Ushio & Tora

Episode 9

Ushio & Tora may star a middle schooler, but this show isn't for little kids. It's not afraid to show gory scenes or address complicated issues. This week's episode dealt with the adversarial relationship between human industry and yokai survival, and it didn't have a happy ending. The show's ability to resist neatly putting a simple resolution on a complex problem results in the season's most bittersweet—and most mature—half hour yet.

Ushio and Tora are continuing their journey north, but get sidetracked quite literally by a gust of wind that turns out be a kamaitachi, or “sickle weasel.” Provoked, Ushio is prepared to defend himself against the threat until a bombshell begs for forgiveness at his feet. These weasel yokai can take human form, and they want Ushio's help to kill their brother, who is on a murder spree. At first Ushio refuses: he's not "some assassin" who will help siblings kill each other. But, ever the show's moral center, Ushio is swayed when he realizes noncompliance will spell deaths for any human who crosses their brother's path.

Warfare between humans and yokai is par for the course in Ushio & Tora, but this episode throws a wrench in things when other yokai want a certain yokai dead. One of the most fascinating scenes is a conversation between the sister-yokai and Tora. The sister despises humans, and is repulsed by Tora for being “a yokai that's as obedient as a pet.” Tora, on the other hand, sees the 400-year-old siblings as “just kids” who don't know anything. It was a scene that humanized Tora not as just one of a group of many yokai, but as an individual who chooses to think for himself, even if his conclusions go against most yokai understanding. (Tora's hilarious facial expressions also help; they're a major highlight this week.)

Tora's tenuous relationship with Ushio is further detailed through this latest yokai encounter as well. The siblings explain that they trip, hurt, and then heal humans in order to protect their land. They never kill humans, and doing so is unforgivable. Not because they like humans in any way, but because they know that in a fight between them and humans, they'd become extinct. (Similar to Tora and his obedience thanks to his fear of the Beast Spear.) As a result, the siblings have spent the last 400 years migrating around Japan as their previous homes are turned into factories, golf courses, and stuff that smells “like iron and oil.” It's something of a pro-environmentalist stance, reminding viewers of the major impact humans have on their environment and other living things when they develop.

Be prepared for some gore this time around, including headless bodies, bloody corpses, and dismemberment. The brother-yokai is out of control, and it can be grisly to watch. By the end, the brother has added his siblings, Ushio, and Tora to his “kill everyone” roster. The most touching moment of the show comes when, even after the brother's repeated murder attempts on him, Ushio manages to empathise completely with his situation. OK, having your childhood playground torn down for safety concerns is a little bit different than being driven out of your home over and over for 400 years, but Brother-Yokai is moved.

Just like Tora and the other yokai do not engage in groupthink, the conclusion of this episode indicated that people don't either. Brother-Yokai believes that all humans are evil, but when nearby humans hear the group's cries for help, dozens of them run to the yokais' aid. There are bad humans in this episode, but good humans too. There are yokai who hate people, and yokai who help people, and humans who help yokai. This individualistic turn at the end makes the possibility of a happy ending pretty touch-and-go, but it's ultimately bittersweet. In the end, there can't be a true resolution between the two groups, because there really aren't two groups to begin with, just beings and their hundred differing perceptions of one another.

I have immensely enjoyed the mature storyline that Ushio & Tora is developing. This episode can't have a happy ending because there aren't just two forces of good and evil that need to be reconciled, but dozens of degrees and shades of gray. Ushio & Tora isn't here to just serve viewers what they want to see, but to make us think about the real-life problems they mirror that don't have solutions yet. This is a battle anime turned emotional and cerebral, and I look forward to the next leg of the journey.

Rating: A

Ushio & Tora is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.