Dahhhhh…. Wha?  Review?  Wha?

Ushio, Asako, and Mayuko go to the beach, Tora meets a Youkai that wants his help to defeat the Ayakashi (a massive monster that eats humans and Youkai alike), it’s too much for him, he gets Ushio to help, and Ushio also has to save Asako and some brat they meet.  And yada yada, Ushio’s mother died when he was a kid and the brat also lost his mother… whatever.

Obviously, I have no love for the original story, but mostly I’m disappointed at how this episode was handled for the TV adaptation.  It was really rushed and tried to cover too many things while ignoring other important aspects from the original story.  Again, this was a two-parter in the OVA, and making it a two-parter for the TV series would have been a terrible move, but they could have done so much better.

For starters, the original story was bookended by a missing oil tanker storyline.  The Ayakashi swallowed the tankers whole, and when it was defeated, the crews were freed.  They also witnessed Ushio & Tora save them, and this is some important buildup for later.  Ultimately not terribly necessary, but I liked it.

It seems that the focus on the episode was on the subplot with the brat, which kinda ties into Ushio’s backstory what with losing his mother and all…  I guess it’s a necessary evil to cover it.  But even with this as the case, they could have spent more time on the Ushio flashbacks.  We missed out on the fact that Ushio and Asako used to practice karate together, and the talk with Asako’s father and Ushio kinda comes off wrong…

It was a lot more heartfelt than that in the manga.  No idea why they went that route.  It’s just… really freakin’ weird.  What’s especially weird is that out of all the scenes to adapt perfectly, one of them is… Ayako saving the brat from the bullies.  Yeah, not my first choice.

There’s a scene after the ending credits, which is new for this series.  Kind of odd to spring it on us just like that, but whatever.  It’s revealed that Ushio’s mother may still be alive, which leads in to the travel arc. Speaking of Ushio’s mother… she’s going to be voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.  Sooooo hype.

In some ways, this can be considered the ending of the “Ushio & Tora” arc, as it’s here where the two finally truly work together by combining their forces to defeat a greater threat.  Usually it’s just one saving the other for whatever reason, so this was something special.

From here on out is where it gets awesome.  Hopefully the series follows my outline and totally skips all the monster-of-the-day crap during Ushio’s travels.  All we need is harem episodes and Kamaitachi episode.