As promised in the last episode, we see Shiori take Hinako to the summer festival, which I guess counts as their first date. The festivity part of this episode is actually extremely brief. You have Shiori treat Hinako to some snacks and that lasts for about a minute as Hinako starts to recall when she attended a festival with her family, causing her to run off. I enjoy what happens next so it’s not a big deal but I kind of do wish the show leaned more into Shiori’s odd yet earnest attempt to have fun with Hinako. The fact that she really is trying to make Hinako happy when her ultimate goal is to eat her has serious potential for comedy.
Shiori finds Hinako away from the festivities, who wants to be left alone and questions if the mermaid really will devour her once everything is all said and done. Shiori then protects Hinako from another yokai attempting to ambush her and she once again reiterates her desire to eat Hinako when she’s at her happiest and ripest. There’s something funny about Shiori admitting in a pretty detailed way how she’d like to feast on Hinako’s flesh before then acting like a frustrated girlfriend asking her partner to show a little more gratitude.
At long last, Shiori asks Hinako why she wants to die and Hinako reveals that her family died after their car crashed and sunk into the ocean. Despite feeling suicidal, Hinako actually finds herself unwilling to kill herself as she heard someone from the car tell her to live. Since the identity of the voice is kept vague, I’m kind of convinced that the show will later reveal that the voice is actually Shiori’s. The implication that she’s been watching Hinako for that long or that she’s been manipulating her to live this whole time could be really interesting. I’m fine if it ultimately is what Hinako speculates it to be: something that she made up in her head.
Whatever the case may be, Shiori believes Hinako’s family wants her to be happy and she encourages her to do just that since it’ll make her delicious anyway. I’m still curious as to how this development will pan out. Even the characters themselves acknowledge that it’s a bit of conundrum for Hinako to live a good, happy life just so that she can let her yokai love interest kill her. I imagine this would eventually result in Hinako to reconsider things but only time will tell.
With the girls at a better understanding of each other, they decide to return to the festival. A funny detail here is Hinako still being covered in the dead yokai’s blood following Shiori killing it though Shiori assures her that the blood eventually fades away and normal humans can’t see it anyway. I’d love it if this becomes a recurring joke. Like, imagine having Shiori kill a yokai right before school starts and we get a montage of Hinako going through classes while technically still be covered in blood. That would be pretty darn funny. Come to think of it, if normal humans can’t see yokai blood, how come Miko noticed the Iso-onna’s blood in Episode 1…
So yeah, Miko is becoming an elephant in the room. She does notice Hinako and Shiori at the festival together and that prompts her to interrogate Hinako a bit the next day. I kind of was expecting Miko to be comically jealous like when she first meets Shiori but the fake happy face she makes and the tense sound FX and music suggests that Miko might have an unhealthy connection with Hinako. Definitely more overtly curious however is how at the end, Shiori kills another yokai trying to ambush Hinako, only to seemingly get spotted by Miko.
At this point, a connection between Miko and yokai is a definite. Honestly, I’m expecting Episode 4 to reveal that Miko is a yokai herself. It’d not explain how Miko can see yokai but it’d also address how Hinako has managed to survive against yokai before Shiori stepped in, something which Shiori ponders in the last scene. I’m hoping this is the case as it would make Hinako and Miko’s relationship even more interesting. Like, you have Hinako talk about how Miko was the one true friend she’s had after her family died. If Miko really is a yokai, you then start to wonder if everything Miko did for Hinako was genuine or if her true goal is to “fatten” Hinako up like Shiori is doing at the moment.
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