[Review/Discussion Post] Shinigami-kun Ep 05
Finally, another episode of Shinigami-kun! I'm sorry for being late with this review, I'm just too tired lately (even more than usual and I don't get why >.>), in fact I wrote this review yesterday but couldn't finish it in one go. But now, here it is. Hope you enjoy iit! =)
In the last episode, Shinigami-kun had a tough time as he had to carry out his job. He didn't only have trouble to find the person he was meant to guide to the nether world, he also had to fight Akuma again who wanted to win some souls for himself as well as with his superiors. Let's see which trouble he will find this time.
This time, death (as always symbolized with a black feather) finds its way into the house of an older couple to get an old man, lying in a bed, obviously not able to move on his own that well any longer. When he awakes, he hears something rummaging in the cupboard and shortly after Shinigami-kun opens the cupboard and comes out, introducing himself with his common phrase.
He congratulates Sato Tomekichi to his upcoming death (I can't help, this is still creepy, Shinigami-kun XD) and is surprised but happy, when Tomekichi tells him, that this was actually a good thing. Shinigami-kun states, that this is the first time, that he met someone who was happy about him telling those news. Well, Tomekichi even looks forward to it, because this meant that he wouldn't be bedridden or ill any longer and that his wife will be at ease once he was dead.
Just a second later, his wife enters the room, bringing some food and Tomekichi tells her, that “they” finally came to get him. When she doesn't get what he's talking about, he introduces Shinigami-kun to her who then holds out one of his business cards to her to properly introduce himself. “Shinigami? Well, that's an unusual name.” (Ah, so cute that Obaa-chan >.<) It seems unusual that she can see him, because it seems clear, that only the old man is going to die but Shinigami-kun explains the situation. Since Tomekichi is bedridden, he assumes that his family's help will be needed to help him to finish undone stuff within his last few days before his death. That's why Shinigami-kun was allowed to show himself to her. Just like Tomekichi himself, also Grandma accepts Shinigami-kun immediately.
Settling down at the living room table, Shinigami-kun gets offered some rice crackers that he truly enjoys before he talks to the couple about the details of Tomekichi's death. It's strange, how calm the couple is and Shinigami-kun is even more surprised when Tomekichi's answer to his question what's left that he wants to do before dying, is actually “Nothing”. Instead he seems happy about what's coming, thinking about being able to play Shogi with his dead father again and stuff. Also his wife cheerfully announces, that she will follow soon so that they can play Mahjong as four people together with Tomekichi's parents again.
Again Shinigami-kun asks if there's nothing that Tomekichi wants to do before he dies and after thinking for a bit, his wife comes up with the idea to get some Unagi (eel) at the special offer of the nearby supermarket. Together with Tomekichi's wife, Shinigami-kun heads off to the bus station were he has to witness how ignorant and impolite some people behave towards the old Grandma, just because she's a bit slow to get out her bus card. She even gets pushed aside and Shinigami-kun is shocked about that scene. When he asks her if that wasn't queue jumping, she pushes the topic aside. Everyone has his reasons to rush, right? Even inside of the bus when a young woman snatches away a seat from the old woman, she just says that standing trains her old legs and that it would be good for her health. When Shinigami-kun asks her if she never gets angry, she tells him that she learned that getting picked on the bus was nothing to get upset about.
But then she even doesn't get one of the special offered eel because some younger women jump before her. The same happens with some eggs... It's a pity... Shinigami-kun seems not amused at all about the situation. That's just unfair, isn't it?! Nevertheless, Grandma doesn't seem upset.
On her way home (when Shinigami-kun isn't present for a moment), the old woman suddenly breaks down because her leg seems to hurt. She spills her groceries and it's no-one else than Akuma who approaches her and helps her with picking them up again. He offers her to be there for her if she needs him and that she could call him whenever she wanted a with to get granted. There are three wishes he can grant her after all. She misinterprets Akuma's offer as the one of a nice person and even mishears his name, so that she starts calling him Azuma-san.
“No, it's Akuma.” “Well, that's an unusual name!” (Where did we hear that already? =P)
Just the moment, when Akuma gets invited to have some tea with the old woman, Shinigami-kun shows up again, scolds him for taking advantage of the old woman's weakness and warns her to not get involved with that guy. Seeing them fighting a little, the old lady thinks that the two of them are friends and recommends them to get along well.
When she enters her house, Shinigami-kun makes clear that Akuma is wasting his time with her. The old woman has a beautiful heart and will definitely not fall for his evil offer. But Akuma says, that Shinigami-kun didn't understand yet the true human nature and that every human has an ugly desire if you unmask it... Well, let's wish, that Shinigami-kun is right!
Eating together, Tomekichi is thankful to his wife for the meal, even if she couldn't buy any eel. He's just happy with what he gets. His wife spots an upright floating tea stalk in her cup, a sign for good luck and the old couple is happy about this discovery.
Showing Akuma the happiness of those old people, he tells him that there's nothing to get for him here but Akuma doesn't give up that quickly.
2 days left until Tomekichi's scheduled death. His wife is cleaning the entrance when a letter gets delivered. It's from her son Junpei and the old couple excitedly reads the letter. The letter contains a picture of their grandson Makoto who just turned 20 this year. They are proud to read that their grandchild finally has started working and became a full part of society. Tomekichi starts to think and finally voices the wish to see Makoto once again before he dies. He didn't see him since he fell ill.
