Kamisama Dolls episode 10 – And The Character That Needs to Die Right Now Is…

Some characters just need to die. It’s not that Mahiru is a bad character. Quite the contrary, she seems to play the yandere role better than I’ve seen in some time. But when she drops in to ruin Kyouhei’s, Koushiro’s, and Aki’s plans, knocks Koushiro’s sunglasses off, AND, unforgivably, dares lay a finger on Kuuko, welllll then. Bitch needs to die.

Things start off just where they left off with Mahiru crashing the party at a playground. She gets all close and clinging with Kyouhei in front of Utao and Hibino. It’s entertaining, and I kind of like Mahiru for a while. Even when her quick temper starts to show I’m enjoying her presence in things even if she’s being insufferable to the characters. She lashes out with her kakashi, Magatsushi, when Utao challenges her, then snaps right back at Koushiro when he tries to rein her in. Even such a patient dude as Koushiro gets pissed when she knocks off his sunglasses and the fight starts. And not even Moyako threatening to stop maintaining Magatsushi is enough to calm Mahiru down. Magatsushi is able to deploy a barrier within a set of cables that blocks control of other kakashi, and it works for a time until Utao jumps in and snaps some of the cables. Some intentionally, some as Kukuri falls through the air after getting smacked. Eventually it’s enough to force her into a retreat.

Problem, Utao? I have to admit, that’s a pretty great trollface.

Poor Koushiro, he’s pretty much the only adult in the room.

Hmm, not the greatest design even if it has that effective barrier. Kuramitsuha and Takemikazuchi are probably my favorites.

Just moments before getting /served/ by Utao’s clumsy fighting.

There was an interesting development after this. Before Mahiru ruined it. Kuuko brought Aki to the offices of a Diet member, someone she seemed to know but never met in person before, likely the customer that she was passing off disks to via a middleman. He’s the Diet member representing Karakami, though he’s not from one of the two main families there. He knows Aki, and reminds him of his family name: Kuga. It makes sense that Aki would be a member of one of the two families since they seem to supply all the Seki, but somehow I was expecting him to be the maltreated black sheep of the Hyuga family. The Diet member then has an interesting offer for Aki. He wants to village to look forward, to move into the future. And that should begin with the elimination of the village’s elder leadership. This was the man who freed Aki, though he expected him to immediately head to the main temple and start eviscerating elders. Instead Aki was drawn to Kyouhei, relying on him for some reason soon to be unveiled. Things are getting interesting, a new player comes forward and a plot seems afoot. And then Mahiru busts into the office and once again her arrogant attitude brings her into a fight. Unfortunately for Aki the room is the perfect size to set the barrier in and he’s just shy of killing Mahiru when Kuramitsuha is shut down. Kuuko tries to come to the rescue with her tazer but Mahiru trips her up and turns the tazer on her.

Dead.

Mahiru. Must. Die.

She then ties up Aki and injects him with some sort of drug that prevents him from communicating with his kakashi and starts going on about how she’d kill Aki if it weren’t for Kyouhei’s (strained) friendship with him. In the best crazy tradition she goes on and on about how much she loves Kyouhei, meanwhile spinning the tazer around her fingers by its cord. CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY!

Change we can believe in!

However, even if it’s Mahiru, I do like how Hibino is becoming the butt of everyone’s jokes now.

Remember Aki?

So close!

The last part of the episode is given over to a simultaneous flashback/recounting of events as Mahiru remembers and Kyouhei recalls to Koushiro what happened to himself, Aki, and Mahiru eight years ago and why things are like they are between them now. Kyouhei and Aki were out flying around on their kakashi when they came across Mahiru sleeping under Magatsushi near the entrance to a cave or mine shaft. She acts like the spoiled noble’s child that she is when they find her before Aki decides that they should check out the cave. Kyouhei follows on the dare and Mahiru tries to secretly follow behind them, and fails. They come to an open area with lots of bioluminescent moss and the shape of a strange kakashi underneath it. All three of them can sense something bad about the place but press on anyway. They wake up what seems like the Soul Calibur of kakashi, one without a Seki that consumes the minds of those it comes in contact with. Aki briefly gets a flash of its mind before it grabs him. Kyouhei frees him and asks Mahiru to join them in fighting it but none of them have any luck stopping it. Aki can’t pierce its armor, Kyouhei can’t do any damage, and Mahiru gets a direct dose of the creature’s insanity when she tries to use her barrier to control its Kamu no Chi and shut it down. Which may go to explaining her current unbalanced mental state. After more failed attacks Kyouhei drags the other two outside but the kakashi keeps following them and blasting away with an energy beam. Mahiru really internalizes events, specifically, Kyouhei being the one that saved her. Just as it looks like they’ll die Kyouhei blacks out and as he tells it to Koushiro, when he wakes up the rampaging Kakashi was destroyed but his mind has never been quite right since. Mahiru gets in the last word when things snap back to her, and she remembers Kyouhei opening Kakashi’s left arm that day. Presumably he used the same reflection ability that stopped Takemikazuchi, though from his telling of it I’m guessing that he partially linked with the monster kakashi.

Who knew the ancient evil artifact was a shotacon?

Brother! It’s not over! Not yet!

Mahiru at the Mountains of Madness.

Aiming for the flashing weak spot didn’t work so well.

Kyouhei never seemed like the sort of person Aki would follow, but this flashback does show him kind of relying on his old friend more back then.

Sounds like the Soul Edge. And it seems to be the Hyuga’s pet project to resurrect it. If they didn’t build it in the first place.

Final Thoughts: - Die, Mahiru, die!

- It’s kind of different that the big trauma in the characters’ pasts wasn’t even that destructive relative to what caused Aki to be imprisoned. The three of them were pretty well away from the village, no one got killed, and there wasn’t anything broken out there aside from some kakashi parts. The bigger impact was psychologically for them, and when they were fairly young too. Mahiru went at least partially mad from connecting to the monster kakashi and clutched really hard at the memory of Kyouhei saving her (and Aki not being able to deal with the enemy.) It probably started Aki down the path that got his kakashi taken from him. And something about it still seems to affect Kyouhei up to the present day.

- The occasional breaks for comedy are something I appreciate in this show, but it’s kinda creepy when it involves Mahiru. There’s…not really much that’s funny about that psycho.