Ushio & Tora – A Strangely Nostalgic Romp

Production

The first season of Ushio and Tora aired in 2015. It’s not exactly new but it’s not classic anime either. Yet I thought it was much older than that. Not because the production is bad in any way. There is one flashback episode towards the end of the series that is mostly still shots but otherwise, it’s a fairly solid production. Lost of action with little loss in quality. But there is something about the designs and choice of colour.

And I think that’s on purpose. In a lot of ways, most ways, Ushio & Tora is a Classic action shonen and I think the p^roduction purposefully played into the classic aspect. That’s sort of smart. If there’s one thing that animation suffers from when compared to live-action, is that the visuals can get really dated rather quickly. Because Ushio & Tora have sort of classic designs with contemporary production values, the show gets this almost ageless look. It’s difficult to pinpoint what era of anime it belongs to. And I really liked that.

I will be referring to Ushio & Tora as a single series. AniList has it as two seasons (26 + 13) episodes, but I saw it as a single 39 episode series and there really isn’t an obvious break from one to the next. If anything it could be a split season or something.

The beginning of the series, and really all of it except the last arc, is quite funny. I would call it an action-shonen comedy. Ushio and Tora make for a great odd couple and despite the occasionally violent events, everything is fairly light and fun. And I think this may have impacted the voice actors who sound like they are having a ball with this. I always love hearing that in a cast!

Story & Characters

For a while, I wanted to write my summary as if it was Natsume but I thought I might be wearing that joke thin. Nevertheless, Ushio & Tora is a story about a boy who can see Yokai, has a history of it in his family and has lost his mother at a young age. His life is fairly normal until he meets this huge beast Yokai that kind of looks like a big cat and decides to follow him around threatening to eat him all the time but deep down cares for the boy. See… it’s Natsume! Only it’s really not.

Like I mentioned about, Ushio & Tora is pretty much a classic action shonen. There is a whole lot of fighting going on and new more powerful baddies around every corner. What isn’t taken up by the action is the slow development of both Ushio and Tora’s characters. By the way, Tora is the big cat Yokai. And a lot of slapstick humour. In time, an underlying plot thread starts to take on more importance leading to a much more tragic and for lack of a better word: epic, last arc.

I can’t really say that it’s a particularly special action shonen. I personally enjoy the Yokai angle but it’s not like the series is spending that much time explaining the lore of the creatures we see. I mean they could just as easily been replaced by aliens, mutants or spawns of the Dark Kingdom and it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

But the thing is, I like action shonen. I always have. It’s a genre that can get a bit grating and it certainly isn’t considered as intellectual as others, but I find it generally amusing and once in a while, there’s nothing else that I would rather watch. It’s comfortable and reminds me of Saturday morning cartoons in the best way.

And Ushio & Tora is a good action shonen. The dynamic between the two main characters is both endearing and just a ton of fun. The slapstick humour and briskly paced monster of the week format made the early episodes fly by. By the time the show decided to get a bit heavier, I was already properly invested. There are a few sad moments in Ushio & Tora, not many but still, and I cared. I really did. This is way more than I can say about a few series that I’ve watched lately.

I think Ushio & Tora flew under the radar for a lot of people. I really don’t see it mentioned much. I think some people may be missing out. Especially if you happen to enjoy classic shonen and figured this would be some new-fangled series that’s not for you. There’s a lot of fun to be had with it. And for me, it felt like a pleasant homecoming.

You might like this anime if:

You like classic shonen. You enjoy Yokai. You like odd-couple dynamics littered with murder threats!

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.