Fairy Ranmaru

Episodes 6-7

These two episodes give us just a little more insight into the murky pasts of the fairies, including the mysterious Sirius that is partially responsible for the "monster of the day" scenarios that keep cropping out. Things are also getting pretty serious between Homura and Uruu as their respective pasts begin to clash.

The actual victim last week doesn't get much of a spotlight. She's a woman who was pulled into a multi-level marketing scheme that seeks to rip-off the elderly with naturopathic-style cures for aches and pains. Meanwhile her own grandmother is dying and her boss that provides her the inventory treats her like dirt. There isn't as much depth to her story individually, and the situation with the boss echoes Pearl Jam's "Another Brick in the Wall" almost too perfectly. Instead, episode six reveals that none of the fairies are really aware of each other's place within fairy society. That is to say, only now did they learn that they're all heirs to their respective clans, which immediately sets off Uruu because his parents and Homura's dad have history.

We've more or less figured out that Uruu's mother had an affair with Homura's dad and he was punished for it. This still isn't stated outright but it's very obvious contextually by flashbacks shown in episode seven. It's also becoming more obvious that the Fairy Queen herself is like, not a good person. She seeks to control everything, and any connections not approved by her are not allowed. However, beyond the history between their parents, it's also obvious that Homura and Uruu disagree philosophically on what is the right thing to do in their respective roles and I'm more inclined to side with Homura on this one, in part because Uruu is not honest with himself, his motivations, or his own feelings.

Homura tries to embody his father who, by all accounts, seemed to be an upstanding person. A widower, he had a strong sense of righteousness when it came to lessening the suffering of others. Homura mirrors this, but Uruu seems convinced that this is the path to attachment which isn't allowed. Uruu seems to believe some suffering is necessary and forgiveness for transgressions is foolish; thus why he also 'hurt' his client by stealing her attachment as well.

Fairy Ranmaru tries to show the faultiness of forgiveness when Ranmaru chooses to forgive the crappy boss in episode six. Both the boss and later a representation of his mother beg for forgiveness until Ranmaru drops his sword. This is a ruse, however, and eventually Ranmaru must fight. This entire scene is cast in stark black and white and once the lie is revealed, the mother's shadow reveals a swarm of scorpions. I couldn't help but remember the parable about the scorpion and the frog, suggesting that for some humans, it is simply in their nature to hurt others even if it also harms themselves.

I admit that the moral messaging in Fairy Ranmaru is often confusing to me. Readers have pointed out that there is always a somewhat cynical side to it. Personally, I think it's better to forgive someone who seems truly penitent once rather than always striking first.

Ranmaru's own story is tied closely to Sirius, who refers to him as Betelgeuse. Both fairies are named after stars and come from the Lux clan. In fact, they were former partners, but Ranmaru has no memory of his previous life and Sirius has abandoned his Lux name for "Chilka." The name is Hindu but as of this writing I can't really offer any more insight into its meaning. All I know is that what Chilka is doing right now is bad (exacerbating the negative emotions within people) even if Fairy Society itself is also not good. We also learn that the split between Ranmaru and Chilka marks the end of the Fairy World's "Blue Period" (obviously a painting reference but in this case marks a peaceful time) and subsequent destruction. Allegedly, gathering up the "attachment" of humans will allow the fairies to rebuild.

Also for anyone concerned about the shady-looking lawyer that helped the grocers, I'm pretty confident he's a former fairy who broke fairy law (probably attachment to money) and now works as a lawyer. Takara visits him again to share the news about Chilka/Sirius being active. The Fairy Queen herself is out for Chilka's blood but it seems like her own butler isn't 100% on board.

Back to Uruu and Homura; Homura encounters the manga artist (Shiina) again who doesn't remember him since her memories were wiped after her last encounter. She now has an assistant and her "not Demon Slayer" manga is getting an anime adaptation. However, she inadvertently insults her assistant through compliments. See, said assistant was an established manga creator before Shiina made it big and when Shiina expresses her admiration and hope that the assistant will create the next part, it hurts her pride. Obviously that's not going to happen because she's working as an assistant and only Shiina's praise only serves to remind her of her own shortcomings. It's not really Shiina's fault – she just fouled up a complicated situation. Regardless, her assistant deliberately plagiarizes her own manga in Shiina's work, then turns on the waterworks to cause a scandal.

This episode is somewhat confusing in its messaging. Uruu is convinced that Homura has developed feelings for Shiina and even stalks him when he's visiting her to pose for the manga. Homura is convinced he's just acting on his own sense of justice but he does become defensive with Uruu suggests that he'll take care of the situation with Shiina, saying that Homura's belief that only he can do it as "pride." Also, notably, Homura does say something different before initiating his transformation with Shiina and Shiina is resistant to him interfering with the developing controversy. The events of the episode seem to suggest he might not have needed to either; the assistant was making an idiot of herself on television by trying to say that plenty of people have ripped her off.

The inner battle also states that humans don't care what the truth is, they just enjoy the spectacle of a scandal. I can't really argue there.

The twist, after it's all said and done, also came out of nowhere. Chilka/Sirius has not directly interfered with one of the attachment battles before and Uruu's actions make even less sense unless all of his stalking finally got him to realize something about his world view.

Woof, that's a lot of writing about muscle fairies. In conclusion, I wish the series was a little more upfront with its messaging even if I don't always agree with it. The Uruu-Homura situation being one of them. I feel like Uruu is just a jerk, but I may also not have the same context because my understanding of "fairy law" (aka Buddhist teachings) is almost non-existent.

Rating:

Some small notes:

• Shiina modeled her not-Nezuko character after herself. She also has some resemblance to Homura's deceased mother.
• The lady stuck selling eel supplements was also giving away these weird pots. The pots show up again on the back of the manga magazine in episode seven and are called "Tubo-tan" and are from a ...puzzle game?
• Tatara is now swimming in cash thanks to bar's new reputation and his ridiculous prices. It's basically an actual host club now.

Fairy Ranmaru is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.