So what’s the next story beat? How does Kihachi continue to prove his talents and make a name for himself? Well, we meet Akira, the young master of a weavery. It sounds like his father recently passed, and as a result, his mother locked herself away in a room to mourn. Yosuke then storms into the business, tactlessly demanding that the weavery install one of his steam looms. It sounds like he goes around town, promising to clear away people’s debts if they become reliant on him and his steam-powered machines. What the Nishikiya needs, however, is a mending of the heart; they need closure from the recently deceased proprietor. As a result, Inako starts making grand claims, telling everyone all about how Kihachi helped her see her late mother. Surely, he can do the same for this family! I mean, this is pretty reckless. You don’t want to make promises you can’t keep, especially when it involves the dead.
Well, Kihachi can’t back out now with all the expectations on him, so the kids split up for the time being. Kihachi locks himself away in his workshop as he tries to do something with sound. It looks like he’s trying to invent a speaker of sorts. The “Eureka!” moment eventually comes from a fortuitous accident. Meanwhile, Inako pays the Nishikiya proprietress a visit every day after school. She’s trying to convince the woman to leave her room. After all, Kihachi can come up with the best invention in the world, but it’s all for naught if the woman never uses it. Inako’s heartfelt plea — the desire not to see the woman have regrets in the future because she’s stuck mourning the past — eventually convinces the proprietress to finally leave her room. Only then does Inako mention how they can help the woman speak to her late husband one last time. Why didn’t Inako start with this? Would it not have worked?
Kihachi can’t bring back the dead. Instead, he invents something like a short-distance telephone? On the other end, behind a partition, Akira pretends to be his father in order to give his mother the closure she needs. Ooof, I don’t know how I feel about this. Yes, this will allow the woman the will to move on and continue living her life. But they are essentially tricking her. What’s the morality scaling on that? But this is the sort of feelgood story that won’t concern itself with these kinds of questions. You’ll just have to convince yourself that the ends justify the means. Still, I would’ve liked to hear how the conversation played out when Kihachi proposed his idea to the son. “You want me to do what now?”
Man, first the light bulb, and now the telephone. These kids need to… well, not so much capitalize on these inventions, but they need to do something to protect themselves and their intellectual properties. In fact, Yosuke is a terrible businessman, because he’s still fixated on the Electrical Catalog. Bro, you don’t need the ideas themselves when you can just aggressively patent everything that has already been made. Just ask Edison!
Yosuke gets slightly inaccurate information about what Kihachi has been up to: “The ghost of Nishikiya’s previous proprietor appeared, and they spoke for a few minutes with a device similar to a phonograph.” Funnily and fittingly enough, it’s almost like a game of telephone! Nevertheless, Yosuke is more convinced than ever that Kihachi has the “real” catalog, not realizing that Kihachi is merely using the real catalog.
The creep then descends into a dark chamber. Here, he starts nuzzling up against the hand of a puppet — almost certainly a puppet bearing Seiroku’s likeness. Huh… so is that it? Is that why he needs the Electrical Catalog so badly? He needs electricity to bring this puppet to life? Earlier in the episode, Yosuke had a dream of Seiroku that quickly turned into a nightmare about Kihachi. Clearly, Yosuke definitely despises the kid. I couldn’t help but wonder why these men never ask themselves what the dead might want. Inako’s father never once pauses to consider how his late wife might feel about how he’s treating his daughters. Likewise, I wondered why Yosuke was so quick to dismiss Seiroku’s own flesh and blood brother — why he hasn’t asked himself what Seiroku might want. Well, it’s clear now, isn’t it? He doesn’t reflect on Seiroku and his death, because he still thinks he can revive the man.
As weird as this seems, Yosuke’s morbid desire is at least thematically consistent. The electrical revolution doesn’t just usher in a new era; it also allows us to reconnect with our past. Kihachi helped Inako with her mother, then he helped the proprietress with her husband. And with each subsequent invention, he has also been helping himself come to terms with his brother’s disappearance. The key here, however, is that the dead never fully return. They only come back long enough for us to get closure. It’s as if we have to say goodbye to the past before we can look forward to the future. In theory, Kihachi should also be able to help Yosuke move on as well. The problem, however, is that Yosuke isn’t looking to say goodbye.
