English Dub Review: Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls “Murakumo Must be Destroyed”

Tear down that castle with love and superior firepower.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Well, we’re finally at the end of it all, and the big, bad, vaguely anticipated showdown between Joujin and Hachirou is underway. Hachirou’s eye magic, for a reason that eludes me, has no effect on Joujin, which means Hachirou is not exactly in a good position to be fighting this weird old man. Hadaebou, the grinning monk Hachirou was rolling with, meanwhile, runs off and kills some enemy ninjas along the way. He eventually reaches Murakumo and climbs up its walls to get inside through a window, While that happens, Hachirou continues to get his ass handed to him by this old man.

We see the other Kouga and Iga ninjas gathered all together, trying to figure out what to do. They resolve to go give taking down Murakumo another go. Outside of Murakumo’s presence, Gorone and Namenba are waiting to act, while Saizou tries to form a plan. They try to fire cannonballs back into Murakumo’s cannons, only to have Tsuibamu use his time reversal magic to negate them. This gives Saizou and opportunity, however, to attack Tsuibamu while his time magic is recharging.

Up in Murakumo, things aren’t going well with Hadaebou, who is soon confronted by Tadanaga and the other members of the Joujinshuu. The Joujinshuu deploy some illusions to fight him, but he escapes through the window by squishing his bones around and slithering through it like a snake.

Down below, Joujin is being a stereotypical villain, offering Hachirou to join him or die. He monologues a bit about the nature of the world, but Hachirou isn’t convinced. Just then, Hibiki and Shikibu arrive and distract Joujin by throwing a tree at him and whisking Hachirou away. Joujin uses a telepathic link he has with the Joujinshuu to instruct Tsuibamu to fire the cannons of Murakumo in the vicinity of Hachirou, which he does. Shikibu gets nailed by a cannonball, leaving Hibiki and Hachirou on their own together.

Hibiki and Hachirou, embracing each other in the chaos of the cannon barrage, summon a pillar of light called the “Ouka,” which protects them with the power of love. Joujin loves it and insists that the two join him, but this just encourages the two to use the light pillar again. Joujin is about to get engulfed by the pillar, when he’s saved by Magoroku, one of the Joujinshuu and teleported away.

Things look bad for the Kouga and Iga ninjas, but not all is lost yet. The ninjas ready a counterattack, using their final cannonball to try and destroy the Murakumo cannons once again. This is nothing more than a clever ruse, however, to signal to Namenba to jump into action. She glides over to Murakumo on her giant kite and fires another cannonball into Murakumo, which manages to land, since Tsubaimu’s time reversal is on cooldown.

With the cannonball making its mark, Murakumo explodes and bursts into flames, but what of the people inside? Guess we’ll have to find out next week.

Our Take:

Well, this weird anime just gets weirder and weirder. This pillar of light magic, the “Ouka”, still goes completely unexplained as to what it does or where it comes from but is apparently the most important thing happening in this bizarre series. I can’t say this episode was particularly well-written interesting, but it did do better than some other episodes have, at least maintaining a decent flow of action throughout. Yet, even that was weighed down with lengthy exposition and stiff acting. Not a good time, but not a horrible one.