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Ushio & Tora
Episode 21

by Lauren Orsini,

How would you rate episode 21 of
Ushio & Tora ?
Community score: 4.3

After the emotional time-travel episode we endured last week, it appears at first glance like Ushio & Tora might allow us to return to a semblance of normalcy. Wrong—it's all just a setup so the show can careen with ever-heightening intensity toward the long-foreshadowed battle with the show's big baddie, the Hakumen no Mono. Everything in the Ushio & Tora universe is imbued with meaning, and you never know what will be the key to the next victory.

Poor Ushio has been away for so long that he actually missed school and doesn't mind that his silly dad drew a picture of steak instead of cooking it. But while he's reeling from midterms and Tora is munching on his beloved hamburgers, Ushio manages to save a strange grade-schooler from an oncoming car. Tora notices something supernatural and dangerous about that kid and he's right—is it time for another Monster of the Week episode? Of course not. Kirio is the fourth would-be Beast Spear successor, and perhaps the most dangerous yet, because he's not about to be swayed by Ushio's kindness and determination the way the other three were. Ushio and Kirio's meeting literally begins with a rescue, but all Kirio can see is that in Ushio's effort to save him, he unwittingly squashed some bugs. “That's what you've been doing all this time, isn't it?” Kirio observes, and it's impossible not to read a deeper meaning into this. By the nature of his role as the Beast Spear wielder, supernatural beasts follow Ushio wherever he goes. Even though he tries desperately to save people, at least two busloads of people have faced the consequences of choosing to ride the same bus that Ushio was on.

Where Ushio has Tora and the Beast Spear, Kirio has Kuin and the Elzaar Scythe. Where Ushio and Tora have a tenuous alliance, Kirio and Kuin have a master-servant relationship. Kirio also notes that the Elzaar Scythe does not choose its owner and can be mass-produced and distributed to every priest in Ushio's dad's temple. I'm getting a bit of a John Henry vs. the machine vibe here, where Ushio represents the old way and young Kirio represents the new. In a culture that glorifies tradition as much as the world of Ushio & Tora, where spiritual roles and relics are passed generation to generation, it's already clear who will come out on top. The real mystery comes from why and how Kirio is going to lose. First, there's Kirio's mother figure, a tired-eyed woman who looks uncannily like the Hakumen no Mono's human avatar. In this episode, she acquires the red cloth that once bound the Beast Spear. (Isn't it cool how a scrap of cloth mentioned in passing is now a major plot point? Ushio & Tora knows what it's doing.) She's definitely not a good person, but she is everything to Kirio. This is not going to end well, but I'm certain it'll end with Kirio becoming a sympathetic ally character.

Ushio & Tora is about balance if nothing else, and for every evil force there is a good one. Oyakume-san is a former Hakumen no Mono barrier maiden who's about 400 years old. Her meeting with Ushio is endearing, combining two of the episode's most preciously good characters. It's hard to resist Ushio's pink cheeks and smile—his cherubic face triggers a memory in Oyakume, convincing her to gird her remaining strength to do anything she can to protect him until it's time for the final battle. I was getting real Yoda vibes from kindly but surprisingly powerful Oyakume, who even gets a green glowing afterimage a la Return of the Jedi. It's a little cheesy, but on the other hand, it forms a fitting conclusion with no loose ends.

Oyakume intones that Ushio's power alone will not be enough to defeat the Hakumen no Mono: “Work together.” I already suspected this, but this is the first time we've seen the light at the end of the tunnel. It's another indication that every moment of Ushio & Tora, every swayed ally, every seemingly throwaway relic, every sidestep into the past and present, is leading up to a solution at the end of this show.

Rating: A

Ushio & Tora is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.


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