Before we get into the localization boondoggle that nearly ruined this episode for me, I have to give “In Between” its flowers for building a very compelling new link in the chain of Oniyasha’s slow but certain development as an artist. The arrest and eventual execution of the drunk monk Toku is the senseless tragedy we all knew it would be, and it’s exactly the kind of sucker punch of real-world injustice that our little hero needed to really start engaging with the lives around him. While I wouldn’t have minded more overt connections between his past experiences and this one, particularly when it comes to the sad fate of the Shirabyoshi, the message still rings clear: Oniyasha’s destiny lies in using his art to give voice to the painfully human stories that are all too easy for the privileged and the powerful to ignore.

The first half of the episode is the stronger portion, as it sees The World Is Dancing give the necessary weight to the conclusion of Toku’s story. His exhausted insistence that Kogane not throw away his life on account of one dying old drunk is among the most powerful sequences we’ve gotten from this show, and it is very understated in its execution. I’m less enthusiastic about the somewhat jarring tonal whiplash that comes after Oniyasha recovers and reunites with the others at the shogun’s estate. Still, the show has always existed in the messy borderline that separates drama and comedy. Besides, it’s all worth it to see Oniyasha confront Yoshimitsu and realize how detached and casually cruel his new patron is when it comes to the less fortunate, or to anyone that might be considered too subversive for his grand new vision of a unified Japan.

This is where my feelings about “Connection” become decidedly more mixed, and it starts with the fact that Oniyasha’s climactic performance of “Komachi at the Gravepost” is entirely lacking in subtitles. To be clear, I get that this choice might not entirely be in the hands of the translators at HIDIVE, since the play’s dialogue is presented as an anachronistic modern rock song and must come with licensing entanglements that prevent the lyrics from being presented in English. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter why this happened. One of the most critical events in Oniyasha’s story has been rendered entirely unintelligible to viewers who don’t speak fluent Japanese, and that is simply unacceptable. The whole point of the scene is that Oniyasha is finally using his performance to criticize the shogunate, and it’s impossible to appreciate this satirical subtext when one cannot even understand the plain old text on the surface.

This is maybe why I also found myself disappointed by the surprisingly bland visuals of the “Komachi at the Gravepost Sequence”, with the very traditional blocking only occasionally being bolstered by a panel split-screen or a painterly background. This, I suspect, is because this is the first time that the words of the performance matter more than anything else, but since I can’t tell you what those words are, the rest of the show falls flat, too.

The worst part is that the seeds of distrust cannot be unsewn. I have no idea if future depictions of Oniyasha’s work will use similar musical flourishes, and if they do, does that just mean that the audience paying for a localized version of this show is out of luck? We can only hope that this is a singular screw-up that won’t be repeated, lest The World Is Dancing become literally unwatchable to the fans who wish to support it.

Episode Rating:

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.

The World Is Dancing is currently streaming on
HIDIVE.

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