Ushio & Tora

Episode 25

The world of Ushio & Tora is larger than we know—and yet far narrower too. In this episode, we learn about another group attempting to find and destroy the Hakumen no Mono, the H.A.M.M.R. Institute. But while this scientific research foundation may have the same goal as Ushio, Tora, and their allies, they certainly aren't on the same side. In an episode that stresses a narrow-minded division between the scientific and the spiritual, these two groups eventually discover who the real enemy is, but not until after a lot of needless infighting between themselves.

Ushio & Tora is full of supernatural monsters, so it only made sense that the Men In Black would show up eventually. We learn that Japan has special agents whose goal it is to manage yokai incidents, and that one of these yokai combating groups has gone rogue. The H.A.M.M.R. Institute demonstrates its complete lack of ethics by kidnapping Ushio, Tora, and even Asako as a hostage to make Ushio comply with their experiments. It's all extremely evil, made crueler by the knowledge that the Institute is also trying to destroy the Hakumen no Mono—you'd think they would want to save lives, not endanger them. But that's not exactly the case, as Asako finds out when she rescues a terrified young ghost (obake) she calls Bal-chan from the depths of their experiment ward. They find a sample of the Hakumen no Mono on the Beast Spear, and of course their terrible idea is to grow it into an artificial Hakumen no Mono—what could possibly go wrong? When the going gets tough and even the scientists' lives are in danger, Asako really gives it to them: “Isn't science supposed to make stuff like saving lives possible? Isn't that why you do all that research?” Asako knows that scientific knowledge is supposed to serve, not harm people.

It's a revisitation of the dichotomy at the crux of Ushio & Tora—science vs. supernatural, modernity vs. tradition, West vs. East. All bad things come from west of Japan, including the Hakumen no Mono. Modern industry, like Kirio's mass-produced Elzaar scythes, can never stand up to traditional forging methods. Scientific experiments result in horrifying homunculi and hurt kids, while Ushio's dad's priesthood is the most undeniably good group in the show. Like all black-and-white dichotomies, it's narrow-minded and not at all how the real world works. Still, it's a setup for one of the most powerful moments in the episode, when Ushio overhears the scientists discussing the material makeup of the Beast Spear. Through Ushio's eyes, we hear the scientist trail off as he's about to note the final ingredient that makes up the beast spear. Ushio's tranquilizer-addled vision gives way to images of Jie Mei, her brother, and the other people who gave up their lives to make such a powerful weapon. Ushio knows it's not meteoric iron that makes the Spear powerful, but human courage and love. Ushio begins to tear up thinking of these people—and his tears are contrasted with the emotionless, calculating scientists behind him. They know about the power of science, but not the power of intangible human emotion and strength, a must-have when you're fighting supernatural beasts that defy everything we know about mass and matter.

This uneasy relationship between science and the supernatural at the center of Ushio & Tora risks staying forever unresolved, because nothing in life is really a good vs. evil debate. The hope for reconciliation at the end of the episode may still rescue this heavy-handed missive, when even the scientists acknowledge that Tora is their only hope. It's about time they learned that there are some emotions you can't measure, because Ushio & Tora fans picked up on this message a long time ago.

Rating: B

Ushio & Tora is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.