The Eccentric Family Season 2 Episode 12

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Review:

Pretty sure I’d given up expecting a Nidaime/Benten face off and yet that’s what we get this week after Benten ‘allows’ Yasaburo to crash the flying bus straight into Nidaime’s home. Yasaburo really does think on his feet and yet he never thinks long term.

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Needless to say, Nidaime’s reaction to the destruction of his home is fairly explosive, but only after a sulk session. It’s probably where we see his true character coming out for the first time beneath his reserved exterior. He’s someone who when he doesn’t get his way packs the toys into the toy box and stomps off, and that kind of explains everything about him and why he left Kyoto in the first place. Just in case we weren’t clear though, they do give us a flash back to the fight against Akadama-Sensei that started it all and to be honest, that was kind of unnecessary given all the pieces had really come into place without it and all that seemed to do was break the pace of what was otherwise a fairly brilliant final episode.

That said, the fight against Benten was both cool and lame simultaneously. I never expected a fight between the two to result in hair pulling and biting and that just seemed all kinds of childish, particularly when Nidaime set Benten’s hair on fire (though you can’t say she didn’t deserve it at that point).

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Anyway, Akadama-Sensei returns after Benten is run off, makes a statement that indicates that Yasaburo is no longer excommunicated, and then has words with a crying Nidaime who has finally calmed down enough to see the destruction of his own home.

And that’s it. Crisis averted. Still, there’s all the loose ends to tie up including a tanuki wedding and so the final moments of the episodes have Yasaburo bouncing around to catch up with literally every character of importance so they can all have their moment of closure. That said, Yasaburo and Kaisei are too cute together so hopefully they work it out so he can actually look at her eventually given they’ve finally agreed they are going to get married one day. However, it is Nidaime’s words to Yasaburo that really sum everything up.

And as Yasaburo says, that clearly a result of his fool’s blood.

So the second season of this very odd show brings us right back where we started with the tanuki seeking a fun life, the tengu doing tengu things, and the humans being for the most part irrelevant to the actual plot and merely a minor hindrance in the grander scheme of things. I’ll do a full series review shortly.

The Eccentric Family is available on Crunchyroll.


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The Eccentric Family Season 2 Episode 9

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Review:

This show continues to demonstrate it really understands the bonds between its characters and it is that spiderweb of relationships and the stain that gets put on certain strands that makes this episode great. Admittedly, by itself it isn’t particularly impressive, but having seen all the pieces getting put into place leading up to this episode and then the episode terminating with one of the more dramatic entrances of the series and setting up a face off between Benten and Nidaime which we’ve essentially wanted since meeting Nidaime this season, plus placing the Tanuki right in the middle of it all just kind of makes everything work.

As usual Yasaburo is getting in way over his head and being cautioned by his brother, however he plows on with his plan though I don’t think even he realised just how big a storm he was in the process of stirring up.

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As viewers we’ve known that the Nidaime and Benten had to have had some backstory even though up until now they haven’t admitted to knowing each other previously. We’ve also known that a show down between the two was more or less inevitable and that when it finally happened it would be explosive. This episode leaves us poised for that show down but I can’t help but think they may delay a little longer, possibly fill in the back story or choose to go a different path. This show has never been about direct confrontations and has had a fairly interesting tendency to have situations resolve in unusual ways so I’m actually looking forward to the next choice. Whether I get a fight between these characters or not, I’m sure to be entertained.

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The Eccentric Family is available on Crunchyroll.


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The Eccentric Family Season 2 Episode 5

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Review:

Given how the previous year’s festival went I was really surprised that the Tanuki decided to continue with this festival but it ended about as well as expected. Still, that’s jumping ahead because the episode starts where the previous one left off with Gyokuaran having been sucked into the Shogi board.

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While this might have been a minor diversion in the long run it leads to some interesting interactions and conversations and fills in some of the gaps in the family history and their relationship with Akadama that has always been a little vague and yet is a significant cornerstone of a lot of the story.

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Still, it was definitely the festival itself and the showdown between Benten and Nidaime that stole the screen this episode. On a side note, I learned that his name isn’t actually Nidaime but rather that is some kind of title and one that Akadama instructed Yasaburo not to use. Which took us, of course, to the interesting discussion of what Yasaburo should call him, and so I was thinking ‘name reveal’ and yet instead we get an unveiled insult and we move on leaving us without really knowing what to think.

I am loving this continuation as it really is delving deeper into the relationships in this world and the interactions between the groups. While there still isn’t a central narrative all of these fragments are interesting in their own way and they are all tied to the family at the centre so it looks like it will come together nicely as season 1 did.

The Eccentric Family is available on Crunchyroll.


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The Eccentric Family Season 2 Episode 3

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Review:

Yasaburo loves trouble. This we learned during season 1 of The Eccentric Family. However, in this episode he seems to be inviting it from every direction imaginable. Once again, we get an episode full of encounters that all seem fairly random except that Yasaburo serves as the connection between all of these people but Benten’s return was the true highlight of the episode.

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Still, Benten’s arrival alone isn’t enough to make up for the overall driftless nature of the plot so far. As much as I love these characters, season 2 has been taking its time about getting to a point and that is somewhat holding the show back. And yet, Benten arriving and then watching her interact with newcomer character Nidaime… Well, that is interesting. If this show needed something to get things moving, the encounter between those two characters was more or less what the doctor ordered.

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This is the face of an extremely brave man. Few people would dare speak so calmly having just tipped Benten to the floor even if they did first lay out a table cloth for her to land on.

I just have to wonder if they’ll end up killing each other or falling completely in love because those two personalities together is going to make for an explosive combination. Of course, the show could back away from this plot point and go in a different direction. It is kind of hard to know.

The Eccentric Family is available on Crunchyroll.


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The Eccentric Family Season 2 Episode 1

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Overview:

The Eccentric Family followed Yasaburo in his daily life as a Tanuki trying to live an entertaining life (even while dealing with Tanuki and Tengu politics and trying not to get eaten). Season 2 picks up with Yasaburo still doing much the same though he seems to be finding all new troubles to stick his nose into.

Review:

With this you either watched the first season and loved it so a second season was really appealing or you’ve never heard of it and season 2 is offering you no reason to jump on board. It’s a risky move all things considered that they don’t bother providing any kind of real lead in for new viewers considering that the first season was fairly obscure (despite being great fun to watch).

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Despite that, these characters have all continued on after the events of season 1. The older brother is still determined to become a leader, the second brother is still being a frog in the well (though I guess technically he isn’t stuck that way and is now choosing that lifestyle), Yasaburo still talks himself in and out of trouble as he interacts with everyone and sticks his nose into trouble unnecessarily, and the youngest brother is still a bit of a wimp. Benten seems to be absent for the time, which is a shame given I loved her in season 1, but the introduction of Nidaime could be fun because so far he’s proving to be fairly entertaining to watch interact with Yasaburo.

No central story has really emerged yet, but that isn’t really a surprise. Though season 1 had a basic plot with the Tanuki election upcoming, a lot of what happened really had very little to do with that. Hopefully this season can be as fun as the first.

The Eccentric Family Season 2 is available on Crunchyroll.


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