Wow, what an amazing episode. It's been a while since I've last enjoyed a series as much as Kurenai. Geass is pretty good, but it's missing something that Kurenai seems to exude.
Summary:
Episode 4 kicks off with Shinkurou leaving Murasaki to go do the job that Ginko told Shinkurou about. Murasaki tags along, which is a recipe for disaster. As Murasaki follows Shinkurou into the building where the job is, we get to see an adorable and somewhat funny scene where Murasaki watches Shinkurou's elevator reach a certain floor before she herself uses the other elevator, attempting futilely to press the elevator buttons by herself. Shinkurou on the other hand finds the criminals he was looking for and attempts to bargain with the criminals for what I understood as the deed to Shinkurou's old school. Their discussion is interrupted as the boss's henchmen found Murasaki. Some more bargaining ensues, and Shinkurou decides to accept the boss's word, though Murasaki insists that the boss is lying. It turns out he was, and a fight ensues as Murasaki and Shinkurou attempt to leave the building. Murasaki gets knocked around a couple times, which angers Shinkurou, and he beats the crap out of everyone, even revealing the hidden blade in his right arm (think Guyver). Yayoi makes it into the building too and finds an injured Murasaki. Benika also arrives, but she doesn't do much except drive everyone back to Shinkurou's place, as Yayoi yells at Shinkurou the whole way back.
The scene changes with Murasaki waking up followed by Shinkurou awakening. Murasaki seems completely fine and offers to make breakfast for Shinkurou. The two get into a blame game where both blame themselves for the previous night's events, but the two soon end their discussion. Murasaki ends the scene with a somewhat comical remark about some leftovers and whether they were still edible.
Shinkurou goes to school and discusses with Ginko about the results of the job. Shinkurou accomplished what he was supposed to, but he isn't sure the other side would keep their end of the bargain. Towards the end of the encounter, Ginko accidentally bumps Shinkurou's right elbow area, causing Shinkurou to let out a small exclamation of pain. It seems Shinkurou's elbow blade doesn't exactly just come out without consequences. Shinkurou also talks with Yuuno, who also discovers he hurt his arm. She is audibly upset about Shinkurou's jobs, but Shinkurou tries to make it out to be nothing serious. Shinkurou eventually heads home to find Murasaki putting the finishing touches on her cleaning of Shinkurou's apartment.
The two head to the public baths again, but this time Murasaki has visibly changed her ways from the last time the two were there. The rest of the episode had to do a lot with building Shinkurou and Benika's past and explaining a lot of the questions that we may have had about the current situation.
Thoughts:
I loved this episode. Even with only a decent grasp of the Japanese language, I could definitely tell what was going on. Episode 4 was especially great because every scene in the whole episode was used to either progress the story or to assist in character growth. Everything after Shinkurou and Murasaki woke up showed how much growth as a person Murasaki had accomplished since she moved in with Shinkurou. Offering to cook breakfast, cleaning Shinkurou's room, and washing her own hair, Murasaki has come a long way already from the once selfish and demanding little girl that originally moved in with Shinkurou. Shinkurou himself seems to have progressed some too. From his discussion with Murasaki about who was at fault for the whole night before, you can tell Shinkurou has softened towards Murasaki because he blamed himself for all the horrible things that happened on the previous night.
Another great thing about episode 4 was all the background stories that were filled in. We found out what happened to Shinkurou's parents, some of his past, and how he met Benika. Benika also filled us all in on why she chose Shinkurou to take care of Murasaki, and why she took Murasaki from the Kuhouin household. So much happened in just a 25 minute episode! The only complaint I would have had with this episode would have been the lack of any bruises or remaining contusions on Murasaki. Don't get me wrong. I don't like seeing kids get beat around, but she seemed to get hit pretty hard by those henchmen. It's not like they were using kiddy gloves with her either. I can however understand that the bruising is a small detail, and it's not exactly all that important in the scheme of things. All in all a wonderful episode.
