Dang it this episode flew by so fast! AND MY HEARRRRRTTTT!!!!! Ahh, it’s really going to be tough waiting for each episode every week again!
Although Odanna doesn’t want to reveal too much about himself, he has been dropping hints here and there which is serving as a trail of bread crumbs so to speak. We had also gotten to learn one of his dislikes thanks to Ginji, which happens to be pumpkins when they were talking about preparing for the Pumpkin Festival. I knew the moment Aoi came to learn that she’d find a way to tease him with it. She’s dead set on having him eat some pumpkin based recipes, there’s no escape!
We also got to see some funny interactions, perhaps the most impressive part of Aoi just being dead-pan when she walks into Odanna, Byakuya and Dr. Saraku all in the hot springs. Chiaki, what were you thinking just bringing her over without checking? He didn’t think twice about that, but most impressively Aoi didn’t freak out. Perhaps she was already mentally prepared for it whens he saw steam in the direction she was heading, haha!
But amidst the small moments of sweetness, just about every scene with Odanna made my heart ache!
In the beginning of the episode, Odanna shocked everyone when he suddenly told Chiaki, Byakuya and Dr. Saraku to stop with the marriage talks when they mused how he and Aoi looked like they were already married. He had expressed he doesn’t want to force Aoi into anything anymore. Instead, he is willing to wait however long it takes for Aoi to decide for herself if she wants him to be her husband.
Aoi was taken aback when he said it because when Odanna first brought her to Tenjin-ya, he said he wasn’t planning on waiting forever. But now, at the very moment she seems to be showing interest, he suddenly declares he’s no longer in a rush and would rather bid his time waiting for her to fall for him.
So all of this is making it difficult for her to tell whether or not he’s still interested– let alone if he even wants to marry her anymore. And it’s because for Aoi, Odanna is anything but an open-book. He keeps his true feelings and personal history closely guarded to his heart, and is very reluctant to share much about himself at the moment. It sure feels like we’re coming off of taking one step forward (at Orio-ya) and now two steps back when it comes to making progress with Aoi.
Bearing that all in mind, I find it quite curious how it appears as though Odanna is intentionally self-sabotaging their progress by perhaps deliberately making Aoi confused.
I say that, because ever since she confronted him about his potential involvement of saving her when she was little, and expressed wanting getting to know him better, all the sudden he’s distancing himself a bit. Heck, he even went as far as reminding Aoi to be wary of Ogres the same way her grandfather had: Do not to trust them as they are cruel creatures at heart, and what makes them dangerous is how their loyalty is tied to their own desires. He even suddenly apologized to her for kissing her forehead back when they were in Orio-ya’s ruins. Aoi never expressed any discomfort about that, but it seems he interpreted she thought negatively of it when she protested about him teasing her.
…And yet while doing all that, he hasn’t let up teasing her whenever he sees an opportunity to (such as suggesting they take a bath together, or implication he might kiss her). This is a prime example of sending mixed signals. So does he like or or does he not? Which is it? Aoi can’t figure it out.
So why is Odanna suddenly doing this? It’s clear as night and day that he loves her deeply, so why would he want to confuse her? Well, I can think of two reasons:
One, he doesn’t want Aoi to feel obliged or choose to marry him because he had saved her. I think of this as a no-brainer because the way I see it, Odanna wants to be loved for simply being himself, not for something he had done. And this distinction is so important because we all know how much he loathes himself being an Ogre. So even if Aoi were to come out to reveal the ayakashi who had saved is her first love– as long as the whole saviour thing serves as the basis of her feelings, I think Odanna would probably refuse to marry her.
Two, (and this correlates to the first point): It could also be he’s unsure at what point during their time at Orio-ya did Ginjji share details about saving her as a child. This could play a part of fearing all the progress they made there wasn’t rooted because she had grown to like him, but because she thought he was her saviour. So bearing that in mind, it could be he wants to ‘reset’ the progress they’ve made to an extent, by forcing her to take her time to re-evaluate her growing feelings. By doing so, he can discern what’s driving her feelings towards him to better ensure that their feelings are truly mutual with each other.
And if those reasons are where he’s coming from, then I completely understand why he’d reacting this way. After-all, we all know how fixated Aoi is with finding the mystery-ayakashi.
Needless to say, when it comes to Odanna’s self-worth, despite his tough front being an Ogre, he’s in-fact quite a vulnerable and lonely soul. One of the saddest things that he revealed to Aoi today, was if he were to lose his place at Tenjin-ya, he’d have nowhere left to go. This is heartbreaking because it suggests that he doesn’t think– despite all the kindness he had given to others, anyone would give him a hand when he needs it most. It’s clear that he’s very much loved and respected by the staff of Tenjin-ya just as much as he loves them. So I’d like to believe in the lengths they’d probably go to protect and help him if it ever came down to that.
