Hoozuki no Reitetsu : Hakutaku / How Their Discord Came To Be

Episode 3

Japanese Hell is so scary, or at least Hozuki is, that they sent European Hell's Lord, Satan, running praying to God to keep him safe.

Come on NOW you must be quivering in your booties (not panties!) at the thought of Hozuki and King Enma!

***SPOILERS***

So we go back to see Momotaro in Shangri-La who is working with Hakutaku and learning about Chinese medicine. Once again linking the last episode to this episode Hozuki with the three animals (Kakisuke the monkey, Shiro the dog and Rurio the bird) go to Shangri-La to get a peach to give to Shiro's bosses who are getting married.

The second part of the episode is a complete continuation with the story of why Hozuki and Hakutaku dislike each other so much.

Again you kind of get a good story episode followed by a "and this is what happens" episode, last time around it was the other way round but still kind of similar pattern. This time neither episode felt like it dragged, in fact the first one was very interesting till its punchline (he'd been up all night digging a hole from Shangri-La, through the Mundane world (Earth) all the way to Hell for Hakutaku to fall into) and the second episode added to that interest with the story of why they fell out (with the punchline that they'd made a bet over whether the next female to come out of the changing rooms bust would be greater or lesser then a certain size, the first person out they couldn't tell if it was male of female and at the end Enma gets the employee in to ask and it turns out that they are transgender which just causes more fighting between Hakutaku and Hozuki.)

It was a lot of fun and I have to say I now have a giant weak spot for Hakutaku who is such a stupid but funny character I can't help but love him to pieces!

It also kind of normalized both realms once more, they had a goodwill Olympics and all that. It is kind of nice to not have it slapped in your face that this is Hell and having the stories be about the people not the place.

I also love the contrast in how the two worlds are drawn, Hell is bleak like a drawing with very little detail, Shangri-La is like a childs drawing all bright colours.

It really is a good series. Keeps your interest all the way through but also makes you care about characters. In the end it really is just a comedy show but the comedy is so well written that you just get absorbed into the beauty of it all!