English Dub Review: Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls “The Cherry Blossoms Have Fallen”

It’s a new ninja anime! And this time, it’s brutal!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Its 16th century Japan, and a war for the throne of the emperor of Japan is going on between two rival ninja clans. Our story begins properly with a young girl walking in a grassy field. The sense of peace quickly evaporates as she sees figures in the bushes. Ninjas, we’re to assume, who start fighting each other with all their special abilities in some kind of training exercise. Each is unique in fighting style but deadly in their own ways. There’s a ninja with guns, one who uses illusions, and even one who can pop his eyes out of his head and have them fly around. We learn from two of them arguing with each other that this clan rivalry is between the “Kouga” and “Iga” clans, and the two have had a feud for quite some time.

Cut to one of the young ninjas messing with “Kazuma”, an older ninja who decides to teach the young girl a lesson by string her up by her neck with his metal wire abilities. But the girl is soon cut down by a figure swooping down from the treetop to save her, our hero, Kouga Hachirou. Hachirou tells Kazuma to knock it off, and Kazuma is taken aback. Hachirou, it seems, is the leader of his clan, an impressive feat for his age. We learn that Hachirou has some kind of powerful eye magic, and so does his sister, “Hibiki,” who is an Iga. Their bloodline is important to the survival of their clans’ ability to raise strong ninjas. A group of ninjas allies to Hachirou arrive in the scene to speak of Hachirou’s importance, but soon get a letter from a hawk that a lord from nearby is riding to save his mother, who is gravely ill.

Hachirou meets his sister Hibiki down by the shore, and we get an image of the kind of relationship they have as brother and sister. We learn that they’re supposed to couple with each other for the sake of their clans and that the whole village is hoping they fall in love. Meanwhile, the stormy weather has impeded the rider’s progress, who is going increasingly frustrated with his men’s unwillingness to follow him through this intense weather. They’re about to cross the river when a mysterious man slaughters his men in an instant. The stranger wields some kind of magical ability to dodge words, the “Floating Cloud” technique. This reveals him as a ninja sent to kill the lord, but at the last minute before the assassination, five Kouga clan ninjas arrive to protect him.

Our Take:

As far as first episodes go, this one is not terribly impressive. Its all over the place with its pacing and characters, and I feel to get a good sense of what is actually going on. There is a large cast, but we don’t get enough time spent with them to really get a sense of who they are, and especially not for Hachirou, our main character who gets barely any screen time at all. This leaves the episode as kind of a confusing mess, and by the end of it, it feels as if very little has actually been accomplished.