Sengoku Youko

Episodes 1-2

Satoshi Mizukami occupies an interesting place as a creator. I love his work, and have gotten more than a few friends hooked on his back catalog in the years since Spirit Circle first blew my mind. Yet his series are often a hard sell, because there's nothing about Mizukami's work that makes it stand out at a glance. His art style and character designs are simple, even rudimentary in his earlier works. While his paneling is functional, it's far from the kind of visual storytelling that will grab your attention with a single page or blow up on social media to draw attention. His narratives often end up in striking, original, and emotionally resonant places, yet almost universally begin in bog standard shonen manga scenarios. So, actually getting people to check it out and stick around long enough to get to those interesting points can be a challenge.

That's certainly true of this adaptation, as evidenced by the... let's say polarized reactions to the premiere here. Even as somebody who liked the introduction, I recognize that it's mostly on the promise that the most exciting parts of these characters will bear fruit. I've not read the manga, and without the assurance of Mizukami's oeuvre, I'd be pretty skeptical about the cast and the show's overall trajectory, too. Thankfully, episode two gives a whole lot of assurances about the direction this show is heading while firmly building on the strengths of the first episode's production.

I do not take that latter element lightly. I suffered through far too much of the cursed Lucifer & the Biscuit Hammer adaptation to do that. So, while Sengoku Youko isn't a groundbreaking animation showcase, its overall presentation is still a fantastic fit for the material, especially as we dig into the darker aspects of the setting in episode two. Jinka's fight with the transformed Shakugan is short but sweet, featuring some spectacular effects animation and complemented by excellent sound work and a rumbling guitar-drive score courtesy of Evan Call. Bank animation, like Jinka's transformation, also looks stellar, which is good since I suspect we'll be seeing that sequence a lot.

The real treat comes afterward, however, as we start to learn about what led to Shakugan being turned into a spiritual experiment by the Dangaisyuu. Her memories are portrayed in a dreamlike monochrome, abstracting her father selling her off and the village kids mocking her into an eerie montage that caps off with the artfully obscured violence of her monstrous return. The decision to not show the ensuing massacre and instead let it play out off-screen, scored by the rumbling of Shakugan's earth-shacking footsteps before the bloodshed flows into the frame from upriver, is positively haunting. It underscores the brutality of her unwitting(?) revenge, while keeping the violence distant enough that we feel as separated from the event as Shakugan does. It's an excellent choice that gave me total confidence that this show knows what it's doing with this story.

Shakugan doesn't have much development yet, but her introduction and backstory highlight the rest of the cast by how they react to her story. Shinsuke is enraged at the mistreatment she suffered, seeing in her the same exploitation that kept his family living in poverty under the foot of samurai, yet also craving the power she displayed. Tama is most immediately concerned with reassuring their new companion's comfort and safety, while also planning retribution on the people who used her. Jinka is just happy for a reason to fight humans rather than spirits, grateful that the Dangaisyuu have gained Tama's ire and itching to use her strength to carry out an "extermination." Each tells us a lot about these characters, what motivates them, and where their flaws might lead them collectively. It's exactly the kind of character work that lights my brain on fire, and gives invaluable texture to what is, at the moment, a pretty barebones plot for a supernatural action series.

My favorite angle is that, like most of Mizukami's leads, Jinka and Co. sure do feel like they would be the villains in any other shonen story. Storming the headquarters of the humans dedicated to protecting their own kind from malicious spirits is already questionable optics, but Jinka absolutely loves playing the bad guy. Dude takes a bullet to the leg and drops the classic "Maybe this will be entertaining after all, heh" line like he's a JRPG boss who just get his face nicked by the hero's limit break. Maybe I just grew up watching too much wrestling, but there's an inherent fun to watching somebody play the heel this exuberantly – especially when it's so sincere. Jinka sincerely dislikes humans and only begrudgingly goes against malicious Katawara if Tama deems it necessary. Misanthropy in his leads is another Mizukami staple, but Jinka feels like an escalation even for him, and it leaves me curious about just where these characters are going to wind up.

It's good stuff, and a much more encouraging effort than the premiere. I encourage anyone put off by the relatively middling first impression to stick with this for a bit, and to embrace digging into the hints and subtexts of these characters. Speaking from experience, I think you'll be very well rewarded for the attention you put into this one.

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Sengoku Youko is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.