Episode Rating: A-
Maomao has a well-earned reputation for being very selective in what details she chooses to pay attention to; she’ll often ignore (whether consciously or not) things she’d rather not dwell on, such as Jinshi’s clear-to-others romantic interest in her. Nowhere in this series is that more in play than in the second half of this episode.
But first the episode show how the series can turn a seemingly-ordinary shopping expedition for winter clothes for Cho-u into a very insightful exercise in colorful stories mixing with actual scientific detail and intrigue. The Cloak of the Fire-Rat was famously featured in Inuyasha before this series, but it has origins in ancient Chinese and Japanese myths. Like the conclusion Maomao comes to here, there’s speculation that the myths are based on cloth woven from asbestos, which was certainly known of as far back as antiquity but definitely wasn’t common knowledge. The foreign woman in the shopkeeper’s tale was certainly taking a big gamble to rely on that to escape the village, but it’s definitely an effect that would have stunned uneducated villagers. Maomao’s probably right to not dismiss the actual origin of the woman in the tale as an idle detail, either; the pattern in the hem of the robe certainly looks like Arabic writing to any modern viewer, but it’s also easy to understand how stylized depictions of Arabic could just look like decoration. And given everything else related to “the West” that’s been brought up in the series, Maomao’s speculation that the woman could have been a scout or spy may not be off the mark. I strongly suspect that this isn’t the last time this story will become relevant.
That leaves the second half for Jinshi’s visit to Maomao at her request. The business aspect may be about the books, but an innocent, actually well-meaning observation that Jinshi needs a nap spins it into a much more amusing sequence of events. Which events here Maomao is being willfully versus innocently obtuse about is a matter for debate, but I do think she’s at least partly deliberately countering Jinshi running with Maomao’s comment about not wanting to sleep alone to spin his attentions elsewhere, hence the line-up presented to him by a very businesslike Maomao:
(To be clear, this kind of line-up is something that legal brothels actually do to this day even in the U.S. in cases where the customer doesn’t have a specific lady in mind. I’ve experienced it myself.)
My favorite shot in this scene is a very brief one showing Gaoshun facing into the corner in the background, shaking his head (although the later scene where Gaoshun has to explain why he’s not going to partake of the ladies is quite amusing, too):
But the series has shown plenty of times before that it knows how to avoid overplaying its humor, and that’s the case here, too, with the pivot to the lovely lullaby scene that follows. The scene which follows involve Pairin is also interesting. She’s certainly noticed what Maomao doesn’t want to acknowledge here herself.
In all, this is another well-constructed and good-looking episode.
SIDE NOTE: A new trailer has been released for the upcoming original movie. It seems like the movie will heavily involve the Bi clan, which is briefly referenced in this episode. (Indeed, all the characters in the one still shot are in this trailer.) What’s not clear yet is if this means that the movie is going to be set during the season break between s2 or s3 or it’s meant to be a preview of events to come.
