Ghost Hound 16

Focus:16 Hopeful Monster
More Screencaps from Ghost Hound Episode 16

The glasses guy invite Taro and Makoto to his home, where Sanae happens to be staying. While the boys wait for glasses guy to bring Makoto's mother over, Taro asks Makoto whether he was serious earlier when he said he said he would not hesitate to kill someone. Instead of answering Taro directly, Makoto tells him to shut up.

At that moment, Sanae arrives and Makoto visibly reacts to her presence. Sanae, however, does not speak to him. Instead, she addresses Taro as the son of the main family.

Sanae.... Was she a bad mother, I wonder?

While Sanae and Taro talk, Makoto suddenly interrupts, confronting Sanae with what happened eleven years ago and how she abandoned him. Apparently, he thinks that Sanae must know the reason why his father committed suicide and whether or not his death has anything to do with Taro and his sister's kidnapping. But most of all, he wants to know whether it was his father who kidnapped Taro and Mizuka.

Sanae answers that his father had nothing to do with the kidnapping. However, Makoto refuses to believe it and starts drawing out something hidden inside his pouch. Taro notices and tries to stop him, but by then Makoto has already drawn out his knife.

This was actually painful to watch. The usually stoic Makoto runs away crying, after speaking with his mother for the first time in years

Despite knowing his intent, Sanae does not try to talk Makoto out of it and instead decides to accept her fate. Makoto, however, is unable to use the knife against his own mother. Instead, he runs away, hiding out in a dark corner near the river and crying.

Meanwhile, Masayuki and Micchio are trying to hack into Professor Nakajima's computer in order to get information about his BioNippon project. To their disappointment, the system proves to be more complicated than expected.

The BioNippon Lab at night

While waiting for Micchio to finish cracking the code, Masayuki has an OBE and this time, he is in full-body mode. Thinking that he could actually breach BioNippon Lab's security in this form, he goes to the Lab to check things out for himself.

Inside, he is confronted by the Lab's robotic security, which however does not detect his presence. Next, Masayuki notices some dark smoky substance coming out of one of the rooms.

Back in Kumada, Taro is being shown to his room by glasses guy. While listening to him talk, Taro begins to get a gut feeling as to who he really is. He mentions "Snark" and glasses guy acknowledges that he is indeed the other person whom Taro met once in Kakuriyo.Headless torso. Are these the hopeful monsters referred to in the title?

At the Lab, Masayuki is trying to get away from the dark smoky substance and ends up in a dark room. He begins to see creatures in the form of headless torsos coming out from below.

In Masayuki's room, Micchio finally notices that Masayuki's physical body is in some kind of trance.Snark and Taro meet each other in the physical world

In Kumada, glasses guy introduces himself to Taro as Masato Kaibara. Although he does nothing for a living, he is actually a physics enthusiast. Before he came to Kumada, he has been living abroad. He calls "Kakuriyo" (Unseen World) the "abstract world" and subscribes to the idea of the entire physical world being nothing more than an illusion of the "true self" which exists in the abstract world.

Back in the Lab, Masayuki finds himself in a hallway where his father and Dr. Reika Otori are standing, talking. Apparently, someone has broken into the lab, as evidenced by the mangled security access panel in one of the doors. Reika and Nakajima then enter the room and Masayuki, after some hesitation, follows them in.

Ah, Nakajima-sensei. The leg-ogling scenes now begin to make sense ^.^

Inside, Masayuki sees his father crouched in front of Reika, seemingly engrossed with ogling her foot. Reika is pressing him for information about his project and Nakajima happily obliges her. He tells her that he is making artificial bodies with limited brain functions for purposes of organ transplant.

Apparently, the artificial bodies are created solely for the purpose of growing organs which are then removed for transplantation. To address any ethical issues that might arise, they make sure that the artificial bodies never achieve a level of consciousness that would make it "human." This is where Reika's expertise in neurological science comes in.

As the two adults continue to talk, Masayuki notices something coming from behind him. When he turns around, he again sees those same headless torsos coming at him.

Reika likewise notices something, and although she is unable to see Masayuki, she could see bits and portions of the headless torsos.

Masayuki leaps through the wall, out of the room with the headless torsos in hot pursuit. They finally grab him and he tries to fight back.Miyako emo-ing

Cut to the shrine priest Kumagusu grabbing a beer from the fridge. He gets caught by Miyako who, as usual, expresses her disapproval of his drinking. Kumagusu then asks her if she's been having trances lately. Miyako says no and adds that even if someone else possesses her body, she is still herself.

In Kumada, Taro is trying to have an OBE but finds out that he could not. He hears someone at the door and is surprised that it is Sanae come to speak with him. Taro says that he could not find Makoto. Sanae thanks him nevertheless for bringing Makoto to visit her.Sanae is starting to weird me out

As Taro asks her about the kidnapping, Sanae suddenly starts acting strangely. Before he could react, she exits the room quickly.

Meanwhile, back in the Lab, Masayuki and the headless torsos have somehow ended up on top of the BioNippon building. Masayuki is growing weak from fighting them off when he hears Micchio call his name. Micchio, however, is a complete newbie at OBE and he is still in his "baby" form.

Inside the Lab, Reika seems to have recovered from her earlier encounter with the supernatural. She logs on to her computer to read a message from Professor Nakajima. Afterwards, she steps out and the blue-haired guy with piercings, who is sitting in the same cubicle, watches her leave.

COMMENTS:

OMG that was totally scary. Those headless things are really something. They are obviously spirits of the artificial bodies that Professor Nakajima was creating. Now it begins to make sense why Reika refers to him as "Dr. Frankenstein." But I'm starting to wonder if Reika is an industrial spy as I thought she might be. Maybe, she's just trying to find out about the project for her own benefit and for no one else.

That said, Professor Nakajima has a foot fetish, it seems. And he is completely enamored by Reika for some reason. What happened to his wife?

The Sanae and Makoto encounter is not that unexpected. Of course, Makoto can't really hurt his own mother. All he's got are abandonment issues and all he needs is TLC from his mother, who, unfortunately, is no condition to provide it, seeing as how she is obviously disturbed.

I wonder what Matsuda Kaibara's relationship to her. I can't believe he's her husband. He mentioned that Sanae is only staying at his house because she's sick, which therefore eliminates the idea that they have been cohabiting as a couple.

Speaking of Matsuda, I never would have thought he was Snark. You can't really figure it from his profile. But some of his gestures and expressions are really Snark-like and that's probably what tipped Taro off.

Micchio OBEs! That's something.

That blue-haired guy is planning something big.

I can't wait for the next episode.