Episode 17

**Kiyomaro's Curry Summer Vacation** (清麿のカレーな夏休み, *Kiyomaro no Karē na Natsuyasumi*) is the 17th episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime. This episode first aired in Japan on August 3, 2003.

## Overview

Summer vacation has just begun and Kiyomaro's main priority is to find information in regards to a mysterious Gash look-alike that was spotted in England. Kiyomaro however didn't account for the fact that he forgot he ended up making a lot of promises to his friends to spend time with them this summer in addition to attending his school's summer camping trip. It's up to him, and with Gash's help, to keep these promises.

## Plot

Inside the Mochinoki Middle School auditorium,  Kiyomaro sits among his peers listening to a speech in regards to the official start of summer vacation. From a tree branch outside, Gash looks through the auditorium window eager for summer break to finally start as he looks forward to playing with Kiyomaro.

Back in class, Suzume reminds Kiyomaro about the upcoming summer camping trip that he had apparently forgotten about especially due to recent events involving Robnos. Kiyomaro eventually reveals to Suzume he already has plans to travel to England in three days. This catches Suzume by complete surprise as she then demands to know when Kiyomaro will be returning which turns out to be just before the start of the second semester in school. As Kiyomaro mentions he has things to investigate in England, he thinks back to what Robnos had told him just before he faded away about a mysterious Gash look-alike he had spotted while in England. Back in reality, Suzume questions Kiyomaro about the promises he had made to his classmates to hang out with which he too had managed to forget all about. Suzume brings up his promise he had made to her and Mariko to play table-tennis with. Yamanaka, Iwashima and Kaneyama also speak up to remind Kiyomaro about his promises to each of them for baseball practice, UFO luring, and tsuchinoko hunting respectively to which he all agrees he'll fulfill. Suddenly, Noguchi, from the next door class, comes in to remind Kiyomaro about their plans to plant morning glories together only to be dismissed by Kiyomaro as he doesn't actually know him. Finally, Gash pipes in to remind Kiyomaro about playing with him over summer only to end up being met with refusal. His friends eventually leave class for the day, each looking forward to seeing Kiyomaro fulfill his promises to them.

At night, Kiyomaro wonders to himself how this could have happened to himself. Just then, he notices Gash scribbling over his schedule of plans who then shows Kiyomaro that he had included the time he had promised to play with him. Stressed, Kiyomaro reminds Gash that he doesn't have time to play with as it's impossible to make for any more free-time on the schedule. Gash also reacts with frustration at being yelled at and more importantly disappointed that Kiyomaro won't be able to fulfill a promise to something he had been looking forward to for a while. Gash then sadly reminds Kiyomaro of the fact that he said they would spend plenty of time together once summer vacation had started. Kiyomaro again tells Gash that due to the schedule he has to keep up with, he won't be able to fulfill that promise. Seeing an opportunity, Gash eagerly asks Kiyomaro if he'd be able to play with him if they manage to complete all the tasks on the schedule. Kiyomaro confirms this and Gash then declares to Kiyomaro to leave everything all up to him.

The next day, Kiyomaro and Gash meet up with Yamanaka for baseball practice, their first task of the day. Yamanaka explains to Kiyomaro that he'll be sticking around to help him perfect his signature "Vanishing-Fireball Pitch". Seeing the difficulty in this, Kiyomaro suggests to Yamanaka that he should either choose to work on a fireball pitch or a vanishing one only to have Yamanaka decline both options. Gash then gets Kiyomaro's attention by holding up his red spell book which gives Kiyomaro an idea. Kiyomaro then informs Yamanaka he's ready for his pitch. As Yamanaka prepares to throw the ball, Kiyomaro quietly whispers the first spell, *Zakeru* which allows Gash, standing behind Yamanaka, to hit the ball with enough power to cause it to burst into flames and disappear as Yamanaka lets go of it. Seeing as he fully fulfilled his promise to Yamanaka, Kiyomaro then heads out for bug collecting with Inoue.

