Kaze no Stigma Episode 5 – The Ones Who Cast Aside Their Doubts

A celebration is being held at the Kannagi residence after having defeated the Fuuga clan. Kazuma was also invited to join, and Ayano’s getting impatient as Kazuma still hasn’t arrived. Just then, Kazuma arrives, and Soushu introduces him to the guests as ‘Kazuma Yagami’, the one who worked for them and made defeating the Fuuga possible. Ayano was about to ask Ren why Kazuma was late, when she notices that Ren has already run up to his brother, hugging and asking him what he wants to eat or drink. Kazuma however, utterly refuses his offer, and says that they’re in the way of a girl who he was able to recognize as Misao, Takuya Oogami’s sister. (Takuya Oogami was the other person killed together with Shingo the night they confronted Kazuma to go with them and explain things to Soushu)

Misao introduces herself, and asks Kazuma to just tell her if there’s anything he wants her to do. He goes to ask her if she could “accompany him at night”, to which Misao blushes and bashfully agrees to what he wishes. Just when Kazuma was about to kiss her, Ayano runs in between them and stops them from kissing, seemingly “protecting” Misao from Kazuma. She gives Misao a scolding for her wanting to throw away her life for someone like him, and of course Kazuma reacts to these harsh words of Ayano. Misao calms Ayano, telling her not to get to angry with Kazuma, since he’s actually the person who was able to avenge her brother’s death.

Ayano however thinks that there’s nothing for her to thank Kazuma since he simply did this for money. Kazuma agrees, and adds the fact that he was half to blame for what happened to Takuya, considering that he knocked both him and Shingo out before Ryuuya attacked them (though mentions that the outcome wouldn’t have changed even if he didn’t attack them beforehand). For this reason, Kazuma tells Misao to not hesitate and use the “thing” she has up her sleeve, considering what he done to her brother. Misao, who was already brimming in anger when Kazuma mentioned about Takuya, vents out her rage and stabs Kazuma with her dagger. This attack proved to be futile as Kazuma was left harmless, protected by his wind somehow.

With Ayano’s prodding, Soushu decides to give a punishment to Misao for her actions (since her father doesn’t have any complaints with this), but Kazuma says there’s no need for that since he wasn’t harmed or anything. This coming from the “victim”, Soushu couldn’t do anything but to accept this, but forbids Misao to go outside the house for the time being. Misao could not accept this and questions why her brother had to die, to which Kazuma coldly replies that it’s because “he was weak”. Ayano can’t believe how Kazuma could bluntly say these things, and asks him “Have you forgotten about your weak self simply because you became strong?!” Kazuma refuses to answer this and just leaves.

Ayano takes a walk with her friends, still can’t get over what happened earlier, and her bad mood shows in her face and actions (like kicking some nanpa who was trying to hit on her). Yukari’s perceptive to think that something happened between Ayano and ‘some guy’, when Kazuma suddenly shows up with Kirika. Kazuma comments on how she’s in “high-tension” as usual, and advises her to think of the right place to pick up a fight, making Ayano notice that they’ve come from this alley filled with “love hotels”. Kirika wonders if Ayano is Kazuma’s girlfriend since she seems to burning in jealousy, but Kazuma tells her that she’s simply a relative, who’s “always angry”. Before leaving, Kazuma advises Ayano that “kids shouldn’t be hanging out in this kind of place”, making her all furious.

Yukari and Nanase talk about how it must be difficult for Ayano to like a guy like Kazuma, and were surprised that a guy like him will be Ayano’s type. They even mention about Kazuma being Ayano’s boyfriend (with the relationship still one-sided), and Ayano refuses to accept this, declaring that Kazuma’s “the guy she hates most in the world”. Nanase then asks her why she was angry with what happened, but Ayano couldn’t get herself to answer their question and simply tells them that she doesn’t like Kazuma, and that’s it. Ayano leaves as she remembers “something urgent” she has to do, and her best friends conclude that Ayano has feelings for Kazuma, but doesn’t realize it herself since she’s quite slow when it comes to these things. They think this’ll prove to be a problem, but will turn out to be quite interesting.

Ayano still continues to refute what her best friends said about her liking Kazuma, despite the fact that it clearly shows in her actions as she searches just about each and every corner for Kazuma and Kirika. It’s only during the process of this search that she realizes the connection between them and the “love hotels”. She calls up Ren to ask for his help in finding Kazuma, but he wasn’t able to help much either because flame wielders are really weak in terms of sensing the presence of people. Ren suggests that they call up Kazuma instead, since that will save them a lot of time and effort, but of course Ayano doesn’t want to do that or it’ll blow off their “stealth search”. Ren decides takes some rest and grab a drink from “Star Box Coffee”, when he suddenly notices Kazuma inside the coffee shop.