His wife suggests to write them a letter to tell them about his wish but then, Shinigami-kun interupts them, telling that if they send a letter, it would be too slow and their son and grandson wouldn't get the letter before Tomekichi died. Shinigami-kun offers to go to their house and to talk to them about the situation but Tomekichi's wife is against it since this would surely cause a lot of trouble (yeah, also to Shinigami-kun *thinks about Crowgirl and Shinigami-boss*).
In the end Tomekichi persuades her to allow Shinigami-kun to help even if his wife seems unease about it (and I guess I have an idea why she might be like this...). Soon after, Shinigami-kun seems to be troubled quickly. Something is off... and then, Crowgirl shows up, telling him to stop interacting too much with people connected to the ones who are scheduled to die. She tells him, that the grandson of the Satos, Makato seems to have had a bad friend called Kataoka and cut off any contact lately, having turned into a bad guy himself. Staring at Crowgirl, Shinigami-kun states, that it's unexpectedly kind of her that she already investigated about Makoto's backgrounds so that she could tell him. Of course, that's only because Shinigami-kun is so useless and Crowgirl got worried about Akuma stealing grandma's soul. That has got nothing to do with being kind to Shinigami-kun!
Yeah, yeah, of course not...
In the meantime, Makoto and his friend Kataoka commit some “Ore ore” phone calls (phone calls where actually strange people call others, pretending to be relatives of them and asking for money, pretending to be in trouble). Kataoka asks the person on the phone to prepare 2 million yen for him to help him out because of an accident that his firm does not have to find out about and settles a meeting at a supermarket. He “leaves the rest, means picking up the money, to Makoto”, who still looks a bit unease about everything.
Suddenly, Shinigami-kun shows up and makes himself visible to Makoto, warning him that his grandfather would be unhappy if he learned about Makoto helping to deceive people. He begs him to come along but Makoto refuses an drives away together with Kataoka.
Crowgirl jumps in again, telling him that it's useless but she ends up letting the old couple and Akuma in his care while she will take care of Makoto. Oh, so she will help as well, right? How nice of her!
Shinigami-kun returns back to Tomekichi's home and tells him that it might take some time to get his grandson here. When he tells him, that Makoto quit the company, Tomekichi wants to get up to meet him and to have a proper talk. That's the only thing he wishes for before he dies.
Grandma hears his talk in as she enters the kitchen and gets hold back from Akuma who again offers her that he would be able to help her letting her husband meet their grandchild. Her husband seems in trouble and Akuma's offer sounds useful...
Change of setting - Makoto and Kataoka drive in the car to go to the supermarket where Makoto is supposed to pick up the money they deceived from a stranger but then suddenly the car drives its own way! Like driven by an invisible hand, the car leads them into a side street and when they want to check the engine, it turns out that they just landed in front of Makoto's grandparent's house! Of course, this is the doing from Akuma, who else? Even if Shinigami-kun, who shows up right that moment, happy to see Makoto and thinking that he came on his own, doesn't fully get the situation...
He invites him in where Makoto's grandmother already had prepared lots of food but instead of warmly greeting his grandparents, Makoto pretends not to know them and says, that he doesn't have grandparents and that his father already left the family's house years ago and is missing since then. Shinigami-kun as well as Tomekichi are shocked from that information but Grandma seems to have known everything already. Grandma tells, that Makoto's father must have falsified the letters and I guess, that was the reason why she didn't want Shinigami-kun to get her grandson. But why then did she let Akuma bring him here? What made her change her mind?
She tries to make Makoto talk why he quit the company ad what happened. Tomekichi tries to give his grandson some advice but Makoto gets angry and yells at his grandpa that he doesn't want to get advices of a man that raised such a failure like his father that threw away his family. He doesn't even listen to Shinigami-kun or his grandmother but Tomekichi doesn't give up and tells Makoto, that he has to live honestly! Pushing down his grandfather, Makoto leaves the house when Kataoka tells him that the car works again and leaves behind his grandparents and Shinigami-kun.
Tomekichi is in pain and sad about what happened while Shinigami-kun and grandma put away the dishes she made into the fridge. When Shinigami-kun apologizes for being useless, she doesn't blame him at all but when she looks kinda sad, Akuma shows up and offers his help again for a second wish. Like this, Shinigami-kun finds out that grandma already took advantage of Akuma's power and is shocked about that.
Grandma tells Shinigami-kun that she always lived a modest life, even if living long became hard with the time passing by. But at least when her husband dies, she wants to send him off with a smile and everything she wants is that he can go while being happy and regretting nothing. That's why she borrowed Akuma's power. Shinigami-kun tries to persuader her not to lean on Akuma's power but is she able to follow his advice? The battle for Grandma's soul goes on...
Makoto get's treated badly by his “friend” when it turns out that they were to late to pick up the money and that their “business” didn't work. When Kataoka heads off, Shinigami-kun wants to persuade Makoto to go back to his grandpa and make up with him but even when Shinigami-kun tells him that Tomekichi will not live much longer, Makoto doesn't listen to him and just claims that he has no choice than to follow his senpai.
In the meantime, Crowgirl and Akuma can be spotted on a rooftop, observing Shinigami-kun. Akuma asks Crowgirl, if it's hard to supervise Shinigami-kun. Well, it's not easy. Nevertheless, she asks him a question in return. If he wants to steal a soul, aren't there greedier people? Akuma doesn't really answer the question but states, that after Heavens conventions, the shinigami in charge of the area in which a demon steals a soul will receive a punishment as big enough to make up tor the stolen soul from the list of people scheduled to die.