In the forest, Inoue explains that their goal for the day is to collect ten cicadas, five king beetles, and eight bees. In response to hearing about bees, Kiyomaro politely suggests to Inoue that they should leave out the bees. Suddenly from above, Gash calls out to Kiyomaro to tell him about a nest of bees he had found. Accidentally hitting the nest too hard, it falls to the ground causing Kiyomaro and Inoue to be chased by a large swarm. Eventually, Gash leads Kiyomaro to the river to fulfill his next promise to Tai. At the riverbank, Tai tells Kiyomaro that they won't be leaving until they catch five hundred fish. Although initially overwhelmed at the amount, Kiyomaro leaves this task to Gash who's able to swim quickly and frantically throughout the river waters using Kiyomaro as a guide to catch fish. They eventually do manage to collect all five hundred fish as Tai specified and soon leave to meet Suzume and Mariko for table-tennis.

For table-tennis, Mariko explains to Kiyomaro that the first one to earn one thousand points wins the game and they won't be allowed to leave until they beat them. As soon as Suzume tosses a ball to Mariko serve, Mariko as well as both Gash and Kiyomaro begin playing frantically and furiously in order to beat her at her game which continues for some time. On the last ball, Kiyomaro ends up missing his swing but is saved by Gash who manages to barely score a point against Mariko. Their final score at the end is 1000 to 984 which means Kiyomaro and Gash successfully fulfilled another promise and soon hurry off to meet with Kaneyama for their next task.

As Kiyomaro walks with Kaneyama, Kaneyama tells Kiyomaro that they won't be leaving until they manage to find a tsuchinoko. Meanwhile, Kiyomaro is counting on Gash's help for this task specifically. Suddenly, Kiyomaro hears rustling from one of the bushes and directs Kaneyama's attention to it as he points out that there's a tsuchinoko in it. The tsuchinoko in question however is revealed to be Gash who's wearing a large tsuchinoko costume but this doesn't fail to convince Kaneyama as he becomes eager to capture it. Kiyomaro however tells Kaneyama to start running away as he explains that one bite from a tsuchinoko will kill him in eight seconds. As Gash chases both Kaneyama and Kiyomaro who are running frantically, he leaps into the air and manages to bite Kaneyama in the shoulder which causes him to freak out as he believes he's about to die. Seeing as this promise has been fulfilled, Gash and Kiyomaro eventually head out to meet with Iwashima for their final task.

Now night time, Kiyomaro and Gash meet up with Iwashima in a remote area who appears to be dressed and prepared to see UFOs. Iwashima then instructs Gash and Kiyomaro to follow his movements and repeat a specific phrase in order for this UFO plan to work. Seeing Iwashima perform a ritualistic movement and chants, "abduction" catches Kiyomaro off-guard as he becomes embarrassed at the idea of following along with him. This doesn't stop Gash who gladly joins in with Iwashima to help him attract UFOs. Iwashima sees Kiyomaro's lack of enthusiasm and tells him he won't be leaving until they work together to lure a UFO. Reluctantly, Kiyomaro ends up joining in on the movement and chanting "abduction" together with Iwashima and Gash. These antics end up going well into the night for hours.

Now the next morning back at home, Gash wastes no time to wake Kiyomaro early in the morning for his camping trip that day. As Kiyomaro pulls himself out of bed and walks over to his bag, he notices various other items just outside of his bag which confuses him as he was certain he had packed and zipped everything up. Looking over to Gash, he sees that Gash is packing away things similar to his for summer camp and even notices a camping-themed Vulcan 300. Finally connecting the dots that Gash is planning on going with him, Kiyomaro takes action by tying the Vulcan 300 on a high bar to prevent Gash from following him to camp. This causes great distress for Gash as he's unable to retrieve the Vulcan 300 as Kiyomaro leaves for camp. Finally able to retrieve the Vulcan 300 thanks to Hana's help, Gash hurries off to catch Kiyomaro's bus before it leaves for camp. Along the way however, Gash runs into Umagon. Seeing his friend gives Gash the idea that he should invite him to go to summer camp.

On the bus, Kiyomaro thinks to himself that leaving Gash behind was for the best as he wouldn't have been allowed at camp anyhow. Suzume eventually grabs Kiyomaro's attention to tell him that they should do their best to cook up some curry, which is their assigned task in a small team at camp. Outside of the bus, Gash and Umagon hold onto each other as they're riding on a small cart tied to the bus. A rough bump in their ride however causes Umagon to fly right out of the safety of the cart and into the distance. At the same time, the rope holding the cart to the bus begins to tear apart and eventually snap. This causes the cart to be separated from following the bus from behind and crash onto a nearby road cliff wall causing Gash to be tossed out of the cart and fly off into the distance as well.

