How do you rate episode 9 of
Sengoku Youko ? Community score: 4.1
© 水上悟志/マッグガーデン・戦国妖狐アニメ化事業部
There are many ways for a writer to give necessary exposition, and one of my least favorite ways is when they introduce characters whose sole purpose is to tell the rest of the cast everything. important things that they have no reasonable way to figure out on their own. You can dress that character up as a mystic, an elder, or a deity, but no in-universe excuse can overcome the artificial feeling of having a character who seems to know every step of the way. into the frame and lecture us on the legend of it all. Sadly what happens here to our still unnamed Mountain Goddess, whose main character traits are “explaining things for the benefit of the audience” and “gently teasing the characters.” wrestling while she did it.”
The stuff she presents is at least valuable and interesting, even if I question why we need to learn it here. It’s good to understand the Dangaisyuu leader’s true motivations, and it’s pretty funny that becoming so absurdly horny for a MILF fox that he betrayed his entire organization and squeezed distorting its values from within just to pamper those soft fox tails. It’s even funnier to learn that the fox girl is Tama’s mother, and from the perspective of a long-lived katawara, her mother robbed the cradle of a human half her daughter’s age. Among those stories, there is a clear parallel between Jinka’s desire to become a katawara and continue living with her adopted sister and Yazen’s desire to turn Kuzunoha into a human. The problem is that this information doesn’t fit right in with the other half of this episode and its overly condensed training section, so it feels redundant, taking away much-needed screen time from the more essential parts right away.
Training stages are a staple of old shounen fighting stories, and they’re useful for developing characters in relative isolation. However, that approach takes more time than Sengoku Youko has, so instead we get a one-note version of our main trilogy. Shinsuke has to get over a large rock, Tama has to walk on water to escape a vast lake, and Jinka is told about his mental trauma from fighting a character who is basically just Yachiru in Bleach. Any of these could form the basis for something more complex, but since we didn’t have time to develop them further, we jumped to conclusions about two of the three. Shinsuke at least had good concentration last week, so his training being a simple lesson on how to think outside the limits of force was enough, but with Jinka, it was a much bigger disappointment.
Pieces and ongoing ideas are fine – even good if they have space to be explored naturally. Jinka facing both the sadness and joy in his life to unleash his sealed power is exactly the turning point his arc is building towards. The sentiment that his desire to escape trauma by becoming a katawara is his most inseparable human trait is profound. However, the delivery process doesn’t have any impact as the entire sequence takes maybe two minutes and there’s a new character with no connection to him, giving him a quick healing session . This should be an important, emotionally compelling scene for the audience as all the different parts of Jinka’s story come to fruition, but it falls flat.
On the plus side, there are still some fun moments scattered throughout. episode. Tama’s utter confusion at her mother’s involvement is funny and endearing. Tanuki’s striptease was already hilariously stupid, but having an unabashed Jinun blindside Senya was just the right addition to put it over the top. Shinsuke’s evil sword spirit begging him to stop smashing the blade against a solid rock was perfect. There’s still a lot of appeal to these shining characters. I just wish the more dramatic moments didn’t have to be endured.
Rating:
Sengoku Youko is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.