Ayano immediately grabs Ren to hide behind a tree, leaving him puzzled as to why they need to sneak like that. She tells her not to mind it, and comments on how Kazuma seems to be alone (since she expected to see him with Kirika). Ren notices that Kazuma’s waiting for someone, making Ayano anxious as to who that person could be. It turns out that the person Kazuma’s waiting for is no other than Misao, who’s dressed so elegantly. Ren thinks that they must be on a date, making Ayano fuming in jealousy again, and decides to ‘snoop’ around them. Ren tells Ayano that they shouldn’t be doing this, but Ayano justifies their actions and says that what they’re doing is not ‘snooping’. Kazuma was quick to sense that Ayano and Ren are ‘spying’ on him, but just ignores them.

They finally got around following them into this alley, where they see them enter in one of the “love hotels” there. Ayano burns in anger (literally) as her imagination runs wild (imagining Misao and Kazuma on the bed…), and ends up venting out her “fury” on the signpost nearby. Kazuma and Misao arrive in “Hotel Campanella”, and the word “Campanella” rings a bell to Kazuma (some sort of philosophical symbolic link, which I’ll explain later on in my ‘thoughts’).

Misao bids him ‘farewell’ and a sniper aims at Kazuma, signaling her army of men in black henchman to fire at him with all their ammunitions. Ayano comes into the scene and confronts Misao about what she’s done, and tells her that she won’t be able to defeat Kazuma that way. Misao was shocked that not only Kazuma was able to survive after all that, he was also able to take care of all his henchmen and sniper with one strike. He praises the sniper for his skills, which proved to be more effective than her “army”. Kazuma tells Misao that she has changed, and wonders if he was the one who caused her to become that way. Misao simply sneers at his words, since it’s as though Kazuma actually understands what she feels. Kazuma tells her “you could say that I do (understand Misao, that is)”

Ayano gets in between Kazuma and Misao, and demands her to explain everything to Soushu. Misao refuses to heed what she said, throws her bag at her face and runs away from them, but Ayano and Ren continues to chase after her. As Kazuma picks up Misao’s bag, he says, “it’s been ten years… quite a long time”

Meanwhile, Ayano and Ren chases Misao to the rooftop of a building, and Misao says that she hasn’t done anything to Ayano for her to be chased like that. Ayano confronts her regarding the ‘crime’ she committed – hiring assassins to kill someone from the same clan, which she says is not something a Kannagi does. As the next clan head, she can’t let pass what Misao has done, and prepared herself to fight Misao head on. Just then, Kazuma comes and tells Ayano to let him deal with this problem himself, since Misao hasn’t really done anything to the Kannagis, and it’s got nothing to do with her either. Ayano says that she can’t just overlook what Misao has done, since she’ll most likely continue chasing after him if this isn’t put to an end. Kazuma doesn’t mind this, since he knows that Misao won’t be able to hurt him even a bit.

Kazuma’s words provoke Misao to attack him with her flame, but it proved to be futile since she’s far below Kazuma’s level in terms of her elemental abilities. Despite all this, Misao still continues to attack him, as she vents out her anger for killing the one-and-only brother he loved so dearly. Misao still couldn’t accept the fact that her brother isn’t by her side anymore, since she had always thought that they’ll be together, and cries in despair that she can’t do anything do avenge his death, as the rain falls on them. Kazuma shows her kindness by offering her coat, but she just tosses it off as she feels nothing but hatred for him. Misao swears to Kazuma that she’ll never forgive him, and that she’ll make him regret what he’s done, to which Kazuma tells her to do what she wants to him. Kazuma leaves Misao, and Ayano and Ren follows him.

Kazuma spends some time alone that night, while Ayano and Ren are on their home. Misao is still on the rooftop, when some guy approaches and asks her what she wants from the choices he gave – to die, to take revenge, or to become stronger, and Misao tells him he wants it all. The guy tells her how greedy she is, but nevertheless, accepts to grant her wishes as he tells her to come closer to him.

At that moment, some strange occurrence happens in the subway as some blob-like monster appears and starts devouring people. On the other hand, Misao and the mysterious guy who Misao calls “Tenshi-sama”, are commencing some sort of ritual…

Thoughts

I find Ayano’s jealousy and the impulsive things she does because of this feeling, simply amusing. It was fun seeing Ayano burning in anger, obvious that she already has feelings for Kazuma, yet utterly denies it from her friends since she herself hasn’t noticed her own feelings (talk about being dense ^^;; ) Once again, poor Ren gets dragged along Ayano’s “raging jealousy” I just find this immaturity of Ayano in terms of her naivete to love, a really fun watch… for some reason ^^ Kirika seems to have fun teasing Ayano, especially ‘flaunting’ what she has that Ayano doesn’t. Now that I think of it, I think just about every people enjoy teasing Ayano (and that means more fun) :p

