Somali to Mori no Kamisama Episode 7: The Footsteps that Stalk the Witches

This was another episode of worldbuilding, but it was mostly an episode to set things up for whatever is coming next. We got to say goodbye to both Haitora and Uzoi, after the men had a tough but sort of sweet talk. Then the second half of the episode we spend time with the witches in their witch village and…wow. They’re all cute and their village is beautiful and they have good food and a bunch of books. Honestly it sounds like paradise.

What I’m shocked is how long Golem and Somali have been traveling! Episode 2 Golem said he had about a year and a half until the end of his time, but this episode he told Haitora that he only has 301 days left. I haven’t really felt much of a passage in time so it was shocking to hear that piece of news, and also really worrying. In all that time that they’ve spent traveling together, they haven’t found a single trace of humans. The search is looking more and more grim, and impossible. Somali thinks about this, and now she wants to learn more about the humans more than ever.

Looking at the witches, I’m a little confused. These witches look very much like humans, but…I suppose they’re not because they have magical powers? Doesn’t that create a sort of weird relationship with the other monsters? Apparently it doesn’t because we saw creatures of all kind in the witch village all normal. So, I suppose because humans don’t have any ability that they were sought out (amongst other reasons)?

And honestly, after all that Haitora described to Golem, I wonder why Golem would even want to take Somali to the humans. Yes, I know it’s so she can find her parents and she won’t be alone after he passes away. But what makes him think that they’ll even be able to find her parents after all this time, let alone any group of humans. Haitora mentioned that they live in hiding (though his group sucked at doing that) and that they’re constantly in danger. Somali can sleep in peace because she’s with someone like Golem, but her life will be significantly difficult if she does go back to the humans.

With how much the witches look like humans, Golem should make Somali dress up and blend in with them and she’ll have an easier life there, I think. Anyway, after parting ways with Uzoi and Haitora, Golem and Somali head to the witches’ village in order to find any information on humans. Amazingly, there’s only one book in their ginormous library that’ll help them, and Hazel leads them to her sister, Praline. The two sisters are pretty entertaining and Hazel is such a cutie, so while the episode was slower it was still fun. They manage to find the book but are then attacked by book-eating fish. They target The Chronicle of Haraiso, and with Somali’s newfound determination to learn about the humans, she does her best to protect the book but sadly it gets destroyed. As the fish goes to attack Somali, Golem jumps in to defend her but at the cost of his body. Now knowing that Golem is getting closer to the end of his life, it’s even more frightening when he gets into big fights. The way he attacks is amazing and I think this was the only time we saw him use his abilities so it was great to see, but the brunt of the fish’s attack must have damaged him alot.

This episode we saw a lot of emotion from Golem. The sadness he felt when telling Haitora about the end of his life approaching, but also describing his “peace of mind” when he sees Somali happy and healthy, even if there were some difficult times for both of them with Golem not really knowing what to do. Even so, those difficulties don’t matter because as long as Somali’s in good health, then it’s okay to him. The way he puts his hand over his “heart” as he understood Haitora’s words was a sweet moment, and I’m glad that Golem is accepting these emotions. We see this kind side to him again once Somali starts crying about not protecting the book. Ugh, seeing them together is great and I don’t want that to end. T_T

With the book destroyed, they seemingly have no options left. EXCEPT go after the last person that checked out the book and getting the information they know out of them. And that person is the head of the librarian, which we’ll see next time. I’m getting a feeling that things are going to start getting heavier next time, and while I’m bracing myself for all the emotions, I’m still excited. I also can’t wait to see more of the witch village and the witches in general because they are all so pretty and fascinating. The backgrounds this episode, again, were marvelous.