AHOGE ATTACKKKKK!!!!
Summary:
Sheepie bursts out of his body and takes on his spirit wolf form. Yataro is actually only a vessel, so the wolf joins with him, and gains the ability to speak and act about. The spirit’s name is Soumei, and he goes on a walk in Yataro’s body to the Cuticle Detective Agency. The gang discovers Yataro/Soumei napping on their couch, and are unsure about what to do until Haruka and Natsuki come to retrieve him. Soumei reveals that he is, in fact, Haruka and Hiroshi’s father, and the three of them can transform under the full moon. Soumei’s body is under police custody, which is why he cannot return to it. The second half of the episode has the cast turn into chibi wolves with Soumei as the father. A reversal has a killer goat chasing them with a large pair of scissors before they are saved by “FATHER PUNCHHHHHH!!!!!”
Impressions:
That was one weird episode. Not to say last week wasn’t crazy with the pink hotspring (PINK WITH BLOOD, MAN), but the whole “I am your father” thing…Cuticle Detective Inaba is probably the only show that pull this off and not look dumb.
I feel kind of sad that Yataro doesn’t talk, and is only a vessel. Soumei may be a spirit that needs a body, but when you look at it, he spends most of his days in the shape of a cute sheep, and occasionally takes “walks” in Yataro’s body. In terms of character reversal, Soumei is very different from Yataro, so it is immediately obvious to some of the characters that something is wrong. Yataro is very much the quiet megane type, but once you put Soumei in there, you get a pervy old man. The aggressive manner he goes after Natsuki feels wrong, because the dyanamic between them is broken.
In the exploration of tropes and stereotypes, this is probably a good way to see the way that you can isolate the two different characters. While Yataro is a “vessel,” and therefore devoid of “personality,” I still feel that he is defined by the viewer based on our assumptions, learned over years of anime. I have to admit (which I already did in the fetish/hotspring episode) that I have weakness for Glasses…so how much of what I think Yataro’s character is based on the fact that he is wearing glasses, and is relatively quiet?
The fanservice again is skewed for the fangirls. Soumei is pretty aggressive towards Natsuki, but she beats him back with the help of Haruki. There’s actually a new pairing this week, and it’s between Ogino and Ogata. Ogata drops by to antagonize Ogino on his 30th birthday, but this is definitely the type of situation defined in yaoi manga as “unrequited love.” Or maybe I’m reading into a show the intentionally overt in everything. It ends in a game of rock, paper, stupiditiy, but I can tell they get along fine. Bonding time between men~
The short story at the end of the episode was really cute! Soumei is not the ideal father figure, but I can’t help but enjoy the characters with ears and as chibis. Uh, and a giant killer goat.