English Dub Review: Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls “We Must See the Lotus Flowers Together”

Surprise! The lotus flowers are a metaphor.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Things aren’t looking good for our intrepid ninja protagonists. Saizou just got unceremoniously crushed by Murakumo castle, but that isn’t about to stop Hachirou’s ninja pals from continuing their attack on the Joujinshuu.

Inside the castle, meanwhile, Hachirou is stuck fighting a deluded Hibiki who is completely convinced that she is her mother, who supposedly died hating Hachirou’s father Gennosuke. The two go at it for a bit until Hachirou manages to break the spell on her with the power of love. (and his eye magic)

Elsewhere in the castle, Shichigen, Shikibu, and Hachisu go up against Tsuibamu, but surprise surprise, Shichigen falls under Tsuibamu’s mind control spell as well; it seems to happen a lot. As events unfold, we’re treated to a nice little flashback about Hachisu’s past. After that little detour ends, Shikibu and Hachisu get quickly annihilated by the mind-controlled Shichigen. He mercilessly cuts off Hachisu’s hands in a violent display, while Shikibu also gets mind controlled to take off the armor that was keeping his body from exploding.

It doesn’t look good, but Hachisu manages to use her wrists to launch a final volley of bullets at Tsuibamu, which breaks the spell and allows Shikibu to crush Tsuibamu in a final act of righteousness, swallowing Tsuibamu whole before he explodes into a spray of blood and gore.

Back to Hachirou and Hibiki; Hibiki no longer wants to kill Hachirou, but is now desperately in love with him, still believing that she is her mother. Joujin demands the two fornicate, and fulfill the strange prophecy he needs them to achieve ultimate power.

Our Take:

Wow, just wow. With an episode like this, I hardly know where to begin. I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff in my career of watching anime, but this takes the cake. Anime can sometimes be a pretty bizarre thing, but in a lot of cases, its strangeness can elevate it to something exceptional and intriguing; see Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for more details. But in an episode like this, I am just confused and disgusted; agape at just how deep the rabbit hall goes in this train wreck of a series.

Let’s start with the small stuff. I don’t see why this show thinks its good to have flashbacks for our main characters in the middle of the series climax. It was a cute little thing that worked when we were in the “second act,” we might say, of Basilisk, but now these flashbacks only serve to interrupt the story and draw out the episode. Not to mention, out of all the backstories we’ve seen so far, Hachisu’s is the least interesting, by a matter of miles. Relatively speaking, Hachisu had a pretty nice childhood and learned how to use a gun because…well, because Hachisu just had a fondness for guns. That’s all well and good, but a lame background and no conflict makes for crappy storytelling, to say the least.

Speaking of crappy, I cannot overstate just how lame and practically unfinished these fight scenes are. I am literally watching characters get their arms cut off, spawning fountains of scarlet rain from their elbow stumps, and could not be more bored. Choppy, awkwardly shot and nonsensical.

But what really does it for me this episode is just how incredibly strange all of this is. Shichigen’s attack on Hachisu and Shikibu is more hyperviolent than a Tarantino film, which comes completely out of nowhere and serves to be more gross and weird than emotionally shocking. Following this, Shikibu literally crushes Tsuibamu to death before his swells up like a balloon and explodes, a sight which has to be seen to be believed. I understand that there is a source material which this anime must follow, but scenes like that are why sometimes you differ from what the book says. And just to add insult to injury, the following scene is literally Joujin commanding Hachirou and Hibiki, who are brother and sister, to have sex with each other right in front of him. Who thought keeping this plot was a good idea?

This episode is schlock, plain and simple. It’s insane, weird and almost exists on the precipice of “So bad its good.” Almost, but not quite. Rather, it falls into an uncanny valley of awkward wretchedness that makes me want to lose my lunch.

Score
1/10