Impression:

Here is a series that won’t be over next week. Mushibugyou is getting twenty six episodes and will be ending next season. Whether or not that marks the end of the series or just the season, I can’t tell you that. However, I can tell you that this is the kind of series that needed to get more than your standard twelve to thirteen episodes. Why is that? I like it too much to see it go.

Well, we finally got to see what happened while the city patrol was away. Those samurai guys could not handle the bugs. Edo became overrun and everyone besides the head of the Shogun’s guard was incapacitated. The Shogun himself refused to leave and he even said that he knows about the threat from the west. Forget Edo, things must be crazy elsewhere. Well, Jinbei save Oharu and all of the other bugs are taken down by one man. Who is this master of swordsmanship? Jinbei’s dad. He showed up in order to train Jinbei. It is obvious that Jinbei is far too weak and his father is going to teach him the thirty-six techniques of the Tsukishima-style. That sounded ridiculous due to their time constraint of three days, so I am glad that he only learned one new technique. The Tsukishima Hammer does not simply cut a target. The force is blunt like a hammer and it will crush a great deal of things. We got your classic “back against the wall” training, so talking about it too much is pointless. What is interesting is Jinbei himself. The Mushibugyou says that Jinbei cannot be a normal human and she asked Mugai if he was an Insect Hunter. I guess that those guys aren’t normal people. Jinbei’s father eluded to the fact that his wife is dead and that her blood may be the reason that Jinbei is such a fast learner. She could possibly have a link to the crazy bug people.

I am guessing that we will get to see this crazy battle pretty soon. Those guys from the last episode that looked like crazy bug people are stating that the era of the current Shogun will end next winter. That Sasuke guy is already in Edo trying to find the Mushibugyou. This is a pretty interesting development. With people like Mugai and Jinbei’s dad running around, I can only assume that these are some pretty crazy guys. I can’t imagine them introducing these bug guys if they weren’t going to pose an actual threat to Edo. Even though the next episode is going to be heavy on the fan service, I assume that we will be getting more of this in two weeks. Sounds like fun to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Opinion of the Show:

This is slowly becoming one of my favorite shows from the Spring 2013 season. It was really odd how Jinbei suddenly got special powers. That berserk mode that he entered during the last arc really had no lead-in. We knew that he wasn’t going to sit out the second half of the battle, but that was crazy. No one else had those powers and hair in mouth thing isn’t the best explanation. Now we have some stuff that could be an explanation. Jinbei’s mom may in fact be a special individual. The issue with that is they haven’t really classified what constitutes a special human. The Insect Hunters are different, but we don’t really know how. They appear to be human, but they can control some bugs and are very skilled fighters. Those crazy guys that are trying to bring the Mushibugyou to their king are probably different. What we know is that they appear to be part bug. This series really likes to keep us out of the loop. Honestly, I don’t know what would make sense because I am pretty sure that the actual answer will be crazy as hell. I assume that Jinbei doesn’t have a connection to the Insect Hunters, so it could be the crazy bug people. Even the Shogun had an odd reaction to hearing the little samurai’s name.

We are getting that classic story of a samurai that cannot be with the girl of high status. People that are familiar with any romance that is set in the past will know  what I am talking about. I just wonder what they plan on doing with this. Even though they seem to be pushing this and Oharu, I don’t know how prominent actual romance will be in this series. I am not the biggest fan of having Oharu end up with Jinbei, but that is because I prefer the Mushibugyou and Mitsuki. The Mushibugyou has actual plot support and I think that they could do something with that when the city patrol inevitably has to save her from those crazy bug people. I know that this might not be the kind of story that needs romance, but I don’t want it to end up like a lot of other series that introduce things like this and do nothing with them. Don’t introduce things that hold no purpose in the long run. On a different note, I really like they way that they handled the training. Like I said before, having him master everything in one episode would have been stupid. I will give him one technique and a really vague explanation regarding his aptitude for the sword. I am honestly not looking forward to next week’s episode because it is going to revolve around the women’s bath and a bunch of interviews. I am looking forward to the episode after that.