Ushio and Tora is often described as Calvin and Hobbes on steroids, magic mushrooms, or perhaps a combination thereof. Like with Bill Watterson's famous comic, the focus of Ushio and Tora is the odd friendship between a boy and a "tiger". They don't always agree with each other and are often at each other's throats. The often uneasy friendship between boy and beast is the main thrust of the story, which consists of ten half-hour episodes and a bonus SD theater over five VHS cassettes.

You would think that Ushio and Tora's combination of comedy and violence would be a recipe for disaster, but surprisingly, it works. It's not a very popular series, but those who enjoy it absolutely love it. It's based on Kazuhiro Fujita's manga, which runs longer than the anime's storyline.

So, what's the story? Well, 500 years ago, there was a powerful, tiger-like demon who devoured humans by the truckload. One fine day, while the demon was about to feast on another village, a long-haired stranger emerged with a large spear and challenged the demon. The fighting raged for a long time, but the man emerged semi-victorious. He could not kill the demon, but managed to pin it to a rock with his spear. So the demon was subdued with a spear in his shoulder, while the man became a monk and erected a temple over the demon detainment area to monitor the vile thing.

500 years later, enter Ushio Aotsuki, the son of a priest at that temple, who is bored of hearing that same story ad nauseum. He's generally a good kid, if a bit headstrong, but often tousles with his father. One such tousle lands Ushio with the punishment of cleaning the temple storehouse. While cleaning, Ushio stumbles on a hidden door. Upon entering the depths below, what should he find but that very same demon still pinned to the rock, still alive, and extremely pissed off. (Okay, I know that plotline sounds a LOT like Tenchi Muyo, but Ushio and Tora did come first.)

So bandying words a bit, Ushio decides to leave the demon be, despite its pleas for freedom peppered with a desire to have the boy as its next meal. Unfortunately, when Ushio opened the door, the demon's energy got exposed and attracted other demons, who crawl out of the woodworks and make their presence known once again. Some strange things start happening, such as the emergence of numerous flying fish demons. Determined to rectify the situation before dad comes home (because the wrath of a parent is worse than the wrath of Hades himself), Ushio decides to release the tiger demon, who immediately lunges at him. However, when Ushio holds the spear, he has the power to turn into that long-haired demon hunter of 500 years ago. Thus, our furry friend can't touch Ushio as long as he has the spear, and the pair form a tension-filled, uneasy alliance against the other demons. Ushio decides to name the demon Tora (Japanese for tiger) since he slightly resembles a tiger. Tora hates his new name, but eventually gets used to it.

The remaining episodes follow the same formula: some human comedy, followed by a fight with a big bad demon. I know it sounds cliché, but it's quite well done. Along with Tora, Ushio has two friends, Asako Nakamura and Mayuko Inoue. Asako is a short-tempered girl while Mayuko is more mild-mannered. Ushio's relationship with Asako is very much like that of Calvin's relationship with Susie Derkins in Calvin and Hobbes. Despite always expressing the contrary, deep down Ushio and Asako do like each other, but Ushio enjoys insulting her and she's always quick to beat him up. Same way, Calvin loves harassing Susie, and she always gets even. Despite all that, both Susie and Asako continue to put up with the boys' shenanigans anyway. And like with Susie and Calvin, Asako does much better in school than Ushio.

Mayuko is the mild mannered girl and is often the peacekeeper in the Ushio-Asako quarrels. A character like her is most likely to be window dressing, but Mayuko is not. She gets quite a bit of screen time and her personality makes for a good dynamic in the cast. I was really impressed with her at the end of episode 6 when she slickly avoided being eaten by Tora by introducing him to hamburgers.

Tora is invisible to normal folk (unless he makes his presence known), so some funny situations occur when Tora misbehaves, Ushio reacts to it, and Asako gets mad at Ushio for being weird. Also, the bickering between boy and beast is great. Tora always says how he wants to eat Ushio and tries to find a moment when Ushio's not holding the spear. And, of course, Ushio responds by knocking Tora on the noggin with said spear. Ushio himself vows to kill Tora, since demons don't belong in this world. In many ways, the fights reminded me a lot of the kind of arguments Calvin and Hobbes have (and boy do those two fight) but through it all, they remain friends despite the natural tendency of Tora / tiger to want to eat the human sometimes (hey, Hobbes did call Calvin "tiger food" one time). Though Tora is gruff and often puts on a front about disliking Ushio and wanting to eat him, and Ushio is always getting annoyed at Tora's antics, deep down the boy and beast really do care for each other. I always found it funny that Tora would protect Ushio with his life under the pretense of "if anyone's gonna eat him, it's gonna be me!" The odd friendship of boy and beast does grow despite their squabbles. From what I understand, the manga goes deeper into the personal backstories of Ushio and Tora, and supposedly both are more similar than it seems.

My main gripes with the anime's storyline is that it doesn't really go anywhere. The friendship between Ushio and Tora grows, but the relationship between Ushio and the girls is underdeveloped. The Ushio / Asako pairing is hinted at often in the anime both in how Asako's parents and Asako herself feel about Ushio. One cool parallel I wish could have been expanded on is that while Ushio isn't shy about knocking Tora on the noggin when he acts out of line, Asako is equally not shy about whacking Ushio or her father when they act out of line. However, nothing comes of this. The series really left me wanting more, as I wanted to see more happen. There is more to tell. Also, the last two episodes are where the series made a more dramatic shift (for the better, in my opinion). The last two episodes took on a more serious tone than the lighter previous installments and the final episode did not have a happy ending at all. There were moments where the boy and the beast displayed personal growth. Man, JUST when the series started getting really good, it stopped. I believe the manga was 33 volumes and the anime series only covers the first few.

