More Azafuse than a barrel full of Toras
What They Say:
Long ago, a ferocious monster terrorized the land, until a samurai, wielding the legendary “Beast Spear”, sealed him away. 500 years later, a middle school student named Ushio Aotsuki accidentally uncovers the monster in a hidden cellar under his family’s temple. The unsealed monster and the spear attract many other supernatural creatures to the temple and Ushio is forced to release the monster in order to defeat them. Ushio names the monster “Tora” and unwillingly work together to battle other spirits and demons.
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
The show’s march towards the final battle continues this week, but compared to last week’s big ball of emotions, things shift gears a bit here. Instead, we’re given an info-heavy episode, and when combined with the show reuniting us with an old character, manages to come off as a bit dense. Fortunately, the material thrown at us here is solid, and leaves us with just the right combination of answers and questions to keep the show’s current level of momentum going.
With his memory restored, Kirio wants to go out and rescue Mayuko, but Ushio and the others advise him against it since none of them are ready to face Hakumen yet. Kirio instead decides to go and research more about Hakumen while Ushio and Tora head back home to be reunited with Hyou . He managed to avoid being hit by the memory wipe and also didn’t come alone as he’s followed by a series of Tora look-alikes called Azafuse who all bear a connection to the Beast Spear. Tora’s also one of them and so is Guren who decides to crash the party in order to kill them all. Before he can, though, Hyou connects the dots even further as we’re given a hefty revelation
Having tracked down his origins via time traveling with Tokisada, Hyou learned that Guren was once a monstrous thief named Soukei who stumbled upon the Beast Spear. He used it to both make money and take pleasure in the sheer thrill of killing but eventually the Spear turned him into a monster himself. In fact, all of the Azafuse were once wielders of the Spear turned monsters with Ushio having just barely escaped that fate himself a while back. Naturally this applies to Tora too, meaning he was human at one point but has since forgotten. However, he’s different from the other Azafuse as they point out that while all of them are driven by an instinctual hatred of Hakumen, Tora’s anger comes from a personal grudge against him.
It’s quite a bit to wad through but there’s still more. Like Tora, Guren’s also different from the other Azafuse, but his difference comes from the fact that he ignored his natural drive to kill Hakumen in favor of his drive to kill in general, deciding to follow him in order to do as much of it as possible. His murders also happened to include that of Hyou’s family and having finally come face to face with the object of his revenge, Hyou begins an epic standoff. Unfortunately, their battle gets cut short when Guren realizes that Hakumen’s full revival is fast approaching, and Hyou decides to follow him, but not before finding a bit of hope in our main duo and beginning to consider what lies ahead for him after he gets his vengance
So yeah it’s a pretty dense episode but it’s certainly an interesting one. Tora having a direct connection to the Beast Spear isn’t too surprising a revelation since there’s been a fair share of hints that he’s different from other yokai but it definitely raises the question as to his human identity. My personal guess would be that he’s Giryo the creator of the Beast Spear himself and given the desire he expressed to fight alongside Ushio before passing, it would make for a pretty interesting connection. Although given that Giryo’s spirit is also supposed to be inside the spear itself, there’s probably a different story here, and I’m hoping it won’t be long before we learn more about it.
Though it’s the main highlight, the Azafuse stuff isn’t the only material here as there’s also the matter of Hyou’s revenge.Sadly when it comes to that side of the episode, though, it feels a little undercut. From the moment Guren was introduced it seemed pretty obvious he was the one who killed Hyou’s family and that confrontation goes about pretty much as expected, so there’s not really much else to say on that. It’s fine for what it is I guess, though the show kind of stumbles a bit when it comes to idea of presenting Hyou as a changed man. We know from his last episode that he’s mellowed out a bit, but that change doesn’t come off as effectively when he spends half his time in here making slasher faces at Guren. That said, with the rest of the episode’s material being pretty solid it’s a minor issue and given how straightforward Hyou’s story is, a lack of subtlety isn’t too big a loss. The show’s still running on a pretty high level of momentum, and with the mysteries both brought up and answered here, it looks like there’s still plenty more of it to burn through.
In Summary:
Ushio & Tora goes for an info-heavy episode this week compared to the previous drama fest, but it’s certainly not making the show any slower. The revelations about the Azafuse were hinted at enough that it’s not a gigantic shock, but it’s definitely got me even more curious about Tora’s origins and how much that’ll tie into what’s been thrown at us so far. The stuff concerning Hyou’s vengeance on the other hand isn’t quite as compelling, but it’s decent enough for what it is and it’s helping to keep things rolling.We still have a bit of a ways to go before the finale but with everything that’s been brought up here, I’m more excited that ever to see it all come together.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
