I’ll stipulate to the fact that there were a couple of clunky CGI moments here. Nothing like this horsey stuff – this was mercifully brief, just enough to be a mild annoyance. But I gotta say, the evidence of how good a job this adaptation is doing is the way it’s depicting Shoukan. He was a strong presence in the manga. But here, he’s taken the creeper factor to another level. Between Touchi Hiroki’s performance and the way the ant stuff is brought to life Shoukan is a genuinely towering figure. There were moments when he was almost Hisoka-like.
Fubuki is busily proving his bona-fides both as a swordsman and as a tactician/strategist (as a glutton he’s already established). He’s no fool to be sure – he can see in the way the others treat “Chojumaru” that something in his story doesn’t add up. Tokiyuki is a passable actor and Fubuki not yet someone who can be trusted with his life, and the little lord seemingly manages to placate Fubuki with his story of being an orphan – for now. There are more pressing matters anyway, with another assault on the village expected imminently. Fubuki draws up a plan, which involves the village children setting traps and Genba returning to Suwa (much to his delight) to request aid.
Tokiyuki has already identified Fubuki as an aniki who can could teach him the way of the sword, and he pulls the older boy aside to plead for a crash course before the uninvited guests arrive for the party. After seeing a quick demonstration of both his prowess in evasion and ineptitude in attack, Fubuki agrees. He suggests a sword style called “Demon Heart Buddha Blade” (which is certainly dramatic enough) would be perfect for someone like Chojumaru. He even suggests Chohumaru could use the technique to take down the enemy general – one-on-one.
As I noted last week Shoukan is not based on a real person as far as I know. A specific one, that is. Men like him were a scourge of the nation during chaotic passages of the Kamakura Period, using their bandit skills to fill in spaces the diminished authority of the government left behind. He and Fubuki are both very clever and good at what they do. Traps like coating the surrounding fields in ice by damming the river and pitfalls are effective in slowing the assault. Shoukan has already concluded from the disappearance of his vanguard that someone strong is protecting the village, and now correctly deduces from Fubuki’s strategy that the defenders are small in number.
Shoukan, along with his core group including Shirou (Kikuchi Michitake) and Byakkootsu (Hori Soushirou) eventually enter the village. Shoukan is delighted to be battling children (Ayako and Kojirou). They’re the whole reason he does this – enslaving them, that is. But those two have only one real job – to lure Shoukan into a trap. That is, into the small hut where Tokiyuki awaits him, armed with a wakizashi and the mysterious technique Fubuki has taught him in using it. While the other Elusives (and eventually Fubuki himself) deal with the underlings, Tokiyuki is entrusted with the enemy general’s fate.
Shoukan is a practical man, to the extent that when he looks at a child he sees kanmon rather than people. Ayako and Kojirou, about one kanmon each. Tokiyuki two – and that estimate eventually gets raised to three or even four with the proper grooming. The anime uses a rather brilliant aural trick to get this point across. When Shoukan talks about the orgiastic pleasure he gets from making children orphans, however, he reveals a motive independent from practicality. While the specific means of getting his rocks off is not much like Hisoka (he’d never find such a thing especially pleasurable), the pleasure itself is very reminiscent.
What is this mystical Demon Heart Buddha Blade – this skill that uses the wielder’s kindness as the key to their ability to kill? That’s not clear, but we do see evidence that it’s effective, even in the hands of a small boy who’s only had a day to learn it. It’s also clear by now that Tokiyuki is inured to killing (even of his own blood relations if necessary), and his questioning of Shoukan confirms for him that he would be justified in doing so in this case. Tokiyuki is a mass of contradictions, not least that it’s the very qualities than make him exceptional that seem most ill-suited to merely surviving his current situation, never mind reclaiming his birthright. Killing someone like Shoukan is just one more test of his ability to do what must be done, yet remain himself.
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