Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be checking back in on The Demon Girl Next Door, wherein Shamiko most recently acquired a new part-time job, and is currently serving as a waitress in the most demon-haunted cafe in town. Fortunately, the demons in question seem like the agreeable sort; Shamiko’s tapir boss is at the very least utterly harmless, and while her Huli Jing coworker’s food might occasionally send her into an amnesiac stupor, that’s ultimately more a result of oblivious negligence than malice. In spite of Momo’s worries, Shamiko’s infiltration mission has been a clear success, and the team now have a direct line to this town’s demonic community.

The story could theoretically rush straight ahead towards more revelations about Sakura Chiyoda, but I’m guessing that, like with Mikan’s introduction, we’re presumably in for an episode or two of adjusting to these new arrivals. Even Shamiko simply hanging out with Mikan tends to inspire some jealousy from Momo, so I’m mostly just holding out for more adorable possessiveness from our least sincere of magical girls. Let’s dive back into The Demon Girl Next Door!

Episode 5

We open on an excellent parody sequence, as Momo’s daily process of kneading vessels for Lillith is framed as some kind of Street Foods-style local food documentary, complete with a narrator explaining the diligent pre-dawn preparation work that goes into constructing a top shelf vessel

“She crafts them in silence, not bothered by work that requires precision.” Considering this whole sequence is riffing on a specific kind of television show, I have to wonder how it was conveyed in the manga, or if this might just be another anime-original sequence. This adaptation crew have generally been working wonders; they’re not just properly capturing the comedy of the manga, they understand the manga’s tone so well that they can actually embellish and expand on it, crafting gags that embrace the unique conventions and opportunities inherent in TV animation

And of course, Lilith has nothing but complaints. Still, the fact that Momo goes to all this effort serves as an obvious marker of her and Lilith’s improving relationship

Momo’s also still smarting from Shirasawa’s lecture on all the free labor she extracts from Shamiko

“Raid! The Pink Plan to Retake Shamiko!” Yep, Momo’s handling this new job with about as much grace as I expected

Outside of work, Lico wears a cheongsam, reflecting her legend’s regional origins

Love this gag of Shamiko’s mother offering Shirasawa a platter of mixed greens. What do you offer an anthropomorphic tapir house guest?

Shirasawa reveals the last time he saw Sakura was ten years ago, right when his cafe was opening. And at last, we see Sakura herself! Well, we just see one arm alongside a voice, but it’s something!

Sakura states that there will be “a plague coming through,” but also that “she’ll explain everything later.” That at least tells us that Sakura didn’t intend to disappear, and is quite likely trapped in her core somewhere as Momo suspected

Lico states that cores like this were referred to as “hunpo” back in her hometown, alluding to the traditional Chinese concepts of hun and po – a dualist conception of the soul, dividing our souls into an ethereal “hun” that leaves the body upon death, and a corporeal “po” that remains with the corpse. I’m generally a fan of this sort of fantastical cross-melding, which explains the world’s vast diversity of supernatural phenomenon by positing that the various creatures dreamed up by our various cultures are all just different names for the same otherworldly beings. It’s one of the cleanest ways to envision a world where all mythologies are simultaneously true, and also results in a generally cleaner, more systematized style of worldbuilding than the alternative “every myth’s power reflects humanity’s belief in that myth”

While Momo’s only seen cores in the shape of crystals, Lico has apparently seen them take the shape of animals as well

Shirazawa requests Shamiko take her job back, Shamiko agrees, and Momo is predictably aggravated

“I think she’s just jealous because I’ve gathered so many more clues, so it seems like I’m the boss!” Love how Shamiko is completely oblivious to Momo’s feelings in a way designed to cause the most potential aggravation to Momo

Shirasawa reveals he actually created Tama Sakura! What now Momo, can you truly resist the siren song of that… meat-embedded cat creature? I’ve never been entirely sure what Tama Sakura’s deal is

This aggressively stupid conversation ends up improbably resulting in more important clues: Tama Sakura’s design was based on a spirit cat Shirazawa saw three days after that final day he met with Sakura, and who possessed an outfit that mirrors Sakura’s magical girl form. So it was presumably either Sakura’s familiar or Sakura herself in cat form

The rest of the cast let this key information slip by without a second thought, but fortunately Ryo is on the case. She swiftly deduces that the cat was likely Sakura’s core

Hoo boy, things are moving now! Using her keen cartographical instincts, Ryo further deduces that the cat leapt into the hospital Shamiko frequented as a child, leading Shamiko’s mother to admit that Shamiko mentioned seeing a cat during that time

God, every fragment we receive of Shamiko’s life back then is so casually devastating. Hearing her talk about meeting a cat through her respirator neatly emphasizes both her innocence and the punishment that’s been unfairly inflicted upon her. Her backstory parallels the inherent injustice of the system she’s grown up into

Though Lilith initially explained Shamiko’s power as the ability to invade others’ unconscious minds, she now adds that Shamiko can invade the subconscious of any object, sentient or otherwise. That only raises more questions for me; I’m trying to envision the process of invading the subconscious of a refrigerator, and coming up with nothing

In this case, Lilith just wants Shamiko to invade her own mind, and thereby uncover subconscious memories

We also get the long-suspected confirmation that Shamiko is indeed a succubus, perhaps the least appropriate demon designation for her personality and temperament

The show takes care to embrace the delightfully awkward juxtaposition of Shamiko declaring “now is the hour of my greatest victory” before nodding off for nappy times. It’s hard to appear menacing when all your best powers activate while you’re asleep

“You’re at the entrance to your memories from ten years ago.” “It’s an endless hallway. Almost like a dungeon.” Ooh, there’s so much potential here. Even this first image of her subconscious feels deftly chosen; as a child, and particularly as a child suffering from a continuing debilitating illness, it makes sense that young Shamiko would envision her world as one hospital corridor extending on forever into the distance. Children tend to lack the understanding of change’s inevitability that comes with experience, making them prone to fears like “is life going to be like this forever?” So of course Shamiko’s memories of that time embody that fear

“It’s really difficult for amateurs like you to return from the depths.” Wait, what? Lilith, I feel like you should have mentioned this before

“The dreams of people who constantly ruminate in their bad memories are the worst. Those dreams are usually covered in muck and hard to move in.” A reveal that brings Momo immediately to Shamiko’s mind. Fortunately, Shamiko herself possesses the relatively well-tended dreams of the mentally healthy. Must be nice!

Incredible transition from Shamiko’s luxurious transformation sequence to this cut of her sliding along under a cardboard box. This show’s dedication to characters making their own sound effects also continues to reap great riches

“I don’t care how wasteful it might be, or how flimsy the reasoning is, I refuse to leave that girl stuck in such an awful situation.” Strong words from Momo. In spite of her initially demanding Shamiko assist in this whole Sakura investigation, it’s becoming clear that Momo would rather Shamiko be staying safe at home the whole time. She cares deeply about Shamiko, but she does not trust in Shamiko’s strength

But just then, Shamiko is saved by none other than (a memory of) Sakura Chiyoda!

And Done

Dear lord, we are not wasting any more time, are we? As I said in the introduction, I really figured we’d be getting another episode or two of futzing about before we returned to the main investigation, but this episode instead saw us surging forward, tracking down Sakura’s last known whereabouts, and even actually meeting this figure of destiny. Frankly, the need for so much investigative and power-related exposition meant this episode on the whole was a little weighed down, but given how much narrative distance we traveled, it’s hard to imagine a more freewheeling version of this episode that hit all the necessary beats. We’ve basically hit the point I expected to end the season at within five short episodes, so I’m eager to see how things develop from here!

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