Ushio and Tora

"Ushio & Tora" is yet another anime series about a reckless boy whose father is caretaker of a repository holding an ancient demon and whose impulsive curiosity winds up freeing the demon. "Tenchi Muyo" covered similar territory the same year (1992), only Tenchi's demon was a luscious silver-haired female named Ryoko who develops quite an attachment to the hero. This one's a little different. The demon is male and cat-like, with some tiger stripes, a lion's mane, etc. and it wants nothing more than to eat the boy and wreak carnage among humans. But Ushio, the boy, keeps Tora, the demon, in check with the Beast Spear that originally impaled Tora and kept him imprisoned for 500 years. Ushio uses his pull over Tora to make him combat other demons, including one that attacks Ushio's school in the second episode and turns some of the girls to stone, including Asuko, the one Ushio likes. All this gives Ushio a sense of duty and responsibility he didn't have earlier. Plus, it gives Tora a sense of companionship with someone else, a feeling of friendship. Much to their horror, they begin to bond over their shared experiences. It's actually quite touching. And funny.

The animation is quite good, too, with lots of the usual ancient occult imagery surfacing and some really well-done action animation. I'm not so crazy about the human character designs, though. None of them are terribly well-drawn or attractive. But Tora is an interesting creation. Based on watching the first two episodes, I can say that the show moves well and offers a nice mixture of genuine suspense and demon-fighting thrills, mixed with humorous banter between the title characters. The director is Kunihiko Yuyama, who's better known for directing the Pokémon movies.