When Crowgirl asks him, if he's explicitly aiming for Shinigami-kun, he tells her that this would be his revenge on him for crossing his plans already twice in the past. Argh, take care, Shinigami-kun! >.<
In order to keep grandma from taking advantage of Akuma's power, Shinigami-kun again offers his help. Then suddenly someone knocks at the door and when Shinigami-kun goes to open it, it's Makoto! He has come to ask if it's true that his grandpa will die the next day. He thanks his grandpa for his harsh words and offers him help if he needs something. Everything goes so smoothly... I wonder if it's Akuma's work again...
Together with Shinigami-kun and his grandparents, Makoto spends some time in the park. Makoto even bought an eel-bento for Tomekichi!
When Shinigami-kun praises the taste of the roasted green tea, grandma makes a comment that Shinigami-kun's taste would fit the one of old people. She also picks on his appearance and calls it the appearance of a slovenly old man. (I'm sorry, I couldn't keep myself from laughing at those comments, thinking about how Arashi makes consecutively jokes about Ohno, calling him an old man and such xDDD)
Back at home, Makoto and Shinigami-kun help with cleaning Grandpa's room. The old couple watches them happily and Tomekichi is grateful, that he's able to greet his last moment in a clean room.
When Makoto leaves the place for a while, promising to come back after taking care of some things, Tomekichi consults his wife about something. He tells her, that he wants to leave half of his savings to his grandson after he passed away. His wife even encourages him to leave behind everything to Makoto and not to think about her who doesn't have a long future any longer anyways. But when she opens a hidden drawer to get the cash card, she finds only a note... it seems like someone took the card with him already.
And indeed, Makoto just exits a bank, taking a look at the money he just got just a moment after when he gets found by Shinigami-kun, who confronts him with the theft of the cash card. Kataoka comes along and takes the money from Makoto, seems like everything had been his plan. Shinigami-kun asks Makoto if he didn't intend to get back the money but Makoto doesn't want to stand up against his senior.
Just the moment Kataoka wants to get away with the money, Makoto's grandma shows up and slaps him right in the face (you deserved it! >.<). She yells at Kataoka, telling him that her grandson doesn't live to waste his life like he did. Letting him go with the money, she scolds him about his attitude and wants him to never meet her grandson again. After facing her, Kataoka gives in (too easily?), admits his defeat to a grandma and gives the money back to Makoto, stating that he knows that he can't keep on living like that. (Oh why do I sense Akuma's doing here again? >.< I hope I'm wrong since this would mean it's at least the second wish of lovely Grandma...)
After a proper talk, Grandma takes Makoto back to his grandpa and Shinigami-kun stays behind, watching them, accompanied by Crowgirl who just showed up. He asks her if the strength of a grandmother thinking about her grandson wasn't something really great but Crowgirl just calls him naïve... She tells him, that it's actually Grandma's second wish to Akuma, that got granted and made him cut the ties between Makoto and Kataoka. (Oh noes... I knew it... T_T) Shinigami-kun gets worrying, this means, there is only one wish left until her soul would belong to Akuma... Scolding him and telling him that he definitely had to prevent that from happen, Crowgirl storms off.
The next day - Tomekichi's last day. Makoto is back to his grandparent's place and offers his grandpa to play Shogi together with him. Tomekichi then shows his grandson an old photo album with his happy memories of his son Junpei and Makoto when they came visiting him when Makoto still was a child. But then, Tomekichi finds an envelop with more pictures, pictures of a funeral...
... and flipping through them he quickly learns that they are actually the pictures of the funeral of Junpei, Junpei's wife and his grandson Makoto.
Suddenly, Tomekichi remembers the day of their visit and that he was overly happy seeing them. When Junpei wanted to drive home, Tomekichi convinced them to stay longer since it was such a rare event that they came visiting him. But this lead to Junpei rushing on their drive home after that and so all three of them ended up dying in a car accident. It seems like because of the shock about what happened, Tomekichi had completely forgotten not only the deaths of his family members but also their existence and after that he fell ill and became bedridden.
Just two years ago, he suddenly remembered the existence of his grandson Makoto through a dream and when he asked his wife about him, she didn't know how to deal with it. When she went shopping, she heard someone being called by the same name as her grandson - Sato Makoto - and it turns out that there was a young man around the age Makoto would have if he would be still alive.
When she ran against some shopping charts, Makoto came running to help her and after he went away, she secretly took a picture of him, making him become the stand-in of her grandson Makoto for the sake of her husband.
Blaming himself for what happened to the real Makoto and his parents, Tomekichi starts to hit his head against the bedside table and while his wife tries to calm him down, Shinigami-kun can only stare at them sadly, processing what he just learned...
And then it happens, Grandma calls a third time for Akuma's help who of course just shows up next to her a second after.
Of course, Shinigami-kun quickly chimes in to warn her. If she lets Akuma grant her third wish, he will take her soul and she would not be able to meet Grandpa and her passed away relatives in heaven again. Nevertheless, Grandma seems fine with that, for Tomekichi's sake. She begs Akuma to erase Tomekichi's memory about the accident of Makoto and his parents and Akuma grants her wish.
Suddenly, Tomekichi stops hitting his head and remembers, that he wanted to play Shogi with Makoto. It seems like a dream to him that he's actually able to play together with his grandson and his wife smiles, when she sees her husband being that happy at the last hours before his death.
Not only her, Akuma and Shinigami-kun understand what this situation means, also Crowgirl had sensed it already and shows up. Winning his last game, Tomekichi welcomes the last evening of his life and with a last smile on his lips, leaning back in his seat, he dies peacefully.
Grandma seems happy about this outcome, other than Crowgirl because this actually means that Akuma will get her soul. But then, Akuma states, that he won't steal her soul away, explaining, that the first and second wish, making her grandson appear, making him cut ties with his bad friend, didn't really materialize because Makoto wasn't actually her real grandson. With this, her third wish was her first wish to be true.
