Ushio & Tora

Episode 13

You've got questions, and Ushio & Tora is finally providing the answers. As part two of this adventure in the pair's journey north, it's an episode that keeps on giving—peppering long awaited plot points in between an action-packed spectacle. We transition between Ushio fighting his butt off to avoid becoming a yokai's dinner, and Tora perched on a treetop, doing nothing much. Everything about the editing and cinematography of the Ushio sections screams movement, while Tora's side is illustrated in a flow of still images, indicating his initial hesitation to help Ushio.

Fortunately, this is an episode where Ushio's good deeds have come back to reward him, so he doesn't need Tora, at least not right away. No fewer than four characters that Ushio has saved in the past come to his aid today. Aside from being mighty convenient, these cameos continue to emphasize Ushio's role as the moral center of the show. Ushio gets offered a piece of bread; he tries to give it to somebody else. Ushio survives a near-death experience; all he cares about is whether the bus passengers from last episode are okay. Often when a character is overly good, it can get a little unrealistic and grating. But Ushio's kindness works because he's not a passive pacifist—he does what he needs to do to keep the story moving. There's a very telling bit of dialogue between Ushio and the old man he rescues in the forest: “I've started to get used to it,” Ushio says. “Killing yokai?” the old man asks. “The fact that yokai actually exist,” Ushio clarifies. The unspoken truth is that Ushio will never get used to killing, no matter how talented he becomes at it.

Meanwhile, Tora is undergoing his latest crisis of pride, internally debating whether he wants to preserve either his reputation or Ushio's life. Ultimately, it's an easy decision (see Ushio's innate goodness above), though Tora can't stop being totally tsundere about it. He asserts that he only wants to save Ushio he can save him for dinner. He doesn't want to rescue Ushio, he just really feels like fighting the yokai who happen to be threatening the kid. You can almost see this dynamic as a threat to his masculinity. Men (or male yokai) aren't expected by society to have squishy feelings and emotions, and Tora as a non-human former killing machine seems to have internalized that even further. Of course, Tora is no less tough for making a friend, which is what makes his resistance into a joke instead of a lesson.

Stylistically, this episode borrows heavily from Japanese myth and legend, both through visuals and plot. Ushio finding a mansion in the mist is straight out of a tall tale, as is the prominently featured nine-tailed fox deity. The secret surrounding Ushio's mother is no less folkloric. As Ushio & Tora progresses, it increasingly leaves the real world behind in exchange for a mystifying fantasy world with its own secrets and surprises. In this episode, nothing is what it seems, and fluid transitions between locations and appearances are manufactured expertly. Ushio & Tora is building a world I can't wait to see more of, and its relatable protagonists are exactly the people I want to explore it with.

Rating: A

Ushio & Tora is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.