It kills me to do it, but I’ve got no choice but to downsize Ushio to Tora this week (and Kyoukai no Rinne is going to suffer the same fate). In all my years of blogging anime I don’t think I’ve ever been this backlogged – this is one of the busiest weekends I’ve seen, and mostly premieres to boot. I think it’s better to prioritize new shows when my time is this limited.
That said, no series has been more consistent and reliable than UshiTora. And this was both an excellent and quite important episode. Mayuko getting in touch with her powers is obviously a huge deal, and both she and Asako learned the truth of the Beast Spear’s genesis and Mayuko’s past (and fated future). I didn’t find it at all surprising that Asako would volunteer herself in Mayuko’s place, but I was pretty sure Ushio was never going to let that happen.
The other headline this week was the introduction of the ageless Wakamoto Norio as Guren, who seems to be Tora’s dark doppelgänger. He’s in Hakumen no Mono’s service and while Ushio and Tora get the best of him in the near-term, I suspect we haven’t seen the last of Guren.
DogmaDestiny
April 11, 2016 at 1:02 pmIn fact Guren was supposed to appear first in the next episode and then in this one, with Ushio and Tora already knowing who is he, but they changed the order. They are cutting stuff, but they aren´t making anything new without a reason, only when because of the cut something lacks context in the history (for example, in the manga Kirio had a arc about how he met Mayuko while he was living in the streets, instead of the sect telling Mayuko family to take care of him) The other leader of the youkai also has his own arc in the manga and then they came to terms thanks to Ushio, but in the anime they skipped it.
In fact it doesn´t affect the story very much, but there is one important detail that should be in the anime and it´s not, it could be a spoiler, but it was in the original history. (deleted)
gilraen_tinuviel
April 11, 2016 at 1:16 pmI’m sad Mayuko had to go before she could remember Ushio fully. I hoped it’ll be a short time amnesia because I feel it diminishes characters’ development little but …oh, well.