Nevertheless, Akuma is surprised that not even one of Grandma's wishes had been for herself but only for other people. He complains that eating such a soul wouldn't be good at all for him anyways. Giving up, he disappears, leaving the others behind.
After that, Shinigami-kun tells her, that it's time to guide Tomekichi to heaven were he will meet his dead relatives and wait for his wife. He sends him off by cutting the invisible thread connecting Tomekichi's spirit with his body and together with Crowgirl he leaves the scene.
Behind stay Grandma and Makoto who then offers to help her hold Tomekichi's funeral which she refuses to accept. It had been enough what Makoto had done for her and Tomekichi. She also does not want to spend the rest of her live too happily because then she would become afraid of dying. So she begs Makoto to go home, to forget about her and to treasure his life.
But then, another day when Grandma tries to get a special offer at the supermarket, something that she wants to offer her husbands grave, and is unlucky again, she meets Makoto again who already got hold of something from the special offer, gives it to her and asks her to let him meet her again. This time, she thankfully smiles and nods.
Shinigami-kun and Crowgirl watch at them from above and talk about the situation. While Shinigami-kun admits that Akuma is a surprisingly nice guy, drawing back in such a situation, Shinigami-boss shows up behind the two of them, telling him that he's completely wrong. Again, he wants to show something to Shinigami-kun.
He drags him and Crowgirl into the room with the uncountable candles again and shows him the candles, which indicates the lifespan of a shinigami. It's the candle of Shinigami No. 298 in which area yesterday three souls got stolen by a demon.
The shortness of the candle of Shinigami No. 298 shows what is awaiting a shinigami that can't protect the human souls from a demon... and Crowgirl and Shinigami-kun get to witness how the candle loses its light which means that the respective shinigami vanished.
More than that, they now notice some red candles that they didn't know before. What are those? Shinigami-boss explains, that those are the candles showing the lifespan of a supervisor. Candle No. 16, obviously the one of Shinigami No. 298's supervisor also gets blown out since a shinigami and its surpervisor have to share responsibility and to bear the consequenses of something like this. Now Crowgirl and Shinigami-kun understand how much they are really connected to each other. Will they join forces even more after finding out such a thing?
In comparison to the 4th episode - which most of you just like I didn't like that much because it was full of plot wholes and stuff - I liked the 5th episode much much more! It was sad, so sad but also heartwarming. It showed how good and pure people can be. So good and pure that they are willing to sacrifice that purity for other people's sake. I was really moved by Grandma and her acting. It was so cute and sad at the same time when she wanted to send her husband off with a smile and everything she did for him in the past was for his own best. It's a sad story that connects them and she had suffered alone for so long because of her family's death since her husband forgot everything because of a shock. I felt so sad for her, she must have felt so lonely at times but she never complained and just was there for her husband. The ending made me cry so much. I was happy to see that Grandpa Tomekichi could die happily, spending the last time of his life thinking that he was playing Shogi with his beloved grandson but I think once he died, his memory might have come back, right?
It's awesome how Tokemichi isn't afraid at all of the death and his wife neither. I guess it's seldom that someone isn't afraid to die but I think ill people might really not fear death but maybe even look forward to it. I wonder, if it was the same for my Grandpa and if I will ever be able to ask him that...
Who else was impressed by Akuma when he backed off of getting Grandma's soul because he said, that he actually only granted one out of three wishes? I just wonder, if it really would have been impossible for him to get her soul or if he lied and showed mercy to Grandma because he was impressed by her since she only made wishes for other people and none for her own. It seems like it's essential for a demon to make a pact with his “victim”, to grant three wishes and then to get his victim's soul. It's a treat so to say. What if the treat is unfair? Are there demons who still steal away the souls of humans if they don't “really” fulfill their pact?
Shinigami-kun was soooo adorable in this episode, wasn't he? He was stunned by the positive reaction of Tomekichi when he learned about his death (we remember how surprised he was in the first episode Again, Ohno's facial expressions were just awesome! I loved them so much! And he was so cute, offering his help to Tomekichi when he wanted to meet his grandson! And someone else who was really nice in this episode was Crowgirl in my opinion. Even if she sounds harsh and strict, her actions show, that she actually cares. Why else would she help Shinigami-kun even before she learns that he and she are connected tighter than they thought?
In this episode we learn a bit more about the shinigami world.
First, we get to know that a shinigami will get punished if a human's soul gets stolen in the area he's responsible for. Because of this, Akuma clings to Shinigami-kun's and Crowgirl's area. He seems to be a “bad looser” and wants to see Shinigami-kun suffer because he already prevented him from taking souls two times in the past.
Second, as mentioned before, the candles which show the life span of a shinigami (white candles), seem to bee connected to those of their supervisor (red candles). If a shinigami makes a mistake, the supervisor's candle shortens as well and if the shinigami vanishes, his supervisor will do so as well. I'm sure, knowing this, the two of them will work together even more from now on, right? Maybe it's good for Shinigami-kun because it's possible that Crowgirl will take good care of their lifespan but I wonder, if Shinigami-kun won't “infect” her even more with his kindness. It seems like she has already softened a bit, otherwise she would not be helping humans that much, right? Well, let's see how she and Shinigami-kun will struggle through the next episodes...
Sorry for mistakes and typos or if my review was a little confusing, I also wanted to talk about more topics of this episode but I can't keep my head together any longer, I guess I should go to bed xD Good night, everybody! Hope I can do the reviewpost for Yowakate 7 tomorrow but can't promise! >.< (Let's see how dead I am tomorrow xD)
Please drop your opinion, I can't wait to talk to all of you again about this episode!
