On recommendation from my co-host Devmani on Hey Listen, I took look at a revitalized series Ushio and Tora (Ushio to Tora うしおととら). Starting as a manga in the year 1990 before making its way to OAV (original animation video, long story short, VHS) in 1992, it was reborn in 2015 as a full length televised series. Maybe Japan has taken a page from Hollywood, seeing as how Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z have made a comeback as well.

So you may as well hear it now, and again forever more. I am a huge fan of early anime ranging from the 60’s through the 90’s. While I remain a fan of anime today, I find the super clean, crisp picture to detract a little whimsy from the presentation. Nothing looks hand drawn anymore, despite the fact that it indeed may be. However, I found that Ushio and Tora was a picture perfect recapture of late 80’s character style that really brought me back to a time when hair was always long and flowing or short and spiky. Or both?

The story was also an amazing revival of classic shonen tale. It was nice to see something in the vein of Yuyu Hakusho and Dragon Ball that didn’t feel the need to overly modernize. The characters aren’t necessarily original, but they have a lot of heart and you can feel their suffering. My only criticism is that, for the first time ever, I wish there were more filler episodes and side stories. I feel like I didn’t get a good chance to experience Ushio and Tora getting to know each other outside of their main story. This was a very lean story, even at 39 episodes.

I highly recommend this show. It’s a solid representation of a time not forgotten, but sorely missed. Shonen anime is still alive of course, but it doesn’t have as much pure emotion and tears as Ushio, nor does it provide as much antagonism as Tora.