Yaiba: Samurai Legend

Episode 8

Despite not being impressed with how last week kicked off this whole time travel subplot, I still hoped that the show could do something fun with that concept. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out, as this dilemma ends up resolving itself a little too quickly, and what little we got out of it left me feeling a little underwhelmed. While none of what happens here is exactly bad, it does stand out as another case where this show's tendency to move as fast as possible ends up working against it—and sucks some of the energy out of what should have otherwise been a pivotal moment for it.

Thanks to Yaiba's big mouth altering history, our little jungle boy finds himself in a bit of a crisis. Not only could he end up stuck in the past with no way to get back, but since Musashi needs to be alive to give Yaiba the Raijinken in the first place, Musashi dying in this duel would mean Yaiba would end up getting killed by Onimaru before this whole adventure even started. Not wanting to phase out of existence, Yaiba tries everything he can think of to make Musashi sleep-in for his big battle, and eventually catches his attention by telling him stories about all the cute girls with miniskirts that will exist in the future (a point that perhaps could have been made without the need for Yaiba to flip the kimono of the Sayaka stand-in, but having to bring up Yaiba's behavior towards girls is as annoying to talk about as it is to witness). This ends up working a little too well, as Musashi drinks himself into the night, and Yaiba is unable to wake him up in time for the fight.

With no other options, Yaiba has no choice but to pretend to be Musashi and re-enact the duel himself, which is easier said than done, as it's pretty clear that Kojiro is stronger. But when all hope seems lost, Musashi finally shows up and slays Kojiro, giving Yaiba the chance he needs to hop back to the present. In practice, Musashi's intervention seems to be here as a moment of inspiration for Yaiba, as he can't help but admire how Musashi was willing to hold his ground against Kojiro's magic sword. While that works enough on paper, part of me can't help but wonder if Aoyama or his editors realized Yaiba would have had to murder if he followed through on beating Kojiro himself—and hastily brought Musashi back to bail him out. Either way, I don't feel like we got a whole lot out of this trip to the past, and while I wouldn't exactly call it a waste of time, I still can't help but think that leaving Yaiba stuck there a little longer would have made this stretch of the story a lot more interesting.

When Yaiba returns to the present, he ends up in a rematch with Kojiro. While Yaiba is still outmatched, he decides to fight fearlessly the same way Musashi did, and it's enough for Musashi to deem him worthy of using the Raijinken's full power. This seems like something that should be an important moment for the series, but it doesn't quite feel like it was earned. Sure we've seen Yaiba muttering over wanting to get stronger during the past couple of episodes—and saw his brief stint with death while fighting Mr. Bat—so it's not as though this came out of nowhere. But all of those story beats went so quickly that it doesn't feel as though we've seen Yaiba go through any real change. Once again, I think the show would have really benefited from having us actually spend time seeing Yaiba train with Musashi or wrestling with his fears. Even here, the scene with Yaiba overpowering the Oni inside the Raijinken to take control of it is just a bit too short. While it's visually impressive, it didn't feel like it left much of an impact and left me feeling less excited by the outcome.

None of that is to say that there weren't things I enjoyed about the episode. I did get a pretty good kick out of Yaiba defeating Kojiro by realizing he could zap his sword with lightning like any other metal object, and I was equally amused by seeing Kojiro join Onimaru's ranks purely because he can't take that kind of shame lying down. I'm also pretty pumped about the not-at-all mad scientist who has also joined with Onimaru. While he might claim that his scientific pursuits have merely been “misunderstood", you can't trust anyone with a moustache that big, and the only thing that could have made him seem more sinister is if he started twirling it. That's the sort of fun cartoon villainy I can get behind, and I can only hope that his antics end up being entertaining as his design. Despite my complaints, I am still having a mostly good time with this show, and the quality of the animation on display here is doing a lot to balance out those issues, but it's clear that the speed at which it's burning through material isn't doing it any favors. There'd be a lot more here to appreciate if the show had a little more room to breathe, and since that doesn't seem likely to change, it's hard not to feel a little disappointed.

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Yaiba: Samurai Legend is currently streaming on Netflix and Hulu on Saturdays.