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「ひとめあがり」 (Hitome Agari)
“Happily Ever After”
That was a nice little bow to tie Shabake up with. As the title clearly stated, it was indeed a “Happily Ever After”, and an earned one at that. Ichitaro exorcises the failed tsukumogami, Sasuke and Nikichi survive, and Matsunosuke gets to join Nagasakiya. I can’t say any of this was unexpected, but it was still satisfying.
One of my favorite parts was Ichitaro standing up to his parents and taking responsibility. He takes ownership of his future in claiming his heirship, something he avoided before. Not only that, he puts his foot down and insists that Matsunosuke be welcomed into the household. It was truly rewarding to see the timid, sickly Ichitaro grow into a bold man who refuses to be cowed by his elders. I’d say he’s more mature than his parents even, forcing them into taking responsibility for Matsunosuke, something which they looked the other way on for years rather than face the consequences of their decisions.
It was also very telling that despite having more exertion in the past day than he’d ever had in his life, Ichitaro didn’t fall severely well. Multiple characters even remark on how he’s faring better than expected. That confirms my suspicion that a fair bit of Ichitarou’s illness spells were due to everyone fussing and making him out to be more of an invalid than he really was. I don’t doubt that his health might be more fragile, but certainly not to the extent that everyone acted it was. If he can dash into a fire and exorcise pesky yokai, then he’s a healthy enough young man.
That was a pretty bad ass scene– him facing down that yokai, tossing talismans, and whipping out that sword. The itachi got put in their places too. While that is counted as a good ending, not all is sunshine and roses. As we can see- the neighborhood is in ashes and consequently, the job market up in smoke, as Matsunosuke testifies too in his difficulties job hunting. That, unfortunately, was a reality in Edo Japan, as common as fires were. At least the show didn’t sugar coat that.
We get a touching first meeting between the brothers. It was pretty meaningful to see how Ichitaro’s pendant protected Matsunosuke, channeling Ichitaro’s care and concern for his big brother- we knew that all along, but the truth finally sweeps Matsunosuke like a warm springn wind. Matsunosuke turns out to be a good addition to the Nagasakiya family (as expected). I wish the best for the brothers and am glad we got to see a resolution there. It was also interesting to see Sasuke and Nikichi’s yokai forms, something I don’t think they’d shown us before, though there was plenty of talk about what yokai type they were.
I want to call out the soundtrack- the music for this episode especially stood out. The music during the final battle especially was beautiful, whimsical even. I don’t know why I didn’t notice it more before now, but I wish I had, it was a gorgeous element. All in all, this was a nice little show. Nothing fancy, nothing ground breaking, but still a pleasant show to watch. It was slow to get started and a lot of exposition, but that’s par for the course with most novel adaptations. The slower pace fit the vibe of the show and made for a relaxing watch, a nice way to ease into the weekend, if you will. Ichitaro was a gem of a character- seeing him grow up through the course of 13 episodes felt like a mother or a big sister watching a young boy leave the nest- I appreciate how they worked that maturity into the pace of things and made you care about him. A gentle show with more than a hint of darkness, one I’m glad I picked up, and I’m certainly thinking about giving the novel a read now too.
