Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re bounding back into the ongoing revival of Yaiba: Samurai Legend, the bombastic shonen spectacle originally created by Case Closed mangaka Gosho Aoyama. Within our first two episodes, Yaiba has accidentally shipped himself from his mysterious jungle home to Japan, taken up residence with local girl Sayaka Mine, and found himself a destined rival in the form of kendo specialist Takeshi Onimaru. In fact, Yaiba has proven so intolerable to Onimaru that he was goaded into claiming a demonic sword, an artifact of the wind oni Fujin, which must surely be countered by Yaiba’s own acquisition of the matching Raijin blade.
The story has proceeded at a breakneck pace so far, demonstrating an enticing mixture of dynamic, Kaneda-style action posing and flexible, CG-facilitated storyboarding. The overall effect is one of profound kinetic energy in both framing and animation, yet I’ve nonetheless found myself particularly struck by the production’s moments of stillness, the predawn light cherished by Sayaka and Takeshi alike. Still, with a magic sword-bearing demon on the loose, I imagine we’re in for a hectic time as Yaiba reunites with his rival. Let’s get to it!
Episode 3
The austere silence of night is broken by footsteps as we return, a premonition of ill intent soon given form by Onimaru rising from the shrine. This show has a wonderfully precise control of atmosphere
Effective use of physical blocking in these next compositions, with Onimaru’s sword frequently dividing the entire scene or pointing outwards towards the audience, both ways of emphasizing its overwhelming threat and power
Elsewhere, the lightning Raijin sword seems to awaken in response to Fujin, a process witnessed by an old man possessing one of those Rumiko Takahashi-esque elderly midget designs. Obviously such designs are a natural reaction to both how elderly people actually shrink and how cartooning sensibilities demand comic exaggeration, but I have to wonder if there was some other formative text mangaka of the era were specifically drawing from, given the extreme similarity between these characters and, say, an old crone from Ranma ½
Incidentally, I’m sure you’ve heard of Fujin and Raijin if you’ve watched a decent amount of anime, as they are two of the most prominent shinto gods, direct descendants of creator deity Izanami. Their names and signature powers thus show up all over the place in Japanese folklore, and in any manga or anime that draws upon the rich web of shinto legends. Their siblings should sound nearly as familiar, particularly if you’re a Naruto fan: Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, and Amaterasu are all close members of the family
The OP demonstrates an intentional balance of forms, with every harsh angle matched by a bouncing, fluid curve
It also features a rapid montage of rogues all leading to Onimaru, making me assume we’ll be filling out the episodes with some monster-of-the-week conflicts. Fine by me; as shows like Sailor Moon and Precure demonstrate, monster-of-the-week formatting is actually a great way to give your main cast time to stretch their legs and get to know each other. When an episode’s conflict is a foregone conclusion that can be introduced and wrapped up in five minutes, there’s a whole lot of room for slice of life shenanigans
“Another Maken”
Sayaka’s grandmother states that Yaiba has developed an impressive “kekkai,” the region in which he can sense an opponent’s presence instinctively. Yaiba basically speedrunning his own self-assigned training arcs here
I really love the playful linework of these character designs. Their forms just flow so naturally, tufts of hair and jutting chins balancing the form, expressiveness coming naturally to such elastic figures. Again, no surprise that Case Closed’s characters have become so beloved even in a base visual sense; Aoyama makes inherently pleasant designs
Onimaru shows up for a challenge, all thoughts of “fairness” forgotten as he brandishes his real sword against Yaiba’s practice one
Nice lively smears as Yaiba snags a metal pole to defend himself. These animators are doing an excellent job of maintaining clear momentum in spite of the wild distortions of form and extreme, perspective-disorienting closeups of these transitions
And I love how they’re depicting Yaiba’s kekkai, with Onimaru’s form shifting like rippling water as he senses his approach
A nice balance of smears and weighted choreography in their exchanges, something I particularly appreciate. One of my big problems with the action in stuff like Imaishi’s work is that it feels totally weightless; there’s no sense of physical consequence or limitation on the abilities in play, so it basically feels like kids playing in a sandbox, one-upping each other with invented powers that come out of nowhere. Kinetic, energetic action is a worthy pursuit, but I rarely enjoy it if that’s at the expense of any sort of coherent, parsable contest of wills – and though these two are clearly moving like superhumans, there’s also lots of parry-and-riposte fundamentals work demonstrating the push and pull of battle
Granted, I’ll also extend more emotional leeway to a contest of wills if that contest is more based in emotional or thematic conflicts than physical ones, but that doesn’t tend to apply to Imaishi’s stuff
Once again, Onimaru’s threat is emphasized through him pointing his blade directly at the audience
Motherfucker just fires a beam of energy right out of his sword. This is one of the other key benefits of maintaining some grounding in your physical conflicts; when your fundamentals are solidly grounded in physical combat choreography, somebody being able to do something like “fire a beam of pure energy” is genuinely astounding. The original Dragon Ball integrated supernatural powers gradually to excellent dramatic effect, only for Z to abandon any sense of grounding in favor of the weightless “my beam is stronger than your beam” ad infinitum
Another solution is to define powers laterally, rather than vertically – not “my power number is larger,” but “I have a unique power that will require distinct innovation to overcome.” Manga like Hunter x Hunter, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and even One Piece employ this style to terrific effect, allowing for diverse conflicts that aren’t simply about making one number beat another number
Excellent composition as Yaiba raises his head and glares at Onimaru, with Onimaru’s foot in the foreground creating a sense of Yaiba literally rising from beneath Onimaru’s heel
I appreciate this cut to the school staff frantically calling the police. Nice to know there’s some sense of civil order in this town
Onimaru’s final blow splits the school in half. Hard to imagine we’re going back to the status quo after this!
