Well, I’m late to the party but here is Kunihiko Ikuhara’s latest anime series… featuring kappas! While I’ve already watched his previous show Yuri Kuma Arashi, Sarazanmai is one weird show and this one is very hard to process.
Now then, let’s start this episode with Kazuki Yasaka, a middle-school kid who follows Sara Azuma and her fortunes in Asakusa Sara TV because he wants to connect with a certain person.
I don’t know who he/she is but Kazuki wants to get close to that person. Therefore, Kazuki always follows Sara’s fortunes where it turns out that today’s lucky item is boxes.
Also, I would like to introduce this guy named Toi Kuji who’s about to bust this car door open with a ruler and steal its contents. Man, Asakusa needs to have some decent security in order to avoid these criminal activities.
That’s until someone took a picture of Toi’s crime in which he’s really angry about it. Who is this person who took that photo?
Why it’s none other Sara Azuma, the famous fortune-teller. Why I’m scratching my head on why she’s outside the TV station and took a selfie when there’s a delinquent busting a door, I feel that she’ll be in deep trouble!
Anyways, Sara-chan ran away and while Toi tries to find her, she was gone which worries Kuji so much that his secret will be exposed.
On the other hand, Kuji stumbled upn Kazuki Yasaka who’s just praying at the kappa statue. However, Toi got suspicious towards Kazuki as he noticed that Yasaka’s cellphone is the same model as Sara Azuma.
Without warning, Toi Kuji pulled his trusty ruler and attacked Kazuki Yasaka. Yeah, Kazuki almost got beheaded with that sharp ruler there.
However, it appears that Kazuki hugged the kappa statue in which it got snapped and fell down to the ground.
And as you can see, this black smoke is a bad omen that Kazuki and possibly Toi will be cursed by the resident kappa later on.
Meanwhile, here’s another character named Enta Jinnai who is Kazuki’s childhood friend and he’s currently complaining on why he didn’t join the soccer club.
Unfortunately for Enta, Kazuki Yasaka has some complicated things that he can’t tell to his best friend.
Oh and speaking of complications, seems that Kazuki will have a hard time as Enta’s older sister/homeroom teacher Otone Jinnai introduces Toi Kuji to the class.
For Kazuki, he’s in real trouble because Toi is about to kill him after school. Let’s hope that it won’t happen.
For now, Asakura is having another weird phenomenon of floating boxes. This includes Enta’s box in which he doesn’t want anyone to see its contents, therfore Enta tries to get it back but I doubt that he’ll succeed.
On the other hand, it appears that Kazuki Yasaka and Toi Kuji are hearing some strange sound, which led them to this spot where the kappa statue once stood.
In its place is this strange-looking kappa who calls himself as Prince Keppi. Oh by the way, don’t call Keppi as a frog because saying that will make him angry.
And once he get angry, Keppi is gonna target your ass and take your shirikodama from it. That’s what happens to both Kazuki and Toi as they mistook the kappa prince as a frog.
And as you can see, it’s not pretty because Keppi will take their shirikodama straight out of their asses. Oh and the worst part? It’s gonna happen right now!
That’s because once their shirikodama has been taken away, they’re turned into a kappa. Oh, and it’s not just Kazuki Yasaka who suffered the wrath of Prince Keppi.
But also Toi Kuji who just got turned into a kappa. Oh and you think that they’ll be just the two of them?
How about adding Enta Jinnai to the mix as he stumbled upon this strange place and called Prince Keppi as a frog.
Well, that’s unfortunate for the trio but the weirdness is just getting started!
You see, Prince Keppi told them that they’re stuck in the Field of Desires where it’s populated by a bunch of kappa zombies.
Oh, and they can’t get out unless Kazuki and the rest defeat the boss kappa zombie. Otherwise, the city of Asakura will be in deep trouble
Speaking of the boss kappa zombie, here’s Hako Zombie where it’s obsessed with boxes. Hence, you see those boxes floating around the city and you may blame that zombie for taking them away.
Of course, Kazuki and the rest don’t want their boxes getting stolen by this kappa zombie as they work together to defeat it. Then again, how will they beat Hako Zombie?
Simple, all they need to do is to take out its shirikodama which likes to the zombie’s desire, specifically boxes.
Now then, I think it’s time for you to scratch your heads and possibly hurl because what they’ll do is to get inside the zombie’s asshole and take out its ball.
And as you can see, they managed to take out its shirikodama. Yeah, that’s the only way to beat one kappa zombie… and they’ll do it every episode.
Well, that takes care of Hako Zombie as the boxes that it stole will return to its rightful owner.
However, Prince Keppi told them that they must give the shirikodama to him. Otherwise, something bad will happen and I must say that they’ll be stuck in the Field of Desires forever, or worse when the kappa zombie came back from the dead.
Thus, they must perform the titular Sarazanmai in order to purify the shirikodama in order for Prince Keppi to swallow it.
Oh yeah and while Kazuki and the rest will revert back to their human selves, here’s the interesting part of Sarazanmai as they have to connect their hearts in order to purify the shirikodama successfully.
And because they need to connnect their hearts, this means that their deepest secrets will be revealed like this one for example. This box contains the costume of the famous fortune-teller, but who own it?
Well, it turns out that the box belongs to Kazuki Yasaka which he dress up as Sara Azuma. Yes, he’s a freakin’ cross-dresser and Kazuki doesn’t like anyone finding out his secret.
And so, the shirikodama is finally purified and it’s now safe for Prince Keppi to swallow it whole. Asakura is returned to normal and the three boys are back to normal.
But in any case, this is what you’ll expect from Sarazanmai where the episode starts with Sara Azuma announcing today’s lucky item, which is followed by a strange phenomena occured in Asakura, and then it ends with Kazuki and the rest taking the kappa zombie’s shirikodama in order to turn the city back to normal.
But speaking of Kazuki Yasaka, looks like he’s scarred now that his secret is exposed to both Toi Kuji and Enta Jinnai. Still, I wonder why Kazuki cross-dress as the fortune-teller in the first place?
Well to answer that, he’s doing it for his little brother named Haruka Yasaka. Oh yeah, and Haruka is a big fan of Sara Azuma which is why Kazuki is dressing up as famous fortune-teller. Of course, the real Sara Azuma won’t do that which is why Kazuki pretends to be Sara just to make his brother happy.
Anyways, I have to play catch-up with this series because Sarazanmai is kinda interesting, but then again it’s gonna blow my mind as I watch the rest of the series. With that said, I’ll see you next time!
The Anime Rambler - By Benigmatica 