Oh god, this climax. Other shows, take note. This is how you SHOUD NOT do on your final battle. How this show can jump from Yasaburou, Yaichirou fighting the Fellow Friday for their lives last week, to the conflict of Soun and Tenyama (that they eventually ended up in Hell again), to end with Benten and Nidaime’s face-off in a span of 5 minutes is way beyond me. It’s all over the place, and just like some oldschool screwball comedy where crazy events just keep stacking up by the minutes. But somehow this climax freaking WORKS. After all, that Kyoto world is fantastical crazy, so isn’t it the most fitting idea to have the craziest showdown ever for that fateful night? At the end of the day you won’t learn much how Soun faked his death or the reason why Nidaime come back to Kyoto, but whatever the case, the emotional development is clear. Soun pathetically uses all means possible to attain the Nise-emon title; and doesn’t matter the reason Nidaime comes back, he’s clearly unhappy and frustrated. With that Eccentric Family tied up all of the core casts’ character arc magnificently. I won’t lie when I say that this is the climax only Eccentric Family can pull off, with satisfying conclusions and feature almost everything you love about this series: warm, whimsical with heart. This show ends in a very high note.
Benten and Nidaime finally have a long-awaited battle. Well, all the previous events all build up to this battle and for a while I thought that Benten would have her first win since Nidaime is clearly angry, thus vulnerable. From before that fight there was interesting opposite visual metaphor for these two: Benten appears with ice cold atmosphere, while when Nidaime gets out of control, he burst out of flame. The battle between Ice Queen and Flame Boy has some great set-pieces, but that powerful fight slowly descends into the fight between kids as they desperately try to grab each other’s hair, and mouth and dirty trick are in play too. That fight feels sad. The two comes out of it both feel like losers. This is the first time we see both of them cry, in a way that they feel frustrated with themselves. Akadama sensei, a mentor for them both, faces his son eye-to-eye for probably the first time in decades, concludes nicely “If you feel frustrated, grow stronger”.
After that crazy night, the rest of the episode feels like a welcome epilogue where Yasaburou meets all the casts for the last time. Congrats to Yaichirou and Gyokuran for their tying the knot (imagine Yaichirou’s most nervous moment isn’t when he ends up in a hot pot but when he looks at his bride in gown. Puff!!). Kureichirou (the real one) makes amend with the Shimogamo again, and Yasaburou finally asks Kaisei for her hand paw, with some wry wisdoms from Yasaburou’s grandma, despite that means he can’t transform freely in front of her. The sweet last sequence where the three of them exchange to each other is probably the fitting ending to this fluffy tale. Here they are, as she grasps on the edge of his jacket, and they walk on for new adventure. That, my friend, is the red string of fate. I die a happy man now.
This second season certainly is a great season on its own. As to the question whether or not it surpasses the original season, let me just say that sequels most of the time are inferior to the originals (well, unless you’re The Godfather or Mad Max, but even with the former, the original still holds more cultural landmark than the second, and I am talking about complete story here – Light Novels where they will expand the world in 20 plus volumes are out of question), so the real angle would be if this second season is a WORTHY follow-up to the first? The answer is obvious, Yes. The Eccentric Family 2 not only improves the settings and the themes of the original, the new additions have been phenomenal and they are even more WOW set-ups than the first, most notably the Painting of Hell and the Moon parts. One thing that I feel this season improves on the first is the romantic part as all the romances feel grounded here. The Eccentric Family is considered as a signature work for P.A Works, mostly because how the staffs clearly love this world and I can totally see the love breathes through in every scene here. You say anime is looking doom in the future? As long as there are works like this, created by the passion of the staffs because they just fall in love the project like this; I don’t see anime dying anytime soon. The full review is coming soon but take note that since psgels originally covered the first season without a final impression, my review will be about the two seasons of The Eccentric Family.
Typing error:
“nd Yasaburou finally asks Benten to be his wife, ”
It is not Benten, it is Kaisei
Haha, thanks. Will fix it now. In truth I’m too overjoyed with Kaisei and Yadaburou finally together
Nidaime is supposed to be the ultimate guy in the series. He is frustrated at Tanukis, Tengus, and humans for being “foolish” and “uncivilized.” He thinks of himself as an “English gentleman”, one who can resolve issues without using force. So it shocked me how Nidaime lashed out at Benten, who is also frustrated that she isn’t at the top of the ladder anymore (and possibly because the guy she likes is of a lower class). In the end of the battle, Nidaime cries how he wasn’t able to control himself, like an “English gentleman” could. That’s why he admires Yasaburo, who he sees as very capable in navigating the social ladder to create a lot of trouble and solve problems. But in the end of the day, Yasaburo acknowledges that he is at the bottom of the social ladder, so he settles for Kaisei.
Just to add to that, I think Nidaime cried because he realized he wasn’t able to control himself. Why wasn’t he able to control himself? Was it because Benten resembled his lost love from 100 years ago? Maybe it’s because of his personality? I speculate that Nidaime is at his heart a very sensitive tengu. And he’s frustrated at his personality, probably frustrated that this caused the woman he loved to break up with him and frustrated that he and Akadama fought 100 years ago. He is one of the characters that hasn’t accepted who he is yet; he hasn’t accepted that he is also a “fool.”
There really are so many unanswered questions surrounding Nidaime. For a series adapted from a novel titled “the return of Nidaime”, I wish they could’ve explored his character more.
That’s a great read into Nidaime’s character, Shuf. Yes, I agree that he cries because he realized that he was also a “fool”, who at the end of the day still gets uncontrollably mad although he tries real hard to stay cool.
I know the series purposely left out too many details regarding him. Like we know he had a big fight with his Dad over some certain girl, but it remains unclear whether it’s love quarrel or Akadama-sensei just can’t stand the sights of his son loosing himself over some girl. We also know tat Benten met him back in Britain, but we never know for sure the reason why he came back: to see Benten again, to make amend with his father? or maybe he just doesn’t know anymore.
Ah, I just realized that the ice vs. fire is a clash of their personalities. Benten’s heart is freezing with dispassion while Nidaime’s heart is burning with passion.
All of the duals in the second season (from the “genius” vs. “fool” comparison in episode 1 to the “heaven” vs. “hell” in episodes 6-7 and the numerous duals in this twelfth episode) really highlight that the world is a difficult place. Nothing really works as expected. Those who succeed are those who can live in harmony with the contradictions in the world.