However, the SD theater at the end of the fifth video was great and put the smile back on my face. There were three sketches featuring the cast in kawaii SD glory and two music videos. One sketch featured a dirt-licking demon who offers to clean Ushio's bathroom, the second featured Tora taking care of a kitten, and the third was a hilarious nod to silent films featuring all the demons in a wild chase. I found all of these very funny and they showcased the surprising versatility of the series. The music videos, while cute, were not much to write home about.

Another gripe was that there are instances where things are inconsistent or simply don't add up. Oftentimes, people will react to the most absurd situations with a surprising nonchalance. For example, no one really seems to care that a particular teenage boy carries a huge spear with him wherever he goes. Okay, it's wrapped in a tarp, but for him not to arouse suspicion is quite far-fetched. Another example is when Ushio and Tora battle a giant centipede at Ushio's school and afterwards, there is only evening news coverage and everyone just goes on with their lives. Apparently the folks in Ushio's town are pretty jaded when it comes to monsters and mass destruction.

Also, some of the "fish out of water" comedy with Tora sometimes feels stale. Since he's a demon from an ancient era, he has trouble grasping the concept of television, automobiles, and other modern stuff. Conceptually, it feels like a "been there, done that" thing. However, Tora's character makes it work. The visual expressiveness of the demon and deft voice work of Chikao Ohtsuka make Tora a surprisingly endearing character in all situations.

The subtitled dialogue is great, despite a fondness for swear words, particularly near the end of the series. Tora has some great lines and I really liked him based on his dialogue. The seiyuu do a great job in their roles, especially Tora's seiyuu, Chikao Ohtsuka. He was able to effortlessly and smoothly change emotional gears quickly, going from tough-talking to being genuinely hurt after a knock to the noggin. Nozomu Sasaki was great as Ushio. He really captured Ushio's many personality traits, showcasing him as a deeper character than such an absurd series would normally allow.

Visually speaking, the series has a love it / hate it style. Personally, I liked it a lot. The human characters had a unique look to them. I liked that they looked somewhat realistic without outlandish hairstyles and hair colors. Unlike more typical ADV videos, such as Debutante Detective Corps that have teenage girls who look like glossy, artificially pretty, large breasted twenty-somethings, Asako and Mayuko in Ushio and Tora have faces and bodies more like girls you would normally see in high school. It offers a nice contrast that for all the absurd situations that happen, the human characters themselves look pretty regular. And Ushio himself isn't particularly handsome, and thus more believable than he needs to be. Though, his nose has a bit of an odd shape.

But where the artwork really shines is in the demons. The various demons in the show have designs that just scream "cool!" to me. Not the least of which is Tora himself. His big white eyes have no pupils, but the way they change shape from pointy to round makes him extremely expressive. His large mouth also aids in his exaggerated expressions. Other notable demons are the more human looking ones such as Hyou, the seal magician, whose design just oozed coolness.

Many of the demons are based on demons from Japanese mythology, with some creative liberty. My personal favorites were the Kamaitachi in volume five. Kamaitachi are weasel-like demons with sickles for claws who live in windy mountains. They work in threesomes when encountering humans- one knocks the human down, the second cuts the human, and the third heals the cut. These days, kamaitachi is a term used to describe a cutting wind. I liked how Ushio & Tora's Kamaitachi utilized both definitions- they were sickle-weasels who could manifest themselves into wind. They could also take humanoid forms, which I believe is the creative liberty. The humanoid forms of Juro, one of the Kamaitachi, looked quite badassed and in his weasel form was very expressive. I loved how he spun his hair and eyebrows into sickles. The other Kamaitachi - Raishin and Kagari - looked cool in all their forms as well. Kagari was definitely a sexy demon.

The animated fight sequences are nicely done and exciting, though nowhere near the level of those in Street Fighter: The Animated Movie. The quality of fight sequences definitely improves over the course of the series. Over all, I found the quality of the animation pretty good, though not exceptional. I definitely saw improvement in the animation quality as the series progressed. I must warn you that the action sequences can get quite bloody and violent, so this is not a series for young children.

The music is a mixed bag, though. The song, "Brave Fighter", that kicks off episodes 1-6 is a very catchy pop-rock tune. On the other hand, the edgier 80's metal styled song, "The Beast Spear", that kicks off episodes 7-10, was good but just not as memorable. The same goes for the ending songs. "Dear My Best Friend" at the end of episodes 1-6 is a beautiful ballad and more enjoyable than the distorted guitar driven "Someone is Aiming at You" that caps episodes 7-10. The music videos for "Boogie Woogie Monster" and "Fushigi na Bouken" in volume five's SD Theater were cute, but unremarkable. The pop song that plays during the SD Theater credits is very saccharine. Throughout the series, there isn't much background music, but what little there is fitting. The battle themes are appropriately punchy with some nice guitar work, the comedic themes fit well, and overall the music fits the various moods of the series. The music itself is definitely good, but does not compel me to buy the soundtrack.

So in the end, while Ushio and Tora isn't the most original, groundbreaking, cerebral or innovative series, I quite liked its blend of comedy and action. The two main characters are clearly the strength of the series, and their dynamic is always great to watch. Like I said before, Ushio and Tora could be compared to an older and more violent version of Calvin and Hobbes and perhaps that's why I like the series so much. If you, like our dear friend Calvin, can separate yourself from reality and look past all the far-fetched absurdities in the series, you can enjoy it. If, however, you prefer your anime on the more cerebral side and / or more grounded in reality then stay far away from this series.

Distributor: ADV Films
Creator: TOHO / Toshiba EMI / OB Kikaku
Released: 1992

Plot: B-
Character Design: B
Animation Quality: B+
Music: B+
Overall: B