Instead, he wants to bring the dead back to life.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Why do the subs say Inago now? I thought her name was Inako. Whatever, I’m sticking with Inako.
— We get a brief memory with Inako and her mother at the start of the episode. I can’t remember if they ever told us how the woman died. But she does cough during this memory, so you can imagine a lot of things — maybe pneumonia. Back in the present, Inako wants to become a master brewer, but I doubt her father is rosy about the idea. He would probably prefer to hand the business off to a capable son-in-law instead of his own daughter. Speaking of the devil, the man enters the room just to yell at Inako and snatch away her mother’s notes. Does this guy ever have a normal exchange with his daughters anymore? Do they ever talk without him being mad or frustrated? It sounds like he’s always pissin’ and moanin’ about something. How can you live like that? This is your family. “If only you were here…” he says as he stares at his late wife’s altar. Yeah, she certainly wouldn’t let you sell your daughter off because you can’t run the damn business.
— Inako pays Kihachi a visit a lot these days. It’s hard not to imagine where this friendship is going. And with Yosuke still being a creep, I can imagine Kihachi needing to prove himself in order to “save” Inako from having to marry Yosuke, and he can do that by bringing the ideas within the Electrical Catalog to life. I would prefer, however, for Inako to save herself. She might be able to do so by proving to her father that she is far more qualified to fill her mother’s shoes than the old man ever was. Maybe we’ll get to see both kids come into their own. I just don’t want Inako to become a passive participant in her own story. Yes, this show is all about ushering in the electric revolution, but there’s no reason why Inako needs to take a backseat. In fact, are there any electric inventions that might aid Inako in perfecting her mother’s craft? I don’t know a damn thing about making sake.
— Yosuke shows up and demands the “real” Electrical Catalog. His pea-sized brain reasons that Kihachi must be hiding the real thing, ’cause there’s simply no way the kid could’ve produced the “full moon” without it. But surprisingly, a pair of men actually defend Kihachi and throw the spoiled Yosuke out on his ass. Kengo wants to see what the kid can do, so he gave his ex-military buddies a job. That’s neat, but how much does this pay? How can Kengo afford this? More importantly, I want a conversation to take place. I want to hear what Kengo has to say about Seiroku. It’s strange that this hasn’t happened. Everyone has all this love for Kihachi’s brother, but no one wants to talk to the kid about it.
— This is fiction, so I can easily imagine everything working out for the best. But I can also easily imagine the Nishikiya being disappointed when Kihachi’s invention doesn’t work as well as Inako had promised. They might then turn on Kihachi with anger.
— Yajiro has to urge Kihachi to ask Inako to open up about her mother. Guess the kid is clumsy with social interactions.
— According to Inako, her mother died from soot. This is the real problem with steam-powered engines. Not only are they generally unsafe, they require constant coal or fuel supply. Of course, electricity is often generated from the same sources, but the electric engine itself can often be much smaller and efficient. You’re not constantly being exposed to toxic byproducts just to operate them. Judging by the cough we saw earlier, Inako’s mother must have developed some sort of respiratory illness. The thing is, these maladies don’t appear out of nowhere. They develop over a long period of time. The woman essentially killed herself in order to pursue her craft. You can’t help but wonder if, at some point, a loved one tried to take her aside and warned her to stop before it was too late. It should’ve been her husband, but I have no confidence in that loser.
— Sheesh, there’s no one else who can help this woman? Her son is busy setting up, but what about their employees? Why is Inako doing all of this on her own?
— Inako goes smush. She’s seen better days.
— I’m glad Kihachi didn’t stick with his initial idea, which was an electric-powered bath. Let’s just say it wasn’t very safe. Let’s try to keep electrical currents away from water for the foreseeable future.
— Don’t need much to cover up Yosuke’s privates, huh?
