‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ Episode 5 Review: A Ghost, a Flashback, & the Weight of Loss

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“Your only flaw is that hardcore emo persona.” Now that’s one way to describe Yoshiki, the other protagonist of the psychological-horror anime ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’. A school friend hilariously summarizes his personality while the boys are out playing claw-games at a mall. Yeah, this edition is a mix of school fun, and an unexpected new horror lurking in Yoshiki’s home.

Quick recap of ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ Episode 4

Hikaru attends a summer festival in Kubitachi village with Yoshiki and his younger sister. Meanwhile, Tanaka, the man recruited by the village elders to deal with their supernatural troubles, comes close to finding the entity inhabiting Hikaru, and becomes convinced that something dangerous from the mountains has descended upon the village. The episode ends with flashbacks revealing that, in his dying moments, Hikaru thought of Yoshiki and begged anyone who would listen to keep his friend safe.

Episode 5 of ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’

Titled ‘Wig Ghost’, episode 5 starts of with Yoshiki’s little sister spotting a ghost in the bathroom, which completely freaks her out. Someone else’s hair clogging your bathroom floor drain will always be gross, which is exactly why long-haired bathroom ghosts have become a staple in horror stories. So, Kaoru refuses to take a bath again! The opening seconds immediately set the tone for a creepy chapter filled with unsettling events.

The primary focus of this edition of ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ is on the ‘wig ghost’ haunting the Tsujinaka household. When Yoshiki shares the tale with his friends, Hikaru offers to investigate the truth, confident that Kaoru is telling the truth. Yoshiki is reminded of the warning that getting close to Hikaru could only attract more supernatural beings into his life, so he wonders if the new ghost is the result of his proximity to the entity. But of-course, the childhood friends show no signs of drifting apart. If anything, they’re dangerously close.

The animation continues to complement the show’s eerie, slow-burn tone, with muted, dark tones dominating much of the visual palette. What makes ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ visually arresting, however, is the stark contrast between its unsettling supernatural moments and the lighter, everyday school scenes. In this episode, for instance, the spooky wig ghost scares the life out of poor Kaoru, only for the mood to shift abruptly to Hikaru, Yoshiki, and their classmates excitedly frying chicken during a cooking lesson. Then again, the atmosphere rapidly changes when the friends find themselves experiencing a chilling ‘out of body’ experience, similar to what happens in episode 2, where the entity spills out of Hikaru, making Yoshiki extremely uncomfortable.

While this episode isn’t as emotionally charged as the rest of the anime so far, it delivers an unexpected childhood memory that shows the two friends fighting as kids. It’s an interesting flashback, one that highlights the depth of their friendship and reveals that Hikaru wasn’t always cheerful or optimistic, and could even hurt Yoshiki with his words. But amid the childish fight, young Yoshiki makes an offhand remark about how it’s only natural for all living things to die, ironically, a truth his older self now struggles to accept in the wake of losing his friend.

The episode ends with an interesting cliffhanger that suggests Tanaka might be closer to solving his case, but since I do not want this anime to ever end, let’s hope that’s not true!

Watch ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ on Netflix.

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