While Kiyomaro and the rest of his classmates have just arrived at camp, Gash manages to hitchhike a ride upon a bear that's leading him straight to the camping grounds. Back at the camp, Kiyomaro's homeroom teacher takes attendance for this year's class curry team consisting of Yamanaka, Iwashima, Kiyomaro, and Suzume. Right on time, Gash lands just in front of them to announce his and the Vulcan 300's presence. Seeing Gash unexpectedly at summer camp angers Kiyomaro who then asks Gash why he came. Gash responds by pleading to Kiyomaro to let him join and share some curry with him. Yamanaka steps in to tell Kiyomaro having Gash join them won't be such a big deal especially including the fact that their homeroom teacher's wife had come along too. With this, Gash was then accepted as an additional member to the curry team.

As Kiyomaro and his group look forward to  make curry, Kiyomaro's homeroom teacher mentions to Kiyomaro that he wasn't aware that Kiyomaro was a world-class chef which instantly catches Kiyomaro off-guard. Kiyomaro's classmates join in and show how excited they are to try Kiyomaro's famous curry recipe. This makes Kiyomaro nervous as he doesn't initially understand where his classmates are getting this impression from since he had never cooked before. Suzume can be heard stirring the pot for these rumors even more as she brags how much of a curry genius Kiyomaro is since he had known so much about the origins of curry. Gash also chimes in about how Kiyomaro is able to cook up the best curry in the universe which gets everyone more excited. Kiyomaro's homeroom teacher even adds that the school's headmaster has come along and is also looking forward to trying this famous curry.

Now surrounded by various cooking ingredients, Kiyomaro struggles to figure out what the first thing to do with these ingredients should be. Just then, as Gash comes over to tell Kiyomaro it's time to make curry, Kiyomaro sees that Gash is holding a curry box and wastes no time in seizing it to read the instructions on preparing curry. Now with a basic idea on how to prepare curry, Kiyomaro then decides that all he'll have to do next is improvise everything else. Kiyomaro calls for his group's attention to announce his curry recipe which succeeds in hyping everyone up. He then instructs his team members to start preparing basic ingredients such as meat and vegetables. As the curry itself appears to be cooking nicely, Kiyomaro prepares to add additional ingredients such as apples and honey. Before he does so, he begins to sense tension from his other campers who question if those are the only other ingredients he'll be adding in the curry. Panicked, Kiyomaro then orders his team to add in other ingredients which manages to calm down the rest of his classmates. Following Kiyomaro's orders, his teammates bring in ingredients such as pressed ham, herring roe, fruit, and other miscellaneous ingredients to add to the curry.

As Kiyomaro tastes the curry however, he becomes disgusted with the taste and ends up tying up Gash's Vulcan 300 over a fire because of the ingredients Gash had contributed. Just then once again Kiyomaro senses more tension from his fellow campers who question if this is all his curry is going to be which then causes Kiyomaro to order his teammates to start adding spices. As Gash asks Kiyomaro for clarification on what spices to add, Kiyomaro answers by saying anything goes. As a result, his teammates end up adding spicing ingredients such as wasabi, mustard, chili sauce, kimchi, red peppers, and chili oil. After adding in all the spices, the curry itself turns into a deep red color and Kiyomaro's team concludes that they did a job well-done. Now with curry prepared and served to everyone at camp, they all prepare to take their first bite of Kiyomaro's curry. In their first bite however, the curry proves to be too spicy to handle which causes everyone to suffer in the heat of the first bite.

Later that day as everyone is hanging out by a nearby riverbed, Kiyomaro and Gash initially sit out as they think about what had happened earlier with the curry. Just then, Iwashima, Yamanaka, and Suzume approach Kiyomaro to tell him everyone is waiting for him since he had promised to play with them during his time at summer camp. This puts a smile on Gash and Kiyomaro's faces as they soon join in with everyone splashing around in the river waters. Kiyomaro and Gash are then seen joining in the fun with everyone during other activities during that day. Kiyomaro's time with his friends lasts for hours until night time where he and Gash are now back in their designated camp cabin where Kiyomaro takes a moment to rest and recover from the day.