If I were to say something with regards to what I didn’t like about Ayano in this episode, it would probably be what I saw regarding her lack of understanding of Misao’s feelings, or at least being sensitive to how Misao felt due to the loss of her brother. When she confronted Misao at the rooftop, I was actually thinking she’s going to tell her some words of sympathy first, and perhaps convince Misao that Kazuma wasn’t really the one responsible for her brother’s death. But then Ayano puts this sense of justice she has first and acts what she think she should do as the next clan head, and decides to fight Misao head on. I mean, she couldn’t have possibly be worrying about Kazuma that time when her “army” was firing at him, because she herself knows Misao can’t defeat him… sigh… I must’ve asked too much from Ayano at this point, considering how she’s still immature and lacks wisdom (remind me not to expect too much >_<) I know that lack of sensitivity could stem from the fact that she still hasn’t experienced such painful events in her life, but nevertheless, I can’t help but think that she should’ve been more understanding of Misao. (have to see the novel if it mentions Ayano’s emotions regarding this…)

Kazuma on the other hand, clearly understands just how Misao felt, because he himself has gone through the same experience before. Show ▼

The sad thing is that, Misao couldn’t do anything to hurt Kazuma, which simply makes her fall for despair as she can’t avenge his brother’s death. And thus, her desire to do that made her cling to this ‘Tenshi-sama’ (who I believe is Michael Harley…), pretty much the same way as Kazuma when he sought the power of the wind spirit. But of course Misao ends in a worse fate, since she’s going to become a youma in the process (as shown in the next episode’s preview).

As much as I want someone to have consoled Misao and perhaps made her realize the futility of her revenge so that she won’t have to go through these ordeals, I think that’ll be too ideal and will just ruin the story(and we won’t see the battle next week if that happened ^^;; ) I believe there really are times when someone’s anger distorts their entire being, and so any kinds of consoling or any form of convincing will be quite useless… they’d have to go through this “peak” of their anger, and go through the hard and painful way to be enlightened and realize things.

I just can’t help but feel as though, Misao’s ‘plans’ were, ‘incoherent’… Because, right when Kazuma arrives at the Kannagi house during the celebration, she already vented out her anger on him when she stabbed him with her dagger… Then the next thing we know, it seems that she asked Kazuma to accompany her in the love hotel. Wouldn’t she have known that her ‘cover’ had already been blown by her previous attempt to kill him? o_O But oh well… it seems that Kazuma decided to take all the blame for her brother’s death as she wants her to vent out her anger on him, till the last drop. But of course her anger hasn’t been dissipated and hence her drive for more revenge.

I noticed that Kazuma mentioned about “Ten years…” when he took Misao’s bag, and I can’t help but wonder what he meant by that… Ten years back means that it was way before he was driven out of the clan… Kazuma also told Misao that she has changed over the years, which makes me think that they used to be close before (and I’m not sure what relationship they had >_<).

Another thing that’s puzzling me, is when did Kazuma notice that Misao has a dagger with her? In the anime, I saw this expression in Kazuma’s face after he was thinking of kissing Misao (which I believe was the time when he only found out about it). I’m just trying to think about Kazuma’s motive of kissing (or wanting to kiss) Misao… coz if he already sensed what she was about to do beforehand, then it could mean that Kazuma was simply testing her (?) or something o__o if not, then that means Kazuma was indeed, trying to hit on Misao o_O

I was also surprised by Kazuma’s “invincibility”… Does this mean he’s invincible to just about any form of physical attacks? If that’s so, I’m thinking that Kazuma could only be damaged or defeated by using elementals as well…

Now regarding Kazuma and Kirika, I believe the reason why Kazuma was late for the party was because he was discussing things with Kirika, working out on something we’ll see in the next episode. Perhaps they’re already investigating on Michael Harley, and knows that he’s on to something… hmmm

I think I’ll leave my thoughts at that… and post about some ‘reference hints’ and puns I noticed in the episode. First of all, is this pun with “Star Box Coffee” LOL. It’s obviously an intended pun for “Starbucks” =P

Then, there’s this little pic (love hotel ad?) on the signpost Ayano ruined, and the girl seems to be Kirika (not sure if they intentionally put Kirika here… but perhaps they did).

And lastly, I just noticed that in the Chinese subs, when Kazuma and Misao went to this ‘Hotel Campanella’, it showed this info about a certain philosopher by the name of Tommaso Campanella, and his work “The City of the Sun”. This is most likely the reason why Kazuma said “Campanella, eh…”, it seems that he saw the connection of ‘Campanella’ in the situation he’s in… According to Campanella, this “City of the Sun” is one of the most important utopias, a vision he had of a “unified and peaceful world” governed by a theocratic monarchy. In other words, it’s as though what Misao was about to do (killing Kazuma), is her own way of wanting to achieve this ‘utopia’… o_o

EDIT: Hmm… from what I can see, it’s like more people read the summaries I make of Kaze no Stigma rather than my deep-frying posts (or they don’t read it afterwards *gasp*), so I think I’m going to do this from now on… post the link to my deep-frying here (perhaps many people aren’t attracted to the ‘deep-frying’ coz it sounds too odd o_O)

Anyways, for those who want to see how this episode differs from its novel counterpart, you can read it here => Deep-Frying Analysis / Comparison of KnS episode 5
This’ll make for a more ‘complete’ KnS experience, as FlareKnight has also mentioned

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