Mouryou no Hako Episode 4

Confusion, thy name is Mouryou no Hako.

Sekiguchi, our writer/journalist from a previous episode, stands over a dismembered body, bloodied cleaver in hand. But he states that things are not going as they should, and that he needs to go see ‘the doctor’.

In the strange hospital, chaos reigns as they search for Kanako and react to her sudden disappearance. Kiba directs the police present, as the inspector, Ishii, is too stunned to react. When he snaps out of it, though, he yells as Kiba for loitering, trying to cover for his own inability to react. Kiba leaves, and goes to speak with Youko and Yoriko.

Youko is upset, understandably so, and the local police officer tries to cheer her up. However, he flubs it, and Kiba hits him. Yoriko begins to speak, stating that Kanako has become an angel and ascended to heaven, and Kiba gazes at her, stating to himself that she is beyond his level, he can’t understand her. Kiba offers to help Youko find her sister, but Youko says that Kiba is her enemy. They are interrupted when the head doctor comes to say that Suzaki, his assistant, has been murdered.

Elsewhere, Kanako wonders if she has died. She has a vision of her arms and legs walking on their own, and then Kanako is shown as having new, mechanical limbs. A man speaks, saying that they’ll be together forever, and Kanako identifies it as Amemiya before drifting back to sleep.

Limbs begin appearing abandoned in boxes across Japan.

Sekiguchi meets with his publisher, who asks him to consider putting out a collection of his short stories. Sekiguchi thinks about how all his stories he draws from his life. As he is thinking, Chuzenji comes in with a delivery for one of his publishers, and comments about the dismemberment cases popping up everywhere. She also states that people are beginning to think a type of demon, a kasha, did it. Kasha supposedly dig up dead people and tear their bodies apart before scattering their limbs.

A young woman leaves home to prostitute herself, even as her mother begs her not to. That night, fake police officers harass a bunch of the prostitutes, and the young woman hides in an alley. But she is snatched by a man in a black coat who wears white gloves, and her dismembered body parts are found all over the place the following day.

Kiba thinks about the case, as he has been put on leave by his department. He mentions that Amemiya has vanished, and Youko asked him to help find her sister, apologizing for having accused him of being her enemy. But Kiba says he is out of the loop because of his leave. But a younger detective comes to visit him to ask his opinion on the dismemberment cases, as he thinks they are somehow related to Kanako’s disappearance – the man in the black coat with white gloves was seen near several of the victims prior to their murders.

Kiba goes to speak with a director friend of his, Kawashin, to ask a bit about Youko, as she was an actress. Kawashin says he heard Youko retired because someone forced her to, and mentions a man hanging around her who was quiet-ish, but smirked a lot, right before she retired. Kiba thinks of Amemiya immediately. Kawashin also reveals that the head doctor of the strange hospital, Mimasaka, is rumored to have been given government money to work on creating a superhuman soldier for use during World War II.

Out in the street as he walks home, Kiba hallucinates a group of soldiers standing behind him being torn apart and run over by a gigantic tank with multiple cannons coming from its turret. After it passes him by, he remarks that that is what a kasha is.

Outside a detective agency, Masuoka raises his hand to knock on the door.

Impressions:

Well, that was the first time in a long time where I felt genuinely creeped out by an anime. That whole scene with the soldiers being killed by the tank was extremely creepy.

I really love the setting of this anime – its so rare to get a historically-set anime that exists outside of the feudal age, and it really makes this show stand-out. It helps that Mouryou no Hako touches on actual issues of the time, such as Kiba’s inability to completely forget the war, and the issue of the red light district crackdowns. In both these cases, too, we get a glimpse of some of the desperation following the war, even into the 1950’s – Japan was not in great shape following WWII, after all.

I also get the feel of old-style noir from this, which is honestly pretty awesome. Kiba could easily pop up in a Raymond Chandler book.

I love this show~