Sky
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In the last episode, Shinigami-kun had a tough time as he had to carry out his job. He didn't only have trouble to find the person he was meant to guide to the nether world, he also had to fight Akuma again who wanted to win some souls for himself as well as with his superiors. Let's see which trouble he will find this time.
This time, death (as always symbolized with a black feather) finds its way into the house of an older couple to get an old man, lying in a bed, obviously not able to move on his own that well any longer. When he awakes, he hears something rummaging in the cupboard and shortly after Shinigami-kun opens the cupboard and comes out, introducing himself with his common phrase.
He congratulates Sato Tomekichi to his upcoming death (I can't help, this is still creepy, Shinigami-kun XD) and is surprised but happy, when Tomekichi tells him, that this was actually a good thing. Shinigami-kun states, that this is the first time, that he met someone who was happy about him telling those news. Well, Tomekichi even looks forward to it, because this meant that he wouldn't be bedridden or ill any longer and that his wife will be at ease once he was dead.
Just a second later, his wife enters the room, bringing some food and Tomekichi tells her, that “they” finally came to get him. When she doesn't get what he's talking about, he introduces Shinigami-kun to her who then holds out one of his business cards to her to properly introduce himself. “Shinigami? Well, that's an unusual name.” (Ah, so cute that Obaa-chan >.<) It seems unusual that she can see him, because it seems clear, that only the old man is going to die but Shinigami-kun explains the situation. Since Tomekichi is bedridden, he assumes that his family's help will be needed to help him to finish undone stuff within his last few days before his death. That's why Shinigami-kun was allowed to show himself to her. Just like Tomekichi himself, also Grandma accepts Shinigami-kun immediately.
Settling down at the living room table, Shinigami-kun gets offered some rice crackers that he truly enjoys before he talks to the couple about the details of Tomekichi's death. It's strange, how calm the couple is and Shinigami-kun is even more surprised when Tomekichi's answer to his question what's left that he wants to do before dying, is actually “Nothing”. Instead he seems happy about what's coming, thinking about being able to play Shogi with his dead father again and stuff. Also his wife cheerfully announces, that she will follow soon so that they can play Mahjong as four people together with Tomekichi's parents again.
Again Shinigami-kun asks if there's nothing that Tomekichi wants to do before he dies and after thinking for a bit, his wife comes up with the idea to get some Unagi (eel) at the special offer of the nearby supermarket. Together with Tomekichi's wife, Shinigami-kun heads off to the bus station were he has to witness how ignorant and impolite some people behave towards the old Grandma, just because she's a bit slow to get out her bus card. She even gets pushed aside and Shinigami-kun is shocked about that scene. When he asks her if that wasn't queue jumping, she pushes the topic aside. Everyone has his reasons to rush, right? Even inside of the bus when a young woman snatches away a seat from the old woman, she just says that standing trains her old legs and that it would be good for her health. When Shinigami-kun asks her if she never gets angry, she tells him that she learned that getting picked on the bus was nothing to get upset about.
But then she even doesn't get one of the special offered eel because some younger women jump before her. The same happens with some eggs... It's a pity... Shinigami-kun seems not amused at all about the situation. That's just unfair, isn't it?! Nevertheless, Grandma doesn't seem upset.
On her way home (when Shinigami-kun isn't present for a moment), the old woman suddenly breaks down because her leg seems to hurt. She spills her groceries and it's no-one else than Akuma who approaches her and helps her with picking them up again. He offers her to be there for her if she needs him and that she could call him whenever she wanted a with to get granted. There are three wishes he can grant her after all. She misinterprets Akuma's offer as the one of a nice person and even mishears his name, so that she starts calling him Azuma-san.
“No, it's Akuma.” “Well, that's an unusual name!” (Where did we hear that already? =P)
Just the moment, when Akuma gets invited to have some tea with the old woman, Shinigami-kun shows up again, scolds him for taking advantage of the old woman's weakness and warns her to not get involved with that guy. Seeing them fighting a little, the old lady thinks that the two of them are friends and recommends them to get along well.
When she enters her house, Shinigami-kun makes clear that Akuma is wasting his time with her. The old woman has a beautiful heart and will definitely not fall for his evil offer. But Akuma says, that Shinigami-kun didn't understand yet the true human nature and that every human has an ugly desire if you unmask it... Well, let's wish, that Shinigami-kun is right!
Eating together, Tomekichi is thankful to his wife for the meal, even if she couldn't buy any eel. He's just happy with what he gets. His wife spots an upright floating tea stalk in her cup, a sign for good luck and the old couple is happy about this discovery.
Showing Akuma the happiness of those old people, he tells him that there's nothing to get for him here but Akuma doesn't give up that quickly.
2 days left until Tomekichi's scheduled death. His wife is cleaning the entrance when a letter gets delivered. It's from her son Junpei and the old couple excitedly reads the letter. The letter contains a picture of their grandson Makoto who just turned 20 this year. They are proud to read that their grandchild finally has started working and became a full part of society. Tomekichi starts to think and finally voices the wish to see Makoto once again before he dies. He didn't see him since he fell ill.
His wife suggests to write them a letter to tell them about his wish but then, Shinigami-kun interupts them, telling that if they send a letter, it would be too slow and their son and grandson wouldn't get the letter before Tomekichi died. Shinigami-kun offers to go to their house and to talk to them about the situation but Tomekichi's wife is against it since this would surely cause a lot of trouble (yeah, also to Shinigami-kun *thinks about Crowgirl and Shinigami-boss*).
