Truth be told, I was rather disappointed when I watched the first episode. I knew beforehand that despite the supernatural backdrop, the series has more of a slice-of-life feel to it. It’s not a problem for me but I found the pacing, however, too slow. I was bored to death watching it.

A girl goes around a field identifying flowers using a field book. She finds a purple one but realizes it is different from the one described in the book. A mound forms behind her making some noise. The girl looks around but sees nothing. She thinks it must be her imagination. She goes to another place to search for more flowers.

Her sister, Shizuru, who is in the house, cleaning, says that ever since she was little, she could see things that ordinary people cannot. The younger one, Mizuki, is usually haunted by spirits.

Anyway, it’s time for breakfast and Mizuki isn’t around. Their grandma says that Mizuki went out to look for flowers. She wanted to complete the Nanakusa, which is some type of flower arrangement where seven vases are filled with seven different flowers. So far only five vases were filled. Shizuru goes out to look for her sister.

The spirit has followed Mizuki and she senses it. Shizuru arrives and Mizuki tells her about it but the spirit has disappeared. Mizuki finds a nadeshiko, or large pink (Dianthus superbus), and they go home for breakfast. Mizuki says that she needs one flower more, an ominaishi or yellow valerian (Patrinia scabiosaefolia). Shizuru suggests that she go to a certain place where different flowers grow, but their grandfather warns them not to go there. Shizuru then tells Mizuki that she will go with her to search for the ominaishi.

So off they go. They decide to split up. The spirit from before finds Mizuki and she looks at it. Shizuru senses something is wrong so she goes to Mizuki. She finds her unconscious. Rain starts to fall. Shizuru carriers her sister home.

She tells her grandfather about what happened. Her grandfather says that it must be a mikoshi, a spirit that can cause one to die if one stares at it for too long. Shizuru cries saying she couldn’t protect her sister. Her grandfather tells her a way to “defeat” the mikoshi.

The following day, Mizuki has a cold so she couldn’t go to school. She goes off searching for the ominaishi again. Shizuru sees her so she follows her sister. Without knowing it, Mizuki came to the place her grandpa warned her about. Shizuru arrives and Mizuki falls. Shizuru remembers what her grandpa said. Instead of looking at the mikoshi from bottom up, one must look at it from top to bottom. Shizuru does this and The mikoshi shrinks and disappears.

Mizuki regains consciousness. They discover that ominaishi grow on that place. They return home. That night, the Nanakusa looked beautiful under the moonlight,

The opening theme “Kokoro no Ato” is by Kosaka Riyu (I knew it!). The opening sequence were somehow slow and didn’t fit well with the song. I don’t like the song much either, compared to Kosaka Riyu’s ending theme for Claymore. I forgot how the ending song for Mokke, “Panorama” by Hashimoto Mai, goes.

One thing that disappointed me about the series is that I was expecting for the supernatural to be more traditional. Perhaps future episodes will feature spirits of Japanese folkore but I guess I wouldn’t watch the show to find out. I’ll just stick to xxxHoLIC and Mononoke.

Oh, and Mizuki somehow reminds me of Dora the Explorer.

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