The very first thing i have to say about this episode is DAYMN this episode had a lot of shit going on. True it didn’t further the mother story, but man. Gotta say, wasn’t bored THIS episode. They throw you right in and are like “Here. Have some ass kicking”. And I do have to admit, this episode was a lot of fun. What happened in it? Well settle down and i’ll tell you.
So the episode starts up with the guy falling off the cliff, but Ushio catches him with the spear. Which I assumed he would otherwise the last episode would have been entirely pointless except to tell us that Hakumen no mono is evil…which we already knew.
Being unconscious, the sister starts to cry. Seeing this, Ushio’s like “Fuck this noise, i’m going to go into this guy’s body and save hi, from the possession. The guy with the motorcycle tries to tell him it’s a stupid idea, but Ushio of course is too busy trying to save the guy. The mirror demon then shows up and sends over a small demon named Izuna to help out Ushio.
So he, Izuna, and Tora all go into the guy’s body together to try and save him.
Along the way they’re stopped by a bunch of smaller demons, but they manage to fight them. However, the more Ushio fights with the beast spear the more infected he’s becoming and slowly turning into a demon himself. By the time they reach the big baddy, he’s not in too great of a shape.
He ends up getting in a tight situation, but Izuna jumps in the way getting stabbed to save Ushio which incredibly pisses him off and agrees to let the spear take over his whole soul in exchange for the power to save this human guy. So it turns out that the crying sister has the power to transfer energy so they ask her to do so as the demon residing inside of the guy is pretty strong.
Seeing this strategy, the baddy tries to escape, but Izuna shows up and is going to sacrifice himself to destroy him along side of him.
Then, in one of my favorite scenes of this series so far, Ushio basically goes “OH THE HELL YOU’RE GONNA DIE!” and he rushes forward and saves Izuna before he can sacrifice himself and only the bad guy is destroyed. The guy is no longer possessed and the sister gets to say thank you.
However, there’s a price though, as it looks like Ushio’s turning into a demon now as part of the power he used.
And that’s where the episode ends.
Wow. I gotta say wow. This episode, pretty much from beginning to end was action packed. So much shit happened in this episode in terms of badass battles, possession, and inverting of tropes. I LOVED this episode. This is definitely my favorite episode of the series so far. THIS is the kind of stuff you want to see in this early 90’s throwback show. Badass fights, and throwing what other series does to the wind.
I was VERY surprised when Izuna’s sacrifice was inverted, but that’s what makes this show great. You never know when they’re going to pull stuff like that. I like how everything turned out okay in the end, except for Ushio. He didn’t get off scott-free. There are repercussions for his ability to save everyone and that’s awesome. He isn’t a Gary Stu and it shows. This is what I picked up this show for. It’s hard to discuss why this episode’s so badass. I really can’t recommend this episode enough. Good job guys.
Episode 9/10
-Hideki