In the end Tomekichi persuades her to allow Shinigami-kun to help even if his wife seems unease about it (and I guess I have an idea why she might be like this...). Soon after, Shinigami-kun seems to be troubled quickly. Something is off... and then, Crowgirl shows up, telling him to stop interacting too much with people connected to the ones who are scheduled to die. She tells him, that the grandson of the Satos, Makato seems to have had a bad friend called Kataoka and cut off any contact lately, having turned into a bad guy himself. Staring at Crowgirl, Shinigami-kun states, that it's unexpectedly kind of her that she already investigated about Makoto's backgrounds so that she could tell him. Of course, that's only because Shinigami-kun is so useless and Crowgirl got worried about Akuma stealing grandma's soul. That has got nothing to do with being kind to Shinigami-kun!
Yeah, yeah, of course not...
In the meantime, Makoto and his friend Kataoka commit some “Ore ore” phone calls (phone calls where actually strange people call others, pretending to be relatives of them and asking for money, pretending to be in trouble). Kataoka asks the person on the phone to prepare 2 million yen for him to help him out because of an accident that his firm does not have to find out about and settles a meeting at a supermarket. He “leaves the rest, means picking up the money, to Makoto”, who still looks a bit unease about everything.
Suddenly, Shinigami-kun shows up and makes himself visible to Makoto, warning him that his grandfather would be unhappy if he learned about Makoto helping to deceive people. He begs him to come along but Makoto refuses an drives away together with Kataoka.
Crowgirl jumps in again, telling him that it's useless but she ends up letting the old couple and Akuma in his care while she will take care of Makoto. Oh, so she will help as well, right? How nice of her!
Shinigami-kun returns back to Tomekichi's home and tells him that it might take some time to get his grandson here. When he tells him, that Makoto quit the company, Tomekichi wants to get up to meet him and to have a proper talk. That's the only thing he wishes for before he dies.
Grandma hears his talk in as she enters the kitchen and gets hold back from Akuma who again offers her that he would be able to help her letting her husband meet their grandchild. Her husband seems in trouble and Akuma's offer sounds useful...
Change of setting - Makoto and Kataoka drive in the car to go to the supermarket where Makoto is supposed to pick up the money they deceived from a stranger but then suddenly the car drives its own way! Like driven by an invisible hand, the car leads them into a side street and when they want to check the engine, it turns out that they just landed in front of Makoto's grandparent's house! Of course, this is the doing from Akuma, who else? Even if Shinigami-kun, who shows up right that moment, happy to see Makoto and thinking that he came on his own, doesn't fully get the situation...
He invites him in where Makoto's grandmother already had prepared lots of food but instead of warmly greeting his grandparents, Makoto pretends not to know them and says, that he doesn't have grandparents and that his father already left the family's house years ago and is missing since then. Shinigami-kun as well as Tomekichi are shocked from that information but Grandma seems to have known everything already. Grandma tells, that Makoto's father must have falsified the letters and I guess, that was the reason why she didn't want Shinigami-kun to get her grandson. But why then did she let Akuma bring him here? What made her change her mind?
She tries to make Makoto talk why he quit the company ad what happened. Tomekichi tries to give his grandson some advice but Makoto gets angry and yells at his grandpa that he doesn't want to get advices of a man that raised such a failure like his father that threw away his family. He doesn't even listen to Shinigami-kun or his grandmother but Tomekichi doesn't give up and tells Makoto, that he has to live honestly! Pushing down his grandfather, Makoto leaves the house when Kataoka tells him that the car works again and leaves behind his grandparents and Shinigami-kun.
Tomekichi is in pain and sad about what happened while Shinigami-kun and grandma put away the dishes she made into the fridge. When Shinigami-kun apologizes for being useless, she doesn't blame him at all but when she looks kinda sad, Akuma shows up and offers his help again for a second wish. Like this, Shinigami-kun finds out that grandma already took advantage of Akuma's power and is shocked about that.
Grandma tells Shinigami-kun that she always lived a modest life, even if living long became hard with the time passing by. But at least when her husband dies, she wants to send him off with a smile and everything she wants is that he can go while being happy and regretting nothing. That's why she borrowed Akuma's power. Shinigami-kun tries to persuader her not to lean on Akuma's power but is she able to follow his advice? The battle for Grandma's soul goes on...
Makoto get's treated badly by his “friend” when it turns out that they were to late to pick up the money and that their “business” didn't work. When Kataoka heads off, Shinigami-kun wants to persuade Makoto to go back to his grandpa and make up with him but even when Shinigami-kun tells him that Tomekichi will not live much longer, Makoto doesn't listen to him and just claims that he has no choice than to follow his senpai.
In the meantime, Crowgirl and Akuma can be spotted on a rooftop, observing Shinigami-kun. Akuma asks Crowgirl, if it's hard to supervise Shinigami-kun. Well, it's not easy. Nevertheless, she asks him a question in return. If he wants to steal a soul, aren't there greedier people? Akuma doesn't really answer the question but states, that after Heavens conventions, the shinigami in charge of the area in which a demon steals a soul will receive a punishment as big enough to make up tor the stolen soul from the list of people scheduled to die.
When Crowgirl asks him, if he's explicitly aiming for Shinigami-kun, he tells her that this would be his revenge on him for crossing his plans already twice in the past. Argh, take care, Shinigami-kun! >.<
In order to keep grandma from taking advantage of Akuma's power, Shinigami-kun again offers his help. Then suddenly someone knocks at the door and when Shinigami-kun goes to open it, it's Makoto! He has come to ask if it's true that his grandpa will die the next day. He thanks his grandpa for his harsh words and offers him help if he needs something. Everything goes so smoothly... I wonder if it's Akuma's work again...
