Shigofumi, Episode 7
Kirameki
As much as I went and talked up the anthology factor of Shigofumi last episode, I’m also really digging the character developments that happened here.
Recap
We begin with a Kasai Haruno, a young would-be editor who’s apparently deemed useless by her publishing company; unexpectedly, she’s given her first real job after three years — editing for Mikawa Kirameki. Coincidentally, her younger sister Natsuka is the same girl that Kaname called when he saw the phantom Fumiko on the roof.
Sorry, dear. This is anime. You just can’t compete with a comatose girl.
Natsuka digs the nerdy type, and though she knows all Kaname really wants is to grill her about Fumiko, she is excited to have him over.
Let the stone throwing commence.
When Haruno forgets her map on the first day to her new job and Kaname helps Natsuka scan and email it to her, Kaname’s obsession brings him and Natsuka to the bizarre glass Mikawa complex as well. But that’s not all: Mikawa Kirameki is the recipient of a Shigofumi, and guess whose job it is to deliver it? Fumiko, of course. And Kirameki seems to roll with it, for some unknown reason.
So the end of the episode is a pretty unexpected turn of events as all the characters converge on Mikawa’s remote glass castle thingy.
What We’ve Learned
Fumiko did indeed shoot her dad back in the day, though obviously he still lives. She is well aware of her sleeping body in the hospital, which she calls her “other half.” And Kirameki is even more “eccentric” and cold-hearted than we’ve been shown in previous clips.
Thoughts
Kaname’s obsession with finding answers is pretty hardcore, but it’s getting to be a plot contrivance. Natsuka is a shy girl, so maybe she wouldn’t have really stopped him, but it seems like bad form to follow your sister to work on her first day, especially when she works for The Fucked-Up Poet (isn’t that another Shakugan No Shana character?). At any case, we’re made to accept that in order to get all the recurring characters together in on place at the same time. I suppose I’m OK with it, because it’s still a fine show, and the merger of anthology-style and recurring characters in this episode is pretty interesting.
Looks like next week is the flashback to Fumiko shooting Kirameki that a lot of people are probably pining for at this point. Seems early to lay those cards on the table, so hopefully there is a lot more planned for the rest of this season’s episodes.
- otou-san out!