While resting, Kiyomaro apologizes to Gash for not being able to spend that quality time with him over summer as he promised since tomorrow is when they'll be heading off to England. Despite this, Gash reassures Kiyomaro that although they didn't get a chance to play together, he still had a lot of fun with him and encourages him to get his rest. After hearing this, Kiyomaro instead chooses to get up and heads out into the night despite being visibly fatigued. Gash questions why Kiyomaro is insisting he push himself so hard to which Kiyomaro responds that he can't simply waste his time at summer camp by not making the most of it now. Kiyomaro eventually makes it to Suzume's cabin where he and Gash ask if she wants to be able to shoot some fireworks with them that night. To Kiyomaro’s surprise, Suzume, Yamanaka, Kaneyama, Mariko, and Iwashima are already prepared with fireworks in hand. That night, Kiyomaro, as well as the rest of the campers prepare their fireworks. Gash looks onward at Kiyomaro noting just how much Kiyomaro had wanted something like this experience for such a long time. Fireworks are then seen lighting up the night sky and Kiyomaro stands among his friends as they look up at the colorful fireworks above.

The next day, Suzume is seen going for a stroll around town thinking about how much fun she had the previous night. As she looks up at the sky seeing a plane flying by she thinks to herself that Kiyomaro is off to England that day. Out of nowhere, as a wind blows by it carries a prize draw voucher which ends up in Suzume's hands. At the prize draw, Suzume ends up winning a first prize trip to Hong Kong. At the same time, Kiyomaro and Gash officially set off to England where their journey for clues about the alleged Gash look-alike begins.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Gash Bell
* Suzume Mizuno
* Mariko Nakamura
* Suzuki
* Takeshi Kaneyama
* Hiroshi Yamanaka
* Mamoru Iwashima
* Seitarou Takamine
* Noguchi
* Tai
* Inoue
* Hana Takamine
* Umagon
* Hidetoshi Nakata
* Wife
* Principal
* Kaneko
* Megumi Oumi
* Tio

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Mochinoki Middle School
	+ Takamine Residence
		- Kiyomaro's Room

## Manga & Anime Differences

* Both Kiyomaro's camping trip and summer vacation promises occur at different points in time in the manga and do not happen one after the other like how it was presented in the anime. Kiyomaro's camping trip originally happens just some time after his battle against Fein. Kiyomaro's summer vacation happens at a later point just before he goes to England.
	+ Likewise, his schedule is also different between the anime and manga. In the anime, his camping trip was listed the day after he fulfills all the promises he had made to his friends and on the third day he goes to England. In the manga, while the days listing his trip to England and the activities he has with his friends remain the same, the second day was originally dedicated to going to the pool with Suzume and her friends.
		- On the schedule in the manga as well, there were no mentioned or listed plans to play table-tennis with Suzume and Mariko. This activity was entirely filler in the anime. In the schedule as seen in the anime, this activity was squeezed in between fishing with Tai and hunting for tsuchinoko with Kaneyama.
* Umagon is seen briefly in the anime adaptation of these chapters as he joins Gash in following Kiyomaro to camp and is seen once again hidden in the back of the airplane that Kiyomaro and Gash are on when flying to England. Umagon however was originally not meant to be introduced until after Kiyomaro and Gash return from England and does not appear at any point in the chapters this episode is based on.
	+ Instead of Umagon, Gash can be seen holding onto a jar containing pickled plums that he had been eating to curb motion sickness as he rides a cart attached to the bus Kiyomaro is in as he travels to camp.
		- Unlike the anime, the rope connecting Gash's cart to the bus does not snap off at any point and manages to make it to the campgrounds safely.
* In the manga, Tai's original fishing plans involve catching only 50 fish. In the anime, this was changed to 500 fish.
* In the manga, Kiyomaro is seen making a few failed attempts at curry before he eventually realizes he should work as a team with his friends.
* The teamwork seen between Kiyomaro and his teammates is portrayed significantly differently between the manga and anime. In the manga, Kiyomaro and his teammates including Gash can all be seen working together well at each step preparing the curry. While working together, Kiyomaro reflects on the positive qualities of each of his team members and realizes the importance of working with others and the things he sees in each of them he hadn't seen before. In the anime, Kiyomaro is mostly seen giving general orders to his teammates where they then go ahead and add in an assortment of ingredients, that weren't seen in the manga, into the curry.
	+ Additionally, in the anime, they end up making the curry incredibly spicy and too hot for anyone to consume. In the manga, the curry simply tasted awful which caused everyone to vomit up what they had eaten.
	+ In the aftermath of having made the curry, Kiyomaro originally reflects upon how despite the hard work he had put in to make something good, sometimes the effort doesn't pay off. In the anime, Kiyomaro ends up staying silent as he looks at everyone's reaction to the curry.
* All remaining scenes in the anime after Kiyomaro's curry was served is entirely filler and does not appear in the manga chapters this episode was based on.
* In the manga, a flashback is seen of an earlier point in time where Tio comes over to Kiyomaro's house. While at his house, Kiyomaro asks Tio about what she knows about Gash's past. It is there that Tio reveals that she doesn't know much about his family but suspects he was an only child. She also adds that Gash had not changed much from how he was in the Demon World. More importantly, she ends up revealing to Kiyomaro about how she had encountered the infamous Gash look-alike while in England about ten days ago when Megumi had a photo-shoot there. In the anime however, this moment was not seen in this particular episode and both Tio and Megumi are only seen in a brief scene looking at Gash and Kiyomaro from the airport as they leave for England.
* As Kiyomaro goes about trying to fulfill his summer promises to his friends, Gash originally doesn't interfere or help Kiyomaro complete his tasks and only helps Kiyomaro when it comes time to disguise himself as a tsuchinoko to fool Kaneyama. Kiyomaro also insists on being able to fulfill these promises to his friends no matter how tired he is as it is important for him to be able to keep them no matter what.
* After fulfilling his promise to Iwashima, in the manga, Kiyomaro ends up waking up the next day in the same field as he was with him and heads off to meet up with Suzume and her friends at the pool. In the anime, Kiyomaro is back home for his camping trip that day.
* Suzume getting a hold of a raffle ticket by chance and winning a trip to Hong Kong is an anime-exclusive moment as Suzume winning such or even participating in a raffle never happens in the manga.

