mentioned above i’ve actually tried on my own, and it works so well that i had to stop myself from breaking the spoon like naru did a couple episodes ago. it only takes less than 30seconds too, so if anyone wanted to try…heheh
hmm, actually, if u see how naru did it when he broke the spoon, his thumb was not at that position. It is very different from how he did it in this episode. Hahaha, that hot trick is another one that i have heard before but i did not try that before. Lazy too, and the fact that i do not have that many spoons.
It’s really interesting when u try to do it, no? ^+^. However, i do disagree Naru used a trick to break the spoon in a previous episode. That one was true PK ^_^
I tried the trick for bending the spoon..then I used both hands and I still couldn’t bend the STUPID SPOON!
But yeah, i think Naru really does have powers (:
well, it’s actually possible with some leverage, but of course don’t expect to bend it THAT easily. It’s a common trick among magicians.
thx sooo much! ^^
i have a question.
do u believe in these PK abbility stuff?