Sango’s brother Kohaku has escaped from Naraku’s castle, but he can’t remember anything. Is this another of Naraku’s tricks?
Original Air Date: 5 Nov 2001, Streamed on: Hulu
I’m going for the running start here. The odds of my rewatching the 48 episodes that came before this one are approximately zero.
The episode starts with the gang flying through the air on Miroku’s shape-shifting friend. He has taken the form of a giant dog toy knock-off of Falkor.
We are soon treated to a flashback of Kohaku murdering his village’s top demon slayers, including his father, and attempting to murder his older sister Sango. As far as first missions go, getting possessed by a ruthless demon and slaughtering your friends and family has to be an all-time fail.
About the time Kohaku stops juggling wood for a nice old couple, he runs off to fight a demon. Remembering only his name and that Naraku discarded him like french fries that got too cold, he squares off.
Kagome senses Kohaku’s jewel shard, and the gang races Naraku’s bees to the demon fight.
Sango shows up with her giant boomerang. She must be an arachnophobe because she instantly wastes the demon and leaves doubt about its fate.
Kohaku doesn’t recognize his sister. Sango is worried. Miroku and Inuyasha are suspicious. Kilala is now the size of a squirrel.
During an argument between Inuyasha and Sango, Kohaku sneaks off. Hundreds of flying eel demons show up along with more of Naraku bees.
[The bees keep showing up specifically to prevent Miroku from using the wind tunnel curse in his right hand. It’s a necessary literary device to keep him from being too effective in battle, but it plays like a running gag.]
Sango again rescues Kohaku, this time by killing a bunch of bees, then rides off on Kilala straight into the floating cloud of bad news. Kagome runs out of arrows defending Kohaku, so they decide to hide in a hole. Classic horror movie mistake. Let’s see how it plays out.
They’re having a heart-to-heart conversation about Kohaku’s lost memory in the hole, which is really more of a cave. I’m ready for the demons to find them.
Kohaku flashes back to Naraku telling him to “kill her” and raises his kama threateningly!