Together with Shinigami-kun and his grandparents, Makoto spends some time in the park. Makoto even bought an eel-bento for Tomekichi!
When Shinigami-kun praises the taste of the roasted green tea, grandma makes a comment that Shinigami-kun's taste would fit the one of old people. She also picks on his appearance and calls it the appearance of a slovenly old man. (I'm sorry, I couldn't keep myself from laughing at those comments, thinking about how Arashi makes consecutively jokes about Ohno, calling him an old man and such xDDD)
Back at home, Makoto and Shinigami-kun help with cleaning Grandpa's room. The old couple watches them happily and Tomekichi is grateful, that he's able to greet his last moment in a clean room.
When Makoto leaves the place for a while, promising to come back after taking care of some things, Tomekichi consults his wife about something. He tells her, that he wants to leave half of his savings to his grandson after he passed away. His wife even encourages him to leave behind everything to Makoto and not to think about her who doesn't have a long future any longer anyways. But when she opens a hidden drawer to get the cash card, she finds only a note... it seems like someone took the card with him already.
And indeed, Makoto just exits a bank, taking a look at the money he just got just a moment after when he gets found by Shinigami-kun, who confronts him with the theft of the cash card. Kataoka comes along and takes the money from Makoto, seems like everything had been his plan. Shinigami-kun asks Makoto if he didn't intend to get back the money but Makoto doesn't want to stand up against his senior.
Just the moment Kataoka wants to get away with the money, Makoto's grandma shows up and slaps him right in the face (you deserved it! >.<). She yells at Kataoka, telling him that her grandson doesn't live to waste his life like he did. Letting him go with the money, she scolds him about his attitude and wants him to never meet her grandson again. After facing her, Kataoka gives in (too easily?), admits his defeat to a grandma and gives the money back to Makoto, stating that he knows that he can't keep on living like that. (Oh why do I sense Akuma's doing here again? >.< I hope I'm wrong since this would mean it's at least the second wish of lovely Grandma...)
After a proper talk, Grandma takes Makoto back to his grandpa and Shinigami-kun stays behind, watching them, accompanied by Crowgirl who just showed up. He asks her if the strength of a grandmother thinking about her grandson wasn't something really great but Crowgirl just calls him naïve... She tells him, that it's actually Grandma's second wish to Akuma, that got granted and made him cut the ties between Makoto and Kataoka. (Oh noes... I knew it... T_T) Shinigami-kun gets worrying, this means, there is only one wish left until her soul would belong to Akuma... Scolding him and telling him that he definitely had to prevent that from happen, Crowgirl storms off.
The next day - Tomekichi's last day. Makoto is back to his grandparent's place and offers his grandpa to play Shogi together with him. Tomekichi then shows his grandson an old photo album with his happy memories of his son Junpei and Makoto when they came visiting him when Makoto still was a child. But then, Tomekichi finds an envelop with more pictures, pictures of a funeral...
... and flipping through them he quickly learns that they are actually the pictures of the funeral of Junpei, Junpei's wife and his grandson Makoto.
Suddenly, Tomekichi remembers the day of their visit and that he was overly happy seeing them. When Junpei wanted to drive home, Tomekichi convinced them to stay longer since it was such a rare event that they came visiting him. But this lead to Junpei rushing on their drive home after that and so all three of them ended up dying in a car accident. It seems like because of the shock about what happened, Tomekichi had completely forgotten not only the deaths of his family members but also their existence and after that he fell ill and became bedridden.
Just two years ago, he suddenly remembered the existence of his grandson Makoto through a dream and when he asked his wife about him, she didn't know how to deal with it. When she went shopping, she heard someone being called by the same name as her grandson - Sato Makoto - and it turns out that there was a young man around the age Makoto would have if he would be still alive.
When she ran against some shopping charts, Makoto came running to help her and after he went away, she secretly took a picture of him, making him become the stand-in of her grandson Makoto for the sake of her husband.
Blaming himself for what happened to the real Makoto and his parents, Tomekichi starts to hit his head against the bedside table and while his wife tries to calm him down, Shinigami-kun can only stare at them sadly, processing what he just learned...
And then it happens, Grandma calls a third time for Akuma's help who of course just shows up next to her a second after.
Of course, Shinigami-kun quickly chimes in to warn her. If she lets Akuma grant her third wish, he will take her soul and she would not be able to meet Grandpa and her passed away relatives in heaven again. Nevertheless, Grandma seems fine with that, for Tomekichi's sake. She begs Akuma to erase Tomekichi's memory about the accident of Makoto and his parents and Akuma grants her wish.
Suddenly, Tomekichi stops hitting his head and remembers, that he wanted to play Shogi with Makoto. It seems like a dream to him that he's actually able to play together with his grandson and his wife smiles, when she sees her husband being that happy at the last hours before his death.
Not only her, Akuma and Shinigami-kun understand what this situation means, also Crowgirl had sensed it already and shows up. Winning his last game, Tomekichi welcomes the last evening of his life and with a last smile on his lips, leaning back in his seat, he dies peacefully.
Grandma seems happy about this outcome, other than Crowgirl because this actually means that Akuma will get her soul. But then, Akuma states, that he won't steal her soul away, explaining, that the first and second wish, making her grandson appear, making him cut ties with his bad friend, didn't really materialize because Makoto wasn't actually her real grandson. With this, her third wish was her first wish to be true.
