Shura no Toki: Episode 01

Legend has it…in the Heian era, people fought without weapons. There were those who walked the path of destruction. They were branded the chaotic ones. And their style of fighting was called Mutsu enmei ryuu.

That was the opening dialogue of the series according to the subs by ^__^ (Yes, that’s their symbol alright). Sounds intriguing.

A carefree individual, Mutsu Yakumo, walks in a restaurant and asks for some rice. In the middle of his meal, he saw a young man being chased by three thugs. He seems oblivious to the situation and cheerfully ignores the pleas of the restaurant owner to help the other man. He proceeds to chow down his food even when a strong looking samurai appears from behind the troubled man and dispatched the would-be assassins. Once the thugs were down, the young man’s grandfather offered to hire the samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, as the young master’s bodyguard. Musashi refused but recommended the unfazed Yakumo for the job for he instinctively knew the calm man’s strength. Without any further ado, Yakumo accepts the job at a bargain rate even with Kishomaru’s doubts on him. Later on, Kishomaru’s real gender and a glimpse of Yakumo’s strength is revealed to the audience.

The animation of this series is not as impressive as some of the new releases this season. The drawing style reminds of old anime shows from the early nineties. The integration of 3D backgrounds in few of the scenes sticks out like a sore thumb. The animation does not bother me at all. It could be the producers’ preference so I’ll just go with it for now. The premise intrigued my senses a little a bit even with the cliche calm-man-turns-out-to-be-super-strong introduction. I skipped the OP after listening to the first few bars but liked the ED music.

With the little information from the first episode, I’ll check out the next few episodes to see where this is all heading. I am partial to this genre so I am hoping this will be a fun show to follow.