Surprisingly, Yaiba is actually thoroughly broken up about his defeat, now labeling himself a “weakling.” Nice to see there are shades to his personality beyond “feral creature”
Yaiba’s dad takes the Fujinken’s revival in stride, and reveals it can only be matched by the Raijinken
He further states the Raijinken is held by an old man named Miyamoto, but that it would take years for Yaiba to master it
Apparently the sword is held on “Mount Tengu,” which makes me wonder how significantly shinto lore and yokai will be playing into our ongoing adventures. Japan’s bountiful array of regional monsters has informed countless games and narratives over the years, from blockbuster hits like Yokai Watch and Pokemon to the bestiaries of critical favorites like Persona and Nioh
“Now, what to do with all this power?” I do wish we’d gotten a bit more time with original Onimaru; it seems like there’s not much of his own personality left in this demon form
Sayaka awakens the next morning to find herself kidnapped and tied to the back of a giant tiger, all of which she takes gracefully in stride
Cute flourish of Yaiba’s personality, that he thinks Sayaka actually loves her school uniform because she “wears it all the time”
Old Man Miyamoto is specifically designed to resemble a beetle, with his massive eyelashes basically serving as antenna, and his huddled, angular robes appearing like a carapace
I like that Sayaka is joining Yaiba for this quest. She also remained relevant through the Onimaru duel earlier; not only is it just nice to have a female protagonist sharing the spotlight in a shonen drama, it also gives Yaiba someone to bounce off, letting both their personalities shine
“Only the legendary samurai can wield that sword.” It’s interesting how narrow this world is; there is one good sword and one bad sword, and exactly one person who can wield either of them. It’s clearly not a template designed for infinite expansion in the manner of post-Dragon Ball shonens; Aoyama seems to have precisely one story he wants to tell
The old man claims he is Musashi Miyamoto himself, the acclaimed dual-blade swordsman
Sayaka gets zapped by the sacred sword. I appreciate that Aoyama isn’t being precious about his female protagonist; Sayaka can throw hands and get comically electrocuted like anyone else
That shithead Yaiba pulls out the sword without effort, prompting an existential crisis from our samurai-awaiting sensei
Unfortunately, Yaiba is swiftly overcome by the cursed thunder god. The distortions of his physical form as he roars call back to the wild exaggerations of the OP; it seems the production is establishing a bit of consistent visual vocabulary here, correlating this style of animation with the blades’ fully unleashed powers
Considering Miyamoto is specifically known as a master of the two-sword style, I wonder if we’re eventually leading towards Yaiba commanding both swords, perhaps after having redeemed Onimaru
And Done
Thus our electric shonen speed run continues, as we barrel through the recruitment of Yaiba’s sensei and acquisition of his own sacred sword! I certainly don’t mind an action-adventure series that knows where it’s going and has no interest in dragging its feet, particularly if the scenery is as lushly furnished as Yaiba’s continues to be. Though for all of this episode’s dynamic action sequences, what’s proven most compelling to me is Sayaka’s continued presence as a genuine second protagonist, offering criticisms and bouncing off Yaiba and generally getting as beaten up or blown away as our leading man. The secret lesson of Dragon Ball is “any shonen writer can create a Goku, but it takes real talent to write a Bulma.” Glad to see Yaiba putting that lesson into action!
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