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* Mentions of "tsuchinoko" in the original Japanese episode was changed to "dinosaur" in the VIZ localization.
* On the schedule Kiyomaro had written up about his plans for the next three days, The first day of the schedule it originally lists what he'll be doing at each specified time with each person he made a promise to. In the VIZ localization, these written descriptions would later be removed and replaced by blurry Lorem Ipsum placeholder text.
	+ On the same schedule, Gash originally scribbles over it in red marker to write about Kiyomaro's promise to him to play with him and then shows him his schedule upside down in this edit. In the VIZ localization, despite mentioning out loud he had included this change and is even seen with a red marker in hand, Gash only presents to Kiyomaro the upside schedule with no red marker writing anywhere on it.
* After Kiyomaro had been stung by a bee swarm, all bite marks all over him were originally a bright red. This was later edited in the VIZ localization to where there is no redness to be seen.
* When explaining to Kaneyama of the dangers of a tsuchinoko bite, Kiyomaro explains that if they get bitten they'll die in only eight seconds. In the VIZ localization, Kiyomaro explains that the first bite hurts but if they get bitten a second time it's poisonous.
* While trying to lure UFOs with Iwashima, the original phrase they chant is "abduction". In the VIZ localization, this phrase is changed to "heiny heiny ho".
* On the summer camp duty list, text that originally mentions class year and a phrase saying, "have fun making delicious curry" was removed.
	+ Additionally, on a section of the camp duty list that lists those in charge of recreational activities, the names originally listed are entirely filler and no such characters with those names exist in the series. In the VIZ localization, these names were swapped out to list Mariko, Suzuki, and Kaneyama as part of the recreational activity team.
	+ The VIZ localization of this episode also features an incorrect reading of Iwashima's name in kanji and lists his name to be “Iwajima”. This is an inconsistency as his name is still recognized as Iwashima in the English dub of the anime.
* On a sign for the campgrounds, it originally says, "Welcome to Starlight Campgrounds". This ended up being changed to only say, "Welcome Campers".
	+ A panning shot to the right of this sign showing campers getting off the buses was also removed in the VIZ localization.
* Scenes depicting Gash and Suzume holding small firework sparklers were removed.