Episode 7 was a definite bait and switch for being one of the most incredible pieces of animated spectacle ever seen, but not for the reasons one expected. We were promised a brawl and got gut wrenching, beautifully animated, tear jerking drama instead. Without further ado, let’s recap what might be one of the greatest anime episodes to be released in 2024. Again, a warning that this episode in particular has graphic violence and sexual situations, viewer and reader discretion advised.
We begin with another exciting chase scene like we had in episode 4, as the ghost tries to eat Aira, the pink headed girl. The ghost goes on an insane rant at how by eating Aira, they can be together forever. Okarun carries her away to safety and traps the ghost by tricking it to tangling all its hair on the beams. Momo tells Okarun to beat up the ghost and Okarun says he’s not much of a fighter. Considering the fact that the previous ghosts were beaten by exorcisms rather than punching, we really haven’t seen much of Okarun’s prowess. Okarun tackles the ghost like a powerful linebacker and dramatically beats the ghost, but then the opening credits roll.
Yes, the big action climax resolved itself within the opening teaser as a big and shocking submersion of what the audience expected. We find out after the opening credits roll what the real plot entails, when we Turbo Granny points out that Aira is dead. Our heroes have obtained one of two golden balls, but this tragedy overrides that triumph. Okarun and Momo desperately attempt CPR on Aira to revive her to no avail. All of a sudden, the ghost comes back and offers to exchange her aura to save Aira. Our heroes understandably don’t trust her after she tried to eat Aira, but the ghost attempts to prove her intentions by ripping her jaw off in a graphic sequence involving a lot of blood. The ghost says that now she can’t eat Aira and will make good on her word.
What happens next is the sequence that anime fans are sure to
be talking about as we go through the cliche of the “feel bad for the villain” backstory, but done in such a masterful way that it really moved me. This scene of minimal dialogue is the story of a mother who really loved her precocious and adorable little child. She pampered this child and gave her fancy dresses and took her to dances all while heavily implicitly taking desperate measures to put food on table to provide for her precious pumpkin. The audience is fully expecting something tragic to happen to end this scene, and it turns out that the mother is attacked by a man implied to be her pimp for allegedly cheating him out of money. He brutally and graphically murders the woman right in front of this traumatized child. The men carry the child away and we have the horror of never knowing what happened with this child.
The flashback then cuts to Aira’s early childhood when she sees the ghost of the dead mother. The ghost feels intense longing to see her daughter and feels an attachment to little Aira. Aira mistakes the ghost for her mother, but her father, who can’t see the ghost, says that her mother isn’t there and that she will be “gone for a while.” We find out what that means when we cut to a funeral scene and Aira looking at her dead mother in a casket.
Flashback ends and we cut to the present day and the ghost successfully saves Aira, although at a heavy cost as she disappears. Aira hugs the ghost before she disappears despite all the trauma she put her through. Turbo Granny says that the ghost is unable to reach the peace needed to reach the afterlife and will return to nothingness instead. Thus ends the episode.
Next episode looks to be wacky romcom hijinks again based on the next episode preview, and it would be a welcome relief after all the trauma of this episode.
