I actually don’t know much about Princess Kaguya (*glances at Ghibli movie I haven’t seen*) so I probably missed out on some story elements that would have made more sense to me if I did know more (the bamboo, the moon?).
This episode was definitely better than the previous ones. So far the last two episodes have been disappointing but I can say that I really liked this episode. From the ending credits and the title of the show, it looks like Kaguya is probably going to become a recurring character, and then those shippy feels I got from her and Raikou might come up again. Because he totally fell for her.
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So the gang hear of a Horror once again. This time it centers around the beautiful Princess Kaguya. The question is whether she’s a Horror or not based on all the deaths that surround her. Raikou and Kintoki are in line to meet her in person to see if she’s a Horror or not. There were many suitors ready to wed Kaguya, and they all brought rare items that were requested by her. Once they aquired the rare item, they would be on their way to meet with the princess as we saw in the beginning of the episode. But before they could even meet with the princess, they would be attacked, killed, and then eaten, with the rare item they had stolen from them. This has happened repeatedly so there’s suspicions from our main group that Kaguya is behind everything, but they’re not 100% sure which is why Raikou waited in line all day to meet her.
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Kaguya herself is a pretty mysterious character. She talks of being found in a bamboo shoot, and things like she’s from the moon and that she waited for someone to bring her salvation, which is what she tells Raikou when running off with her when he found the chance. She’s rather calm about everything. She told Raikou that he would be the one that would bring her salvation so she allowed herself to be taken away from him. She explains things to Raikou and makes things more clear. She wants to be saved from the Horrors, and the Horrors appeared when the suitors kept bringing the rare items. The suitors wanted her so badly they would bring more and more rare treasures, and the negativity from these men are what brought the Horrors. Also, she actually wasn’t the one to request these items. So that made Raikou sure that Kaguya indeed isn’t a Horror, and probably one of the two suitors that made a fuss before her room.
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Except it wasn’t either of the suitors. One was killed, while the other went on a rampage and killed his parents for his family’s sacred treasure. He was about to kill Kaguya and himself, but he wasn’t the Horror. It was Kaguya’s parents. They were the ones that requested the items, and the greed consumed them and the negative energy which made them into Horrors, and they were the ones behind all of the murders and thefts. And in usual Garo fashion, Raikou transformed into his golden armor and defeated both Horrors without a problem. He had been right that Kaguya wasn’t the Horror(s) even though Seimei had thought otherwise. The poor princess was left alone. And even though she didn’t really know it, she realized Raikou wasn’t the one that was supposed to bring her salvation. It’s then that she floats off to the moon. She’s definitely not a normal human, I don’t know what she is, but this probably won’t be the last we see of her. I don’t think she’ll appear soon but we’ll probably see her again later.
This episode had a story that I actually cared about with an interesting character. Overall, this episode was much better. Though this episode didn’t really move the plot, a plot that I’m not really sure of right now, it was still a good one. I like the way the characters behaved, this episode made me like Raikou a little more. And the animation was much better this time which made me happy. The music was beautiful too, so it really set the tone in the right spots. The characters made fun of Raikou having no experience with women but you could see that he really fell for the princess, and I think those feelings were reciprocated. It’d be nice if we got an actual romance this time, unlike in Honoo no Kokuin where we were getting something nice but was soon taken from us for a stupid plot device (I’m still really mad about that). So a good romanctic-subplot would be nice, but I’d like more character development first.
This episode is heavily based on the ancient Japanese fairytale, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari). In fact, this new Garo assumes the viewer knows a lot of Japanese history and myth.
Basically, an old bamboo cutter finds a baby girl and some gold inside a bamboo shoot he cut down. He and his wife decide to raise the girl as their own, and become rich from the gold. The girl, Kaguya grows up to be a beautiful woman, and many suitors come asking her hand in marriage (she refuses all the time).
5 stubborn suitors remain, so she issues each of them an impossible challenge to bring back a rare artifact for her, to finally discourage them. Each suitor fails*, and she remains single.
(*Ex. Suitor A is tasked with bringing back a jewelled branch from a tree that only grows on Horai Island, the Island of Immortals. Instead, he secretly hires a team of craftsmen to make a branch exactly as described.
Kaguya nearly admits defeat, but is saved when the craftsmen all show up the same time to demand payment from Suitor A, exposing the branch as a fake.)
She also rejects the Emperor of Japan, but they become close acquiantances.
In the end, Kaguya admits she’s from the moon, sent down for a minor crime. Her term’s almost up, and the Moon envoys will come to pick her soon. Although her family and Emperor try to prevent this, the Moon envoys still pass through and take Kaguya back.
The Emperor later writes a letter to Kaguya and orders it burned at Mt Fuji’s summit so his message can reach her. It is burned with some immortality medicine she left behind as a goodbye gift. The burning flame is rendered eternal, which is why smoke always billows from Mt. Fuji’s peak (actually due to volcanic activity of the time.)
For a more complete translation of the full story, look up The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter as translated by Donald Keene and published by Kodansha.
Oh wow, thank you! Things make more sense now. 😀 That explains why the bamboo had a gold glow when Kaguya touched it. Unfortunately, I don’t know squat about Japanese history or myths/folktales so I think I’m going to be missing out on a lot of things. I probably missed out on some stuff already. That might be a good thing for me as I won’t know what to expect if this season of Garo will be following a certain folklore. But that’s also a bad thing if I won’t know what’s going to happen, or I might also not know the significance of the stories relating to the characters. To the Japanese audience this is fine, but to the Western audience who don’t know a thing about Japanese history are going to be lost. That’s why I don’t watch much historical anime because they usually always relate to real Japanese historical figures, or Japanese myths.
But thank you, I really appreciate you telling me the tale. 🙂