Night Tale of The Crying Village
- Original Airdate: March 31, 2024
Written by: Akiko Inoue
Directed by: Kiyotaka Taguchi
Summary
The village chief is found half-buried in the ground unconscious. Seeing Starshine Hoshino and Kajiki as the nearest people to the victim, the villagers lock them up. However, Houtaro and his gang believe them to be innocent and begin investigating the murder. However, a Malgam suddenly swoops in and Houtaro finds something a little different about that monster...
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: Renge asks her grandma if she remembered what happened when they were under one of Kyubi's illusions. Her grandmother's reactions can either be "I don't remember" (if the Academy wiped her memories) or clarifying just what she saw. Or perhaps her grandma assumed that Renge used the same spiritual powers Hoshino claimed to have as she was wearing Hoshino's planetary necklace..
- Batman Gambit: The Kyubi Malgam's attack were made in order to get Gotchard to destroy the rock that hid the hot springs but also relied on the Cosmic Chemies willing to aid him, which came about when Renge was able to stand up to protect her grandmother.
-
Bizarro Episode: The production blog notes that the two-parter was intentionally made to be "weird" and stand out from the rest of the series, since heavily-serialized series tend to have all their episodes run together in peoples' memories. - Book Ends: Subverted. Renge attempts to carry her grandmother on her back rather than the other way around, but Renge isn't as physically strong so they end up just walking hand in hand instead.
- Clear My Name: With Hoshino and Kajiki accused of the crime, Houtaro's friends try to clear their name.
- Creator Cameo: In addition to Berosol, director Kiyotaka Taguchi voices the giant Yokai that Renge, Rinne and Tamiko encounter in the Kyubi Malgam's illusion.
- Declaration of Protection: As Renge uses the Cosmic Chemies to fight off one of Kyubi's illusions, she declares that she will protect her grandmother no matter what.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: After getting trapped in the illusion world, Rinne attempts to transform into Majade, but since her ring isn't fully charged yet she's forced to simply watch on the sidelines.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The village of Kokonotsu is headed for a brighter future now that the land-grabbers seeking the land are driven away and a hot spring has opened up, which would revitalize the area.
- Face Your Fears: Cornered by one of the Kyubi Malgam's attacks, Renge steps up to protect her grandma. This earns the respect of the other Cosmic Chemys and they go to her.
- Foreshadowing:
- All of the victims of the Kyubi Malgam are shown to point in a particular direction, which happens to converge on the local shrine.
- At no point does "What's Your Fire", the song usually played when the Kamen Riders kick Malgam ass, appears. Another hint that the Kyubi Malgam isn't a baddie to destroy.
- Good All Along: Ninetail's true purpose was to have Houtaro open up a hot spring so the village wouldn't become a garbage disposal.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Kajiki's Insane Troll Logic leads him to accuse Starshine Hoshino of being a Phony Psychic behind the attack on the village chief to steal the village, but because he is Hoshino's "disciple", he gets accused of being a fellow conspirator himself and is locked up along with him.
- Homage: The episode is one to The Kindaichi Case Files, complete with remote village, the ambiguously-supernatural themes, and the Locked Room Mystery. Kajiki even drops Kindaichi's iconic line: "The culprit... is among us!"
- Locked Room Mystery: Kajiki believes that the villagers getting cursed counts as one due to the village being so isolated, but ends up getting locked up with Hoshino for his troubles. While more villagers getting cursed while they're in lockup should prove their innocence, it's Kajiki and Hoshino who become the final victims while locked up.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Hoshino's premonition coming true which means that he may or may not have actual spiritual abilities.
- Monster Façade: The kitsunes (Ninetail and the real one) team up to become a Malgam, not to hurt anyone but to provoke Gotchard into a fight that would create a hot spring for the town.
- Mundane Utility: Defied. Hotaro suggests they use SteamLiner to travel up the hill towards Ninetail's shrine, but Rinne refuses due to 1) no use of Chemies and 2) Hotaro would feel guilty even using one of his friends for something so trivial.
- Not Me This Time: Rinne runs into Atropos and asks if she was behind the attacks. She says she was only behind the last two Malgam attacks.
- Prophecy Twist: Hoshino's prediction from the previous episode about the "gate to hell" being opened is contextualized as uncovering a hot spring, seeing as it involves Gotchard destroying a rock wall and revealing the existence of something warm.
- Real After All: Turns out the fox spirit of the village was the one that was possessed by Ninetail.
- Shout-Out: At the end when Hoshino and Kajiki decide to become detectives instead, they then call themselves Sherlock Hoshino and Watson Kajiki.
Titular Chemy: Ninetail
Chemies recovered:
Gotchard: Ninetail
Renge: Grandsaturn, Firemars, Jupitta, Mercurin, Kinkiravina
Renge: Grandsaturn, Firemars, Jupitta, Mercurin, Kinkiravina
Released Chemies remaining: 15 (1 Artifact (Timelord), 2 Occult (Sayzombie and Mackraken), 6 Ancient, 1 Cosmic (Gokigenmeteon), and 5 Fantastic)