Nevertheless, Akuma is surprised that not even one of Grandma's wishes had been for herself but only for other people. He complains that eating such a soul wouldn't be good at all for him anyways. Giving up, he disappears, leaving the others behind.
After that, Shinigami-kun tells her, that it's time to guide Tomekichi to heaven were he will meet his dead relatives and wait for his wife. He sends him off by cutting the invisible thread connecting Tomekichi's spirit with his body and together with Crowgirl he leaves the scene.
Behind stay Grandma and Makoto who then offers to help her hold Tomekichi's funeral which she refuses to accept. It had been enough what Makoto had done for her and Tomekichi. She also does not want to spend the rest of her live too happily because then she would become afraid of dying. So she begs Makoto to go home, to forget about her and to treasure his life.
But then, another day when Grandma tries to get a special offer at the supermarket, something that she wants to offer her husbands grave, and is unlucky again, she meets Makoto again who already got hold of something from the special offer, gives it to her and asks her to let him meet her again. This time, she thankfully smiles and nods.
Shinigami-kun and Crowgirl watch at them from above and talk about the situation. While Shinigami-kun admits that Akuma is a surprisingly nice guy, drawing back in such a situation, Shinigami-boss shows up behind the two of them, telling him that he's completely wrong. Again, he wants to show something to Shinigami-kun.
He drags him and Crowgirl into the room with the uncountable candles again and shows him the candles, which indicates the lifespan of a shinigami. It's the candle of Shinigami No. 298 in which area yesterday three souls got stolen by a demon.
The shortness of the candle of Shinigami No. 298 shows what is awaiting a shinigami that can't protect the human souls from a demon... and Crowgirl and Shinigami-kun get to witness how the candle loses its light which means that the respective shinigami vanished.
More than that, they now notice some red candles that they didn't know before. What are those? Shinigami-boss explains, that those are the candles showing the lifespan of a supervisor. Candle No. 16, obviously the one of Shinigami No. 298's supervisor also gets blown out since a shinigami and its surpervisor have to share responsibility and to bear the consequenses of something like this. Now Crowgirl and Shinigami-kun understand how much they are really connected to each other. Will they join forces even more after finding out such a thing?
In comparison to the 4th episode - which most of you just like I didn't like that much because it was full of plot wholes and stuff - I liked the 5th episode much much more! It was sad, so sad but also heartwarming. It showed how good and pure people can be. So good and pure that they are willing to sacrifice that purity for other people's sake. I was really moved by Grandma and her acting. It was so cute and sad at the same time when she wanted to send her husband off with a smile and everything she did for him in the past was for his own best. It's a sad story that connects them and she had suffered alone for so long because of her family's death since her husband forgot everything because of a shock. I felt so sad for her, she must have felt so lonely at times but she never complained and just was there for her husband. The ending made me cry so much. I was happy to see that Grandpa Tomekichi could die happily, spending the last time of his life thinking that he was playing Shogi with his beloved grandson but I think once he died, his memory might have come back, right?
It's awesome how Tokemichi isn't afraid at all of the death and his wife neither. I guess it's seldom that someone isn't afraid to die but I think ill people might really not fear death but maybe even look forward to it. I wonder, if it was the same for my Grandpa and if I will ever be able to ask him that...
Who else was impressed by Akuma when he backed off of getting Grandma's soul because he said, that he actually only granted one out of three wishes? I just wonder, if it really would have been impossible for him to get her soul or if he lied and showed mercy to Grandma because he was impressed by her since she only made wishes for other people and none for her own. It seems like it's essential for a demon to make a pact with his “victim”, to grant three wishes and then to get his victim's soul. It's a treat so to say. What if the treat is unfair? Are there demons who still steal away the souls of humans if they don't “really” fulfill their pact?
Shinigami-kun was soooo adorable in this episode, wasn't he? He was stunned by the positive reaction of Tomekichi when he learned about his death (we remember how surprised he was in the first episode Again, Ohno's facial expressions were just awesome! I loved them so much! And he was so cute, offering his help to Tomekichi when he wanted to meet his grandson! And someone else who was really nice in this episode was Crowgirl in my opinion. Even if she sounds harsh and strict, her actions show, that she actually cares. Why else would she help Shinigami-kun even before she learns that he and she are connected tighter than they thought?
In this episode we learn a bit more about the shinigami world.
First, we get to know that a shinigami will get punished if a human's soul gets stolen in the area he's responsible for. Because of this, Akuma clings to Shinigami-kun's and Crowgirl's area. He seems to be a “bad looser” and wants to see Shinigami-kun suffer because he already prevented him from taking souls two times in the past.
Second, as mentioned before, the candles which show the life span of a shinigami (white candles), seem to bee connected to those of their supervisor (red candles). If a shinigami makes a mistake, the supervisor's candle shortens as well and if the shinigami vanishes, his supervisor will do so as well. I'm sure, knowing this, the two of them will work together even more from now on, right? Maybe it's good for Shinigami-kun because it's possible that Crowgirl will take good care of their lifespan but I wonder, if Shinigami-kun won't “infect” her even more with his kindness. It seems like she has already softened a bit, otherwise she would not be helping humans that much, right? Well, let's see how she and Shinigami-kun will struggle through the next episodes...
Sorry for mistakes and typos or if my review was a little confusing, I also wanted to talk about more topics of this episode but I can't keep my head together any longer, I guess I should go to bed xD Good night, everybody! Hope I can do the reviewpost for Yowakate 7 tomorrow but can't promise! >.< (Let's see how dead I am tomorrow xD)
Please drop your opinion, I can't wait to talk to all of you again about this episode!
Sky
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