English Dub Review: Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls “The Cherry Blossoms Must Fall”

C’mon, that’s no way to get a head in life.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Hadaebou tells Tadanaga of stories only known by his brother, but Joujin arrives to tell him it must be a trick. But somehow merely telling him about these stories is finally enough to convince Tadanaga that he MIGHT have gone off the deep end a bit. Not that it matters much to Joujin, who points out the only reason they even needed him at all was to use as a body for resurrecting Oda Nobunaga, even though this doesn’t stop Joujin from using his powers to make the prince screw up one last time and stab Hadebou in the leg. In one more move of…I wanna say “kindness”?…he’s offered a chance to kill himself and retain his honor with a fan (because Japan), but he refuses and is beheaded anyway. Luckily, Hadaebou manages to take his head and escape, likely to attach it to remote-controlled truck Aqua Teen Hunger Force Style.

Meanwhile, Hachirou and Shichigen face off against Neiri Chiou and his Lightning Diety Illusion powers, but the Spearing Eye Technique is useless as long as his enemy’s eyes are closed. Luckily, Shichigen has his bug powers to cause a distraction, and if playing Pokemon has taught me anything, it’s that Psychic types are weak to Bugs, so naturally, this is enough to immobilize Neiri Chiou. What they didn’t count on was him also having an Electric-type, Raijin. Suddenly, a wild Gorone appears! Using his weird robot scorpion death bot thing, he manages to drop cannons for everyone to use as he charges through head on, but he can’t escape a returning strike and dies instantly. This does give them a chance to sever Neiri Chiou’s arm, though, and he’s forced to retreat. Mourning the loss of one of their mentors, the kids and Nanemba rally around Hachirou and get ready to finally save Hibiki, saying they, as cherry blossoms, will fall. Not like…fall as in die, that’s what they want the enemy to do, but like as in fall UPON the enemy so THAT they die. Look, it was really poetic when we wrote it down!

OUR TAKE

Well, I can’t honestly say I’ll miss Tokugawa “YOU DAMN MONKEYS” Tadanaga. His character’s never really added more than headaches and accidental hilarity and he’s been the furthest away from sympathetic as long as he’s been on screen. This might be part of the many, MANY cultural differences that get lost in dubbing shows like this that are so steeped in Japanese culture and history, but his use as a pawn simply because of his blood and title seemed quite a stretch for whatever plan Joujin had. And now that he’s gone, what are they even going to do now? And even more importantly, why should we care?! Rest in pieces, Tadanaga. You will live on as a forerunner of cyberbullying victimizing for millennia to come.

Though I will miss my man Gorone, who went out in a blaze of Fury Road-esque glory with a smile on his face. This dude’s been a sly mentor from the start, but I guess I should’ve seen his demise coming when he and Nanemba started talking about settling down. Though at least she still has Hadaebou to go for, assuming she’s fine with an annoying rotting head on display. I imagine you get used to the smell after about a week. I kid, but he was a pretty chill guy amongst the rest of the characters, and his presence will be a very tangible loss going forward. It’s always tough to lose your gadget guy this far into the final few boss fights, so maybe this means a bit more strategy to ramp up these last few fights. I’ll even take something with a little more imagination than killer eyes, floating eyes, aphrodisiac tears, or a gun.

But it seems we are finally heading towards the final quarter of episodes and possibly the endgame as we enter the likely final assault on the castle and rescue of Hibiki. That is, unless they manage to make it disappear yet again, or make more goons show up, or say something that happened was an illusion or any number of things that this show likes to do and pull out of its ass to completely deflate tension. At least we can say there were no distracting flashbacks to speak of this week, so I’ll give it an extra point just for that.

Next time, MORE DISTRACTING FLASHBACKS! But probably the last one, since I think Eye Guy is the only one who hasn’t gotten a turn.