Oh, do they also have ugly pugs in the hidden realm too?
— Are these supposed to be croissants? This reminds me that I haven’t had a good croissant in a long time. They’re not easy to master, so it would actually be really impressive if it turns out Aoi actually knows how to bake a good one.
— Oh, they’re just rolls. Aoi hands Byakuya a few so that he can feed them to the the cat ayakashi. I guess inhabitants of the hidden realm can eat anything. After all, I wouldn’t dare feed bread to my cat. In any case, the guy is oddly depressed about the whole situation.
— When Aoi isn’t paying attention, Byakuya tells Ginji that a certain Orio-ya might have been involved in the girl’s kidnapping. I don’t think we’ve ever met Orio-ya. Hell, I don’t even know if Orio-ya’s even a person. Anyways, Odanna isn’t the only one who treats Aoi like a child. All of these guys seem content to tell her nothing about the fact that she’s got a huge target on her back for no apparent reason. Her life is potentially in danger, but eh…
— Tanabata comes up so often in anime, but I have to confess that I know almost nothing about the holiday.
— Outside, Aoi runs into Ritsuko, the lady who had just dined at Moonflower in last week’s episode. She wants to thank our heroine for such an awesome meal, so as a gift, Aoi gets… uh, whatever the hell this is.
— That’s a shawl? Dude, that’s a tacky-looking shawl. I thought it was maybe jello. Why is it all neon-colored? Is she going raving? Meh, I guess it goes with Aoi’s silly pink bowl.
— The shawl is actually changing colors as it sits in that box. All this magic but no internet. Tsk tsk.
— These characters are so damn casual about their situation: “I’ve also had someone try to kill me before, so…” Aw, it’s no big deal! If someone doesn’t make an attempt on your life at least once a week, you’re not really living life!
— Makes sense: Ritsuko got married to someone in the hidden realm because humanity was kinda busy with world wars back then.
— I don’t really have much to say about Ritsuko’s love story. It’s just flat and uninteresting. She met a dude, fell in love, and he rescued her from a shitty, war-torn situation.
— Ah, so there it is: hidden realm food lets humans become more like ayakashi and thus age slower. Damn, the fountain of youth is right beneath our nose this whole time. We just need to invade the hidden realm.
— I don’t think I could ever marry someone who dies much earlier or later than me. I know you can’t predict illnesses or accidents, so there’s really no way of preventing this, but I’m just saying… hypothetically, if I could marry an ayakashi, I wouldn’t do it. I’m gonna be a wreck when my cat inevitably dies from old age, so I can’t even imagine what this would feel like with a loved one.
— It’s kinda weird that Aoi is now talking about how she hasn’t decided whether or not to marry Odanna. I guess repaying her grandfather’s debt is now mutually exclusive to their courtship. If she’s going to fall in love with him — and this certainly looks to be the case — I just wish he would meet her halfway. Like maybe he spends a bit of time with her in the apparent realm, and she can introduce him to all sorts of fun stuff like… I dunno, those crazy ramen commercials they have on TV nowadays. This show, however, is nothing but a love letter to a made up universe, so Aoi may as well throw away her old life. Don’t even think about it. Don’t even bother with your old friends, education, job, etc. Whatever dreams she had before she came here are now in the trash can.
— I could never live in the hidden realm. No games, no internet, no anime, no sports, so on and so forth. Also, there’s that whole deal with ayakashi wanting to eat humans. Yeah, that’s no good either.
— Apparently, the rainbow shawl can cover up for Aoi’s human weaknesses. That’s convenient. Ritsuko won’t specify exactly what human weaknesses she’s referring to, though. Nevertheless, Aoi now has this, Odanna’s pendant, and the tengu’s pot leaf. By the end of this series, she’ll probably have enough artifacts to conquer the hidden realm if she wants.
— I prefer Ritsuko’s shawl to Aoi’s. Its colors are little more tasteful.
— Fresh homemade somen noodles, huh? I’m jealous.
— So… does the hidden realm have the same stars as the human realm? Can you blast off into space in the hidden realm as well? Just curious.
— Welp, Odanna mentions the Milky Way, so it must be the same stars and the same universe around them.
