Yaiba: Samurai Legend

Episode 5

Sadly, this show's pacing issues are likely to stick around for the foreseeable future. This episode cold opens right in the middle of a fight with one of Onimaru's Eight Ogres and while the “ogre” in question being a giant slug called Sluggy implies we didn't miss much, it still made the first few minutes of this episode pretty jarring, and took me out of it a bit. The fight also wraps up as quickly as it starts, as Yaiba and the others happen to land near some bags of salt in the middle of fighting it and use them to shrink Sluggy down until he's harmless. It is funny seeing Sluggy here pull a hasty retreat the second this happens, but beyond setting the mood for the rest of the episode, this sequence didn't do much for me. While the rest of this week's events are thankfully a lot more focused, that focus ends up being centered almost entirely around wacky cartoon antics. On paper, I'm not opposed to that, but in execution, the actual results here are pretty mixed.

After watching his minions face one too many failures in stealing the Raijinken from Yaiba, Onimaru starts to lose his patience with them (as an aside, I.ADORE how he's transformed the Japanese Diet Building into his evil lair, complete with a giant skull for an entrance). Not wanting to get on his bad side, his spider minion/tech guy tries concocting a new scheme to steal Yaiba's sword by having a few of the other Ogres trick Yaiba and the gang into going on a free hot springs trip. Given the setup, it's unsurprising that this scenario quickly transforms into a bunch of gags about Sayaka getting peeped on by the guys. While I did get a chuckle out of Yaiba getting sprayed down with a hose when he climbs into the women's bath, these scenes otherwise demonstrate how dated that particular style of humor is and otherwise felt exhausting.

The back half of the episode is thankfully funnier, though its hijinks mainly center around a trio of villains named Mr. Starfish, Mr. Sea Cucumber, and Mr. Mantis, who are all as silly as their names imply. To steal Yaiba's sword for Onimaru, they plan to ambush Yaiba and Sayaka while they are doing a test of courage. These goons aren't exactly criminal masterminds, and their schemes quickly go awry, from failing to convince Yaiba that he doesn't need to bring along his sword to Mr. Starfish accidentally crushing Mr. Sea Cucumber when he tries to sneak up on Yaiba. Out of these, the best gag is when Mr. Mantis pretends to be an old granny and tries re-enacting Little Red Riding Hood, only to get whacked in the head when the claws come out, with neither Yaiba nor Sayaka piecing together his identity. Funny as that is, though, the rest of this otherwise relies on the show's presentation to elevate the humor. While that mostly works out, it left me wishing the talents of the show's staff were being used for more than just slapstick. Eventually, our trio of baddies decides to just attack Yaiba outright, but this quickly backfires when their attacks dig open a geyser and they more or less defeat themselves. This is enough for Yaiba and the others to take pity on them, and this act of kindness causes these baddies to switch sides. Unfortunately, it's also enough for Onimaru to lose his last bit of patience, and he decides to send out the strongest of his Eight Ogres: a vampire with shades.

While that sounds like it could lead to a fun little matchup, the previews do imply it's likely to be as goofy as this week's antics, and I would like to see a little more from this show than that. I've accepted that this series doesn't seem to have too many ambitions beyond being a fun kids' show, and as a regular enjoyer of franchises like Precure and Digimon, I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. Of course, for as goofy as those franchises can get, they also have plenty of drama to play with. It'd be nice to have a little more to chew on besides the show's humor and production values. Hopefully, we'll get more substance from this series as it goes along, but with how overly silly the last couple of episodes have been, I'd like to see that kick in sooner rather than later.

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