English Dub Review: Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls “The Kouga Must Die”

Sweat-based poison ninja powers. Gross.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode begins with a flashback, showing us a glimpse of the training the Kouga and Iga children have been getting up to. The three Kougas try to scare Hibiki by tossing a knife near her but are quickly shut down by Hibiki’s power, her magical eyes that can negate any malicious intent from an opponent. The Igas in turn, try to do the same thing to Hachirou, but things take a turn for the deadly when the attacking boy turns his knife on himself. Gorone quickly steps in and restrains the child, revealing that this is the power of Hachirou’s eyes: to turn the malicious intent of an opponent back upon themselves. Brutal.

Back in the present, Hibiki tries to talk Hachirou into staying at the village, while the still-breathing members of the Five Treasures of Kouga face this new mysterious threat. They walk outside into the rain to see Kazuma, wielder of the Heaven’s Lyre, tied to a water wheel with his own metal cords. In a fit of some kind of madness, he announces the completion of his heaven’s song and then is ripped into a million pieces by the cords. The last two treasures, Kasou and Geiin then meet their mysterious attacker, a young man of peculiar garb and a cocky attitude. The boy taunts the two ninjas, and Kasou, being the hot head that he is, jumps into action and tries to use his flame magic to burn this foe to a crisp. But as the flame is about to hit the boy, the fire turns back onto Kasou and burns him alive.

The boy descends down to Geiin and reveals his name is Kujaku, and that he’s a member of the Joujinshu. His aims are mysterious, but he tells Geiin that the Five Flowers of Iga are also targets of the Joujinshu. Geiin decides there has been enough pleasantries, and the two begin to fight properly.

Geiin uses his perspiration power to send a stream of poisonous sweat towards Kujaku, but Kujaku is merely amused by this attack, as he has the ability to levitate and can float right above the poison. Geiin gets sick of Kujaku’s posturing and disrobes to reveal his bright green form, a side effect of his ability to shoot out powerful toxins he’s been ingesting since childhood. He tries to attack Kujaku with his poison sweat, but just like with Kasou, the attack backfires and poisons Geiin. In typical anime villain fashion, Kujaku monologues about how he has the power to reverse the flow of time and mocks Geiin as he succumbs to the power of his own poison.

Back at the village, Hachirou, through his mental link to Geiin, learns that the Five Treasures are dead, and goes to inform Namenbo and Negoro. The two village keepers decide that this is a serious threat, no doubt and that they’ll need to inform the Five Flowers of Iga about the danger. They decide to send Rui for her speed. While the young ninjas prepare for the arriving threat, tensions arise between the children over the conflict between the Kouga and Iga clans. Bad blood runs deep, and these kids aren’t too trusting of each other. Utsutsu and Saizou set up watch outside the village, with Saizou using his flying eyeball powers to gain a slight advantage. Hachirou and Hibiki are forced to stay inside, being watched over by Negoro; he insists their safety is his number one priority, and those two are too important to let fall into danger.

While the village is on high alert, we go back to the protector of the Five Treasures, Suruga, being approached by another mysterious challenger. The stranger seems to know everything about Suruga, even the circumstances of his eventual death, execution by his sinister brother. Suruga demands to know this man’s name, and as the episode comes to a close, he mutters “Jouijin.”

Our Take:

This has been the best episode of Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls so far, though I think the show still has a way to go to develop itself out better. The Kouga and Iga offspring have been previously untouched upon when it comes to any kind of storytelling, so its good to see this episode give a little more focus and clarity to who these kids are and what they’re like. Despite some pacing problems in the middle of the episode, it felt more focused and straightforward about what was happening and why we should care about these characters. It’s a good step forward.