Mother and son
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):
Ushio originally began his journey with only one goal in mind: to come face to face with his estranged mother. Things have changed quite a bit since then, but after about 20 or so episodes of waiting, it’s finally time for their little family reunion. Surprisingly said reunion ends up forming the majority of this episode, but unsurprisingly it also makes for a genuinely heartwarming experience.
After successfully hijacking a submarine, Ushio and the engineers make their way towards pillar. Along the way they end up getting blocked by some of Hakumen’s aura, but seeing Ushio’s earnest desire to see his mother motivates the engineers to help him and press on ahead in spite of the risk. As Ushio prepares himself see his mom. his feelings on the matter are a bit divided. Part of him understands why she abandoned him, while the other wants to let her have it for having left both him and his dad alone all this time. It’s all pretty difficult for him to process emotionally and while parental abandonment for a “good” reason is another relatively ancient cliche for this kind of story, seeing him trying to find a way to come to terms with it makes it feel a bit easier to be invested in.
However for all the frustration he feels towards her, those thoughts immediately melt away upon finally meeting her in person. When he sees the reality of her situation first hand, it ends up bringing him to tears, and things go even more unexpectedly for him when she begs forgiveness for having left him. Ushio ultimately can’t bring himself to blame her, and his attempt to play it all off as not being that big a deal is equal parts funny and heartwarming as it demonstrates just how much his journey has helped in sympathizing with others. It’s a really intimate little scene, and as the two connect for the first time as parent and child, it’s hard not to get swept up in the moment, and it certainly tugged at my heartstrings considerably.
Sadly things can’t be warm and fuzzy for long as while that reunion’s going on, the eastern and western yokai clans argue what to do about Hakumen, and aren’t able to stop the JASDF in time as they fire a missile at the pillar and free Hakumen. If you needed a reminder that Hakumen no Mono is legitimately, the ending here serves as one heck of a wake up call as he rises from the ocean in all his horrific glory and starts laying waste to the feuding yokai. With him now having been freed, it seems that the moment of truth has finally arrived, and with a few episodes remaining, it’s shaping up to be a pretty long showdown.
In Summary:
After a long journey, Ushio finally reaches his goal of meeting his mother. Though while he planned on venting out all of his frustrations on her, his desire to be with her is stronger and he decides to forgive her for everything. It’s an extremely touching moment, but sadly it isn’t one that can last as there are other matters to attend to. Now that Hakumen’s free to wreak havoc on the world, it’s finally time for the big showdown and I’m really looking forward to it.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