— You know what would be cool? A counter at the end of each episode that tells us how much debt Aoi has managed to knock off. Amagi Brilliant Park had a counter for the park’s accumulated visitors, and this was a nice way to keep track of the hero’s progress. Our heroine needs the same thing… if she even cares about her grandfather’s debt anymore.
— Other than dragging her into the hidden realm without asking her first, Odanna’s been pretty nice despite being the girl’s main love interest. I’m used to the top guy in these reverse harem always being a humongous jerk (but with a heart of gold).
— Maybe you should stop getting into trouble then.
— Why don’t you tell him about it then?
— Aoi looks as if she’s about to tell the guy about her past encounter with an ayakashi, but then Odanna cuts her off to talk about his meal. Oh come on, is Aoi really going to shelf the entire conversation over somen noodles?
— The next thing we see is Odanna lying down to sleep, so the girl never tried to bring the subject up again. Amazing. This is such a stupid anime trope. Let’s just delay an important conversation just because I was interrupted once!
— God, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this flashback. We probably get a version of it in every single episode.
— Dude, gross: the ayakashi had promised chibi Aoi that they’d meet again once she became an adult. This is like those dudes waiting for a teen celeb to turn 18 so they can start openly talking about her sexually. Plus, why would any normal person be so interested in a kid that they just met? Ooooooh, I’m totally gonna waifu you. Later, though! When you’re legal! But ooooh, even though I’ve only met you once as a child, I’m still gonna keep tabs on you and set an alert on my spirit phone for when you turn 18! Sorry, but that sounds fucking ridiculous to me.
— Sasuke hates bread, so I hate Sasuke.
— Apparently, Shiro used to give Sasuke doggy treats. They’re actually just hardtack, but hey, it wouldn’t surprise me if Aoi’s grandfather had really tried to feed the guy doggy treats!
— So far, this episode has been about nothing. Aoi is now going to indulge herself in a kaiseki meal that she had been promised. That sounds boring. It’s like I’m watching a slice-of-life episode.
— Aoi also learns that Odanna likes to go to different realms to work. So he does visit the human realm on the regular… just not with Aoi.
— “…please use the phone in your room…?” There are phones in these rooms?!
— Oh wow, you can even see the old-timey phone in the back. Yo, why don’t you guys just steal a few more technology from the hidden realm. A TV and a gaming console would be real sweet.
— Why is the bathwater so yellow? Why does it feel thick?
— Maybe the color comes from the citrus that they like to add to the water. I could never do communal bathhouses, though. I don’t want to see anyone naked, and I don’t want anyone to see me naked.
— This episode feels so aimless. Now Aoi runs into Odanna because he just wants to spend time with her. I’m hoping he’s doing this because he wants to personally protect her from assassins or something, but at this rate, he’s probably just here to have another boring and dry conversation about their sexless romance.
— Oh, we’re just gonna watch as Aoi eats a bunch of food. Great.
— Aoi is amazed that the chef can make corn tempura without the corn popping. Um, someone should tell Aoi that not every corn pops.
— Yeah, I’m too squeamish to eat seafood that is still moving. Have you seen those moving squid dishes from Japan or Korea? Ugh, no thanks.
— Here’s an indistinct stew.
— And now, fruits trapped in jelly. For such a fancy inn, the food is rather homey. It’s also not very distinct from what Aoi serves at all. No wonder they felt threatened by her eatery. Aoi’s gimmick is that she’s serving human food, but these dishes all look like human food to me. I wish the anime had done a better job at distinguishing the inn’s food from what our heroine serves.
— At the end of the meal, Odanna gets up to leave. After all, he still has his trip to the human realm. That unfortunately means that he didn’t come here for anything cool. He just wanted to hang out with Aoi. God, nothing important happened this week. Nothing at all! It was just one boring, slice-of-life episode.
— I guess this is what you use since you can’t use smartphones in the hidden realm.
— Odanna tells Aoi to let him know if she ever has a problem. The girl replies, “I wonder if something like that would happen.” You mean like how a ninja tried to kill you? Or how you got trapped in a storeroom that was slowly flooding? Gee, I wonder if anything bad would ever happen!
— Odanna: “Be sure not to act recklessly.” Hah.
— As soon as Odanna leaves, a pair of assholes and their ugly dog shows up. But that’s it. That’s the end of the episode. Absolutely nothing of note happened until Odanna left.