I can’t believe we’re doing this all over again. I keep checking Crunchyroll or Amazon to see if they’ve gotten the rights to something new and exciting to watch, but nope. Just Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi today. Sigh, let’s get this over with.

— There’s a new OP, but I don’t think it’s as good as the first one. In fact, the first OP is probably the only decent thing about this series.

— When Aoi gets to Orio-ya, all of the employees are glaring at her… y’know, the same way the employees at Tenjin-ya also glared at her when she first came to the hidden realm. Yep, the story literally runs out of ideas, so it’s just repeating itself. It gets a lot worse from here on out.

— Aoi gets thrown into a prison, but it’s a super comfy one. Not only does she get a nice meal — c’mon, fresh sashimi and hot soup for a prisoner? — but also a hot bath as well.

— The girl never really considers the consequences of her actions. Her friends back at Tenjin-ya must be worried sick. She’s just like her grandfather, I guess.

— In her sleep, Aoi thinks some more about Ginji. Was he the one who fed her? Was he?! Guess how many times she wiil proceed to ask him about this particular topic in this same episode? Zero. Zilch. Nada. That’s right! The deep and pressing concern that got her into this mess to begin with will not be addressed even once for the rest of this episode. This is so fucking stupid. “I need to know! I need to ask him!” Proceeds not to ask him. Ugh.

— In the morning, the kappa thing breaks her out of jail…

— …so the girl goes and gets distracted by the outside view. You’d think she’d display a sense of urgency, but nah. She ends up being caught by Ranmaru.

— Ranmaru also hates Shiro. What a surprise.

— Ginji just happens to be nearby, so he comes to Aoi’s defense. Ranmaru then taunts the fox dude about some curse, but do they explain anything about said curse? Of course not. The story is content to feed you breadcrumbs so that you keep watching.

— Instead of throwing Aoi back into jail, Ranmaru just wanders off… because… well, I don’t really know why. I guess he doesn’t need her to be in jail anymore!

— So she and Ginji meet up with Hatori, and they decide to go get some breakfast. They’re so casual about this abduction.

— Food and more food.

— Unfortunately, the other employees are eager to do what Ranmaru is apparently too lazy to do himself.

— But guess who it is? It’s the old birdman from earlier in the series! And guess what? He’s also flipping his shit again at Orio-ya! He then spots his son and flips his shit some more! Don’t you just love old people?

— So how do we solve this problem? Why, we have Aoi cook for the guy! She cooked for him back in Tenjin-ya and calmed him down, so she can just do the same goddamn thing here!

— In fact, wasn’t the beginning of the series so good? Since it was so good, let’s just repeat the same plot points.

— Like how Orio-ya also has an abandoned building equipped with a kitchen on its premises. This could be our new Moonflower!

— Cooking solves everything!

— Oh, now she worries about Moonflower. Now she worries about her old obligations and responsibilities. But it’s a passing thought. Aoi doesn’t trouble her silly, little head with it.

— Eh, I have a feeling this dish would taste and smell rather fishy.

— But yeah, Aoi calms Matsuba down again. Instead of telling the old man that she’s been abducted, she simply lies and claims that the two inns are somehow cooperating.

— Then we see Aoi cleaning the old building the same way she had cleaned Moonflower.

— Then she runs into the mean ol’ hostess just like how Oryo had picked on her when she first arrived at Tenjin-ya. They may as well just reair the first fourteen episodes of the series at this rate.

— Nevertheless, Aoi refuses to go back… not without Ginji. He’s just that important to Moonflower. Who else would do all that labor for her? She’d, like, have to hire people. God forbid she does that.

— She wants to know why the fox dude had to return to Orio-ya. The fox dude proceeds to tell her nothing, so story continues to leave us in the dark.

— Ranmaru then drops by and steals Aoi’s precious hairpin. This way, she can’t run away. He doesn’t realize, however, that he already stole Ginji, and that’s enough to prevent her from running away. Jokes on you, dog man.

— Next, Dog man tells Ginji to “[p]roduce results by obtaining that.” Yeah, that. Don’t you know what that is? God, I feel so sorry for you. That, man, that! What, you want the story to explain itself instead of drip-feeding you information? Are you serious? How else are we going to stretch this out into a 2-cour series if don’t beat around the bush?

— And just like that, the episode is over. Did we learn anything new about Aoi’s predicament? No. All we did was repeat the events from earlier in the series, because the writer has run out of ideas.

— There’s also a new ED, but whatever. A new show just came out on Crunchyroll, so I’m outta here. A new post probably won’t go up until after lunch, though. I want to make sure no other new shows come out.