There’s just something so adorable about the Japanese word for “fluffy” (fuwafuwa – ふわふわ ) that makes me smile every time I hear it. Especially when hardened characters like Bort are saying it. x3
But anyways! This episode took Houseki no Kuni into territory I wasn’t expecting, namely that maybe a theory I was starting to consider a couple of episodes ago might actually be true: what if Master Kongo isn’t loyal to the jewel people? What if he’s tied to the Lunarians somehow?
I can also mark one of my questions from the last episode as solved – “shiro” (the Japanese word for white) is actually the name of the gigantic Lunarian that attacked Phos and Diamond in the last episode. That’s right, the damn thing is pretty much your average dog.
Anyways I’ll rewind my review back a bit. If you have been watching the series alongside me, you’ll remember from the last episode that the massive Lunarian had been sliced in two by Diamond, and then two smaller ones appeared in front of Bort a short while later?
It turns out that that’s how this particular Lunarian works: if you cut it in half it will split into two new Lunarians, then the two into smaller creatures. So Bort slices one of the two new Lunarians into vapor, and Alexandrite gets the other one (with some help from Phos). However instead of splitting into four, they re-materialize as these weird little three-eyed fluffy… dogs. There’s more than a hundred of them, and it doesn’t take long for them to start running around the compound and grounds.
One by one the jewel people help each other corral these fluffy beings into a giant makeshift crate, a task that lasts well into the night judging by the lamps surrounding Phos and the others. What they don’t count on is the giant Lunarian, Shiro, reassembling itself back into one big creature.
Phos is attacking Shiro when suddenly Master Kongo appears, having just woken up and come to check up on everyone. He commands Shiro like a dog, and the big Lunarian obeys his every command. But why? Master Kongo obviously knows this creature… but how? Phos (and only Phos, as they are stuck in Shiro’s fluffy fur and are close enough to hear their leader speak) hears Master Kongo say something that is immediately etched into their memory: “Poor Shiro, what happened to your hand?” Later on when reporting to Master Kongo Phos questions him on what that line really means, but he avoids answering.
Phos is very troubled by this new suspicion of theirs. What if Master Kongo is a traitor? Phos bumps into Cinnabar out on patrol, and Cinnabar shares something that rocks Phos’ world: apparently ALL of the jewel people have already had this suspicion, but they chose to believe in Master Kongo, regardless of the outcome. Phos knows they can’t go along with this mindset; they want the truth.
Phos returns to see Master Kongo and Shiro, bringing with them the last fluffy dog which Cinnabar had returned at their meeting a short while earlier. With this last addition Shiro is now whole again, and with a pat from Master Kongo it disappears into a vapor. Phos asks if it is returning to the moon, but Master Kongo says it has merely found peace. (Side note: the music playing during this scene is absolutely gorgeous. I do not know if there’s a Japanese instrument equivalent, but I know it as the Chinese instrument erhu. If you like this music, I recommend listening to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack because it’s used heavily on that. And it’s beautiful, of course. 😀 )
The next day Rutile comes across Phos out on patrol. Phos has been waiting for the Lunarians every day, wanting to ask them about Shiro and Master Kongo, but the pale beings haven’t returned. Murphy’s Law – Phos wants them to appear, so of course they’re nowhere to be seen. Rutile is heading to the Chord Shore to look for gemstone pieces for Padparadscha, their former partner who was born with holes in their body. They are the hardest jewel person next to Bort, but have been in a deep sleep for a long time and Rutile is trying to find new pieces to fill said holes.
Phos comes along and shows Rutile some ruby chunks buried under the sand. Rutile shapes them to fit the holes in Padparadscha’s body, and the two hold their breath to see if Padparadscha will wake up. It works!
But as we see from the preview for the last episode of the season, it looks like Phos ends up fighting Cinnabar for some reason, so maybe the two will become enemies?? o_o After all this time and all of Phos’ effort to help them??