Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai Ep.04 - Way too scary! This episode was terrifying.

Episode 4 of Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai (カヤちゃんはコワくない) ramped up the horror elements of the story to the max, and I honestly found some of the scenes quite discomforting to watch. We also received a revelation about Kaya's mother's situation, but let's analyze the three main stories in order.

The first story was about a lost girl being chased by a monstrosity. Kaya and her father found the girl by chance, and we got a quick chase scene with the monster trying to kill the girl. Kaya saved the day at the right moment, and all is well, but the trauma will probably remain with the girl for a while. This is especially true because she was chased for seeing the source of that wraith, which was an old man who died by the river.

Poor Kaya-chan, this is definitely not something anyone should ever experience in their childhood. *pats Kaya's head*

Only going to leave the recovered picture of that girl, but the scenes leading to her returning to normal were insane.

The second story was about one of Kaya's kindergarten classmates getting possessed by a doll, forcing her to perform actions to make herself resemble the cursed doll (such as cutting her hair and breaking her own teeth). Again, Kaya-chan saves the day and the girl returns to normal, but the scenes were borderline scary as the poor kid became crazier and crazier.

The third story was about the teacher, Chie, going for a home visit to Kaya's house to understand more about the wraith situation that Osamu told her about. Upon arrival, she sees that Kaya is utterly terrified of her mother, but Chie doesn't seem to be able to see or sense anything weird at all from the mother.

Later, when Osamu also sees her mother, we get a vital piece of information. It turns out it is not Kaya's mother who is possessed, but the child she is pregnant with. A normal human like Chie-sensei can barely feel anything. Osamu can see the wraith and the mother superimposed, while Kaya just sees a huge wraith instead of her mother.

It is the perfect place to hide because this puts both an emotional and physical barrier between the wraith and the unbeatable Kaya. It is emotional because, well, it is her mother after all. It is physical because she cannot reach the wraith if it is inside her body. The questions are plentiful now. How did she get possessed? What will be born if the pregnancy reaches full term? How can everyone help to solve the situation?

She looks so normal and doesn't seem possessed at all like Osamu said. Seems like the wraith only affect the kid.

I was honestly expecting the mother to be possessed, but this works even better to be honest as it doesn't put Kaya's invincibility into question.

This is likely going to be the focus of the next few episodes. I saw a few other characters in the OP animation, and some of them seem quite good at repelling wraiths. Maybe Chie will get external help to try and resolve Kaya's mother's issue and help Kaya live a more normal childhood?

We are still early in the series, though, so I am curious to see where the story will go once this story arc is cleared up. Is there going to be an even bigger enemy for Kaya to face, or will we slip back into just a normal "monster of the week" approach?