This episode felt like an intermezzo between the build-up and the confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. The status quo is restored with the training camp ending because Rikuo’s friends are no longer in danger (though it is a bit gullible of Rikuo, I can very much imagine that now that they’ve gathered 88 demons, they don’t really care for the small fry anymore).
It’s a major episode for Rikuo’s character-development, though. It’s a bit our of character for him to suddenly start worrying, but I like how he’s going to form his own parade of demons here, with youkai who are loyal to him, and not his grandfather.
It’s a shame though that this episode was supposed to be really awesome in the manga, because it wasn’t really standing out at that point for me. I wonder what happened here. My biggest issue with this episode was however that (or at least it seems like that) the previous episodes put into building up Rikuo’s classmates, it looks like they’re going to be put on a bus for the final confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. I guess that it was inevitable and all, but it does feel like something is missing again.
Rating: * (Good)
I am also wondering what happened…
…the first changes n the Shikoku arc were good actually and quite refreshing for a manga reader like me….
…then the Inugami arc came and… it wasn’t so good (it was badly executed and teh fact that the manga counterpart wsa great in both comedy, action and drama doesn’t help in shrugging of the bad feeling)
…but this episode was worse in almost every aspect… and the next one seems to be completely anime-original (which ain’t so surprising because in manga after the sakazuki exchange the final battle started immediately while here we still have 4 more episodes)
The original material was relatively good in the beginning but this time the changes they did to the anime were really bad. The manga portraits the exchange of sakazuki as an important moment right before the final battle, but in this case, starting with the part about Inugami the pace has been completely messed up. If there is ever another season I hope they follow the manga properly, since the story gets better after this arc.