And seriously, he doesn’t give himself enough credit where it’s due, so I’m glad Aoi made sure to immediately correct him when he spoke about how he is dazzled by her, and that it’s great that she can shine just fine without him. She knows very well that she was able to make it this much progress thanks to the support she had received from both him and Ginji. Sure Ginji’s was more public, but Aoi isn’t blind to how much Odanna has been supporting her privately and behind the scenes, and how much she appreciated it. And don’t even get me started on how much he had supported her during her time in Orio-ya. Heck, he didn’t even bat an eye when she got herself involved in finding the mermaid scale, and was about to go to a dangerous place on her own! Instead he was like: Okay, let’s go together then! Or what about the fair suggestion to make her new souvenir product Inferno Bun more memorable to have its own unique brand on the surface of it. GIVE YOURSELF SOME MORE CREDIT MAN!
Their time together her did did lead to another meaningful discussion though, which was the question of whether she resented him for dragging her to the Hidden Realm. While they did briefly touch on it at one point early on in Season 1, this was really the first time they’ve actually talked about bearing any potential resentment.
First, they did acknowledge that he did essentially kidnap her by dragging laying a trap with her bento’s cloth that dragged her to the Hidden Realm. Naturally that’s why she was pretty pissed off and upset at him for it when she had arrived. But ever since she found her groove at Moonflower, she’s became grateful that she had been picked up. Aoi understands all too well with no with no family to call her own, and no mentions of having any friends either, she would’ve been all alone. She has come to love everyone at Tenjin-ya, they are her what she calls family now, and not to mention she’s so busy with the job she loves, she’s no longer lonely!
And finally, at the end of the conversation, there was one thing that Odanna said that caught my attention about Ogre’s natures. It was the point about how ‘their loyalty is tied to their own desires’. I wonder if that’s something Odanna finds himself dealing with when it comes to his feelings for Aoi. His desire being tied to his love for her could explain why he is so unconditionally loyal to her. The fact he’s willing to wait for her, no matter how long it takes goes to show how patient he’s willing to be if it means having his love truly requited.
Oh gosh I talked a lot about Odanna– I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS OKAY!? But there’s still two more other points that happened this episode to touch on!
Okay one of the last thing I wanted to touch on for this episode, and that is Tenjin-ya’s secret loft (For simplicity sake, I’m going to refer to it as Ougon-douji’s domain.)
We already know from the wild goose chase throughout Tenjin-ya that there way the place works can be extremely mysterious. Running around blind is a sure way to get lost because you can never tell where the door might lead you to. Such was the case when Aoi was climbing up the ladder to the what she had thought to be the roof-top, only to discover after Odanna pulled her in what turned out to be a secret loft under the roof of Tenjin-ya that can be reached from Odanna’s balcony.
This space belonged to Ougon-douji when she was Tenjin-ya’s mistress innkeeper. The craziest thing about this place is not only the fact it looks like a roof-top garden with a view to the sky, but even her own manor is mysteriously hidden from view. It seems it can only be seen, and perhaps accessed through its reflection in the water fountain. Odanna describes it as Tenjin-ya’s greatest mystery that probably exists at Tenjin-ya. Outsiders can never see it, the garden is alive, and he says it can determine who is with Tenjin-ya and who isn’t. It has been around as long as Tenjin-ya, and Odanna has ties to this place too– though he never explained in what way beyond the fact he manages the vegetable garden he cutely named as “My Vegetable Garden” but I digress. In the end, Odanna never finished what he was saying, but if I had to guess, ‘if you’re ever (my wife)’ or something along the lines. So I do wonder if they were to get married, this is where they’d live together.
However, the main thing that caught my attention was the detail about how the garden can discern who is and isn’t with Tenjin-ya, which sounds a lot to me it has the ability to discern whether the visitor is ally or foe. Given that detail, I wonder if something going to happen down the line where it will be serve as unmasking either a spy or imposter that is at Tenjin-ya for malicious reasons, or simply serving as a safe haven for her should she need to hide somewhere where she’s unlikely to be found.
And finally, Kasuga and Kiyo! We got to learn a bit more about their relationship. Kiyo was actually quite a sickly child when they were younger, and he honestly didn’t know how long he was going to live. He was stuck at the hospital and happened to meet Kasuga when she snuck into his room while skipping class. The two quickly became best friends and Kiyo ended up being a positive influence on Kasuga. He motivated her to actually study more diligently in class and read more, so she could share the books such as the Apparent Realm with him. It turns out their mischief of sneaking out to the Apparent Realm for three days is how Kasuga was sent to work at Tenjin-ya as a form of punishment.
Being a rich girl, it was difficult for her to adjust, but it was thanks to Oryo that she was able to get comfortable and good at her job. This could explain at least one of the reasons why Oryo is so against her leaving for her engagement (besides the arranged marriage), as the two are quite close to one another.
Since Kasuga’s status as the minister’s daughter had been announced, everyone been kind of tip-toeing around her with being mindful not to give her much or any jobs to do. She’s bored out of her mind so she decided to ask Aoi if she could work at Moonflower for a bit. Thanks to her, Aoi found a fun name for her new souvenir product, Inferno Buns! It was nice to see the two working together for a bit and it was a sweet moment to see Suzuka just being happy to contribute even in the smallest way. It’s a good memory for a send off, if anything.
And with that said, I’ll finally shut up now! I’ll see you all in the next one~!
