Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Impressions:

Man, either my eyes are warped or the animation for this series is just that outstanding. I can only hope the high quality stays constant. Anyways, this episode introduces us to a few scenes of Tokine’s past involving her father. He was a great Kekkaishi from what I can tell but sadly he died protecting his family one night. We also learn that Yoshimori’s mother is also a Kekkaishi but is often away performing her duties elsewhere. The new character, Yomi, is an ogre user who uses the cover of being on a mission of surveillance to stay in Tokine’s household for a while. However, her intentions were anything but pure as she quickly drugged Yoshimori during a night of patrol and then declares that she’ll be taking the land for herself. Yomi says all of this of course to Tokine while mentioning how much she despised her father. The episode ends with a cliffhanger of Yoshimori waking up and struggling to get free to help Tokine who is currently in danger of being crushed by Yomi’s ogre, Yoki. Somehow I don’t think Yomi is as bad as she makes herself seem to be. This is because of the preview for the next episode where she can be seen smiling with her ogre and being consoled by Tokine’s father in the past.

On that note I love the way that the animators blend in the next episode preview with the ending theme, as the song that plays has a certain…dramatic and emotional feel to it. I think it adds to the overall enjoyment of Kekkaishi and I hope that they continue doing that in future episodes.