Sara Talks Anime

“Could you hold on a minute before you continue?”

SPOILER WARNING: This post contains details from Episode 9 of Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary.

CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses temporary main character death (even if I think I’m being generous by calling it that) and attempted suicide.

Oh boy, when was the last time I slapped a content warning onto one of my posts that isn’t just “spoilers be ahead, beware”? But, um…I’m not entirely sure if what occurs in this episode would count as “temporary main character death”, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. So I apologize if the content warning is inaccurate. Anyway, I may as well just talk about the episode now.

First, I’m excited to see that this episode goes back to the “two sections per episode” thing, and I hope this keeps up for the rest of the series. Like I pointed out before, I genuinely believe that this gives the stories more room to breathe. And now for the first section…

People Who Can See Them Aren’t Scary?

Woah, the section with a question mark is the first section of the episode, and isn’t the only section of the episode? That’s new.

This section provides backstory for Namu and how he met Mob. Namu’s always been able to see spirits and specters, though because others don’t see them, they misunderstand Namu wanting to help as Namu trying to start something, causing him to get isolated from his peers.

He also ends up in the hospital. During that hospital stay, he trys to kill himself by falling out of the window of his hospital room, though he survives due to some bushes. Waking up after falling out of the window is also where he meets Mob, who at the time was investigating a rumor in the hospital involving a haunted room that drove patients in it to commit suicide.

Mob tries his best to protect Namu, but when Mob decides to stake out in the exact haunted room that he was investigating earlier, it’s Namu who has to come in and save Mob, taking Mob in as a student.

This is a nice way to explain why Namu acts the way he does, and even connects nicely to the previous episode due to us already seeing him in action then. While I’m sort of disappointed to have a break between the final segment of the previous episode and the final segment of this episode, I feel like this segment offered information that we didn’t get in the next segment. And speaking of that segment…

Chie-sensei Isn’t Scary

This is the longer of the two sections, and for good reason. Hell, I’m still processing what happened in this segment. Take that however you want to take it. It’s just…jeezus.

After realizing that Kaya’s missing, Kaya’s father and Chie split up to look for her. It’s Chie that ultimately finds her with Namu, to which Namu removes the bag from Kaya’s head to show how currently her entire skin is pitch black (due to her skin color going to that color when she uses her powers), due to her seemingly not knowing how to retract her powers if she fails to exorcise something.

And then Namu reveals that the reason this happens is because there’s a specter inside of Kaya, RIPPING IT OUT OF HER BODY AND LEAVING HER HUMAN BODY LAYING ON THE GROUND AND LOOKING LIKE IT’S DEAD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I INCLUDED THE “TEMPORARY MAIN CHARACTER DEATH” CONTENT WARNING NOW?

Anyway, Namu’s basically like “there’s no humanity left in this child, it’s just this specter now”, and Chie’s like “so what if she’s a specter? She still has the same feelings as a normal human child!” and promises to protect Kaya due to being one of the only teachers to try and take the effort to understand Kaya, thus giving the specter a reason to go back to Kaya’s body, thus reviving her. Chie also returns Kaya to her father.

Just…do you understand why I’d still be processing that? It’s just…aah, Kaya! 😦 So glad she’s able to stay, but I may be hung up on this fact for the next couple of episodes. I apologize in advanced.

Still, I absolutely adore this series! I can’t wait to see how it spends its remaining episodes, because it seems there’s still so much to explore!

Previous Post: Episode 8 – “Reversed Isn’t Scary/The Sandbox Isn’t Scary/Nice People Aren’t Scary?”

Next Post: Episode 10 hasn’t aired yet. Assuming that no delays occur, it should go up on March 15th at 5:30 PM (PDT).