English Dub Review: Orient “Older and Younger Brothers”

Overview:

The struggle to keep the white serpent from empowering Yamata no Orochi becomes desperate, as the truth behind the friction among the Shimazu brothers is revealed.

Our Take:

Nothing like resurrecting a year-old meme for something right? To be fair it fits the theme of this episode perfectly so I felt like I had to. You see Akihiro isn’t as bad as we thought he was (to the surprise of no one) but this role of his wasn’t even supposed to be his. It was supposed to be his older brother who led the family into battle. But when it came time to get chosen by a Kitetsu blade Akihiro was gifted red blade energy which is what is needed to break an Oni’s horn.

Family struggles are nothing new in anime, in fact, you might be able to argue anime does it more than anyone. But while I wasn’t exactly surprised by the revelations in the episode, I am excited to see what might come of them. Akihiro could be one of the better characters if he just starts dropping the attitude and after what happened in this episode I have a feeling that might happen. I could see him and Musashi becoming close friends.