Ushio & Tora

Episode 10

People can be just as horrible as the supernatural monsters we dream up. Episode ten of Ushio & Tora turns the “monster of the week” premise on its head by presenting a yokai being threatened by a human, not the other way around. The show isn't subverting any shounen anime tropes this week, just executing them very well. This episode hit all the right notes, introducing characters worth caring about and justifying a battle worth fighting.

Ushio's journey up north is reminiscent of many shounen anime, where characters undertake an extended journey and meet lots of friends and allies along the way. But before we get to the good stuff, the weakest part of the show is the very beginning, when an order of Shinto monks comments on the events of previous episodes to explain away why we haven't seen them interfering in Ushio or Tora's lives lately. The discussion is as bland as the scene's symmetrical blocking, and I can only imagine that it's here to A) stay true to the manga, B) bring up the Hakumen no Mono, or C) remind us that Ushio & Tora follows a major plot, even if it seems segmented into unrelated episode-long adventures.

The scene that follows, in which Ushio and Tora heal their wounds in a hot spring, feels more like the episode's beginning. It blends humor (Tora's reaction to learning how to make a squirt gun from his hands is priceless) and the introduction of a mysterious new character. It's more reminiscent of what I've come to expect. In episode nine, they had a silly spat over money and a sudden altercation with the allies of the week; in episode eight, we got Tora's comical fascination with airports and an abruptly overheard conversation.

This week, the new ally is Saya, a white-haired girl with otherworldly eyes and a connection to the spirit world. Her father and grandmother are stern caretakers with evil telegraphed on their faces. After another run-in with Saya, Ushio realizes that the silly zashiki-warashi motif he saw on a travel guide isn't just a mascot, but a real feature of this place, and it's Saya's job to placate Omamori-sama to keep her father and grandmother from losing their stolen good fortune. Omamori-sama, whose very name means “good luck charm,” wants to leave the house and Saya wants Ushio and Tora to help.

Saya's family is made up of the type of people that really grind Ushio's gears. They think only of themselves. They pay Ushio to leave their house, assuming that if they are motivated by money, Ushio must be as well. They don't see the harm in trapping “one little yokai.” But while Ushio and Tora lend their strength to Omamori-sama, in the end it's Saya who has the final say. What makes Saya so compelling is that she begins the episode as the weakest character, nude and vulnerable in the bath, faint of body and constantly apologizing for her own existence. By the end, she holds power over everyone—Ushio, Tora, her family, and even Omamori-sama's fate. You can see her growth as a character in her speech and even her eyes. I really hope she returns in a later episode, because I was deeply invested in her growth after only a half-hour.

Perhaps what makes this episode of Ushio & Tora so compelling is that it's universal. Excepting the introduction, I could recommend this episode to people who don't even watch the show and expect them to enjoy it. Smooth animation and mono-color signposting (blue for the supernatural, orange for nostalgia, etc.) shortcut the storytelling for a brisk twenty minutes. It follows a shounen script that's comfortably familiar to fans of the genre while creating characters that we can relate to. That's what makes Saya such a special character: evil may be everywhere, but we have more strength than we realize to stand up to it.

Rating: B+

Ushio & Tora is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.