The anime series Ishura narrates the story of a girl named Yuno, who embarks on a new journey when her friend Lucelles gets killed. The story is definitely based in an alternate reality where people from Earth are known as the ‘Visitors,’ and one such Visitor features in this episode. The anime is a mixture of the sci-fi genre with the epic samurai journeys we have seen in Japanese cinema. It generates a lot of interest through the exciting juxtaposition and the first episode leaves just enough mystery to keep us hooked for the entire season to unfold.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Lucelles Die?
There is a lot of backstory given in the first few minutes of the episode. The good part is that we get to know about Yuno’s character while the backstory is narrated to us. Yuno, an inhabitant of Nagan Labyrinth City, was glad the Demon King was dead, and the city was finally at peace. An army consisting of golems, a kind of robot that had ‘life seals’ in them that kept them going, was created to kill the Demon King, but something happened that made them start destroying Nagan City. Before the destruction began, Yuno was with her best friend, Lucelles, and she probably had a crush on her. That’s the reason why, when Lucelles asked Yuno to teach her the ‘Word Arts,’ aka ‘Force Arts,’ she did not decline. Yuno was a little underconfident, whereas Lucelles was like a force of nature—unstoppable and always peppy. She learned the Word Arts immediately, but it wasn’t enough to stop the golems. Lucelles was killed by one of the robots, and Yuno had to see the morbid scenes. Like a coward, she ran away, which would come to haunt her later. She thought she was safe, but the golems had followed her. Yuno, who was extremely well-versed in the Force Arts, used it as a last resort to stop the golems. It worked. Force Art used the will embedded in the spoken word to create phenomena. Yuno was overcome with intense regret as to why she didn’t trust her Art when Lucelles was being killed. Perhaps her spell might have worked there as well, but nothing could be done now. Wallowing in self-pity, Yuno used the spell again on other golems, but this time nothing worked. She had accepted her imminent death and wanted to die, but she was saved by the Visitor, Soujirou, who slashed the golems in half just using his sword.
How Did Soujirou Kill The Giant Labyrinth?
Soujirou came in from nowhere, and he told Yuno that he was the last swordsman on Earth. Yuno started to think about the purpose of his visit at that time. Yuno couldn’t believe that Soujirou managed to kill the golems just by using his sword. He was geared up and ready to go, which was a little absurd. He was just a visitor and completely unfazed by Nagan City’s destruction. After he saved Yuno, he asked about food and almost ate poisonous plants because he was so hungry. The impression Soujirou gave was that he was running away from something and killing the golems to impress Yuno. Before Yuno could get to know him any further, the Great Labyrinth, the most powerful robot from whom the golems were produced, was seen to have activated its life seal. It had been created to attack the Demon King, but Yuno couldn’t see the reason for its reactivation as the Demon King was dead. Doubts began to cloud her mind, and she didn’t see any way out of the situation. They both could escape to Aureatia, where Queen Sephite’s council was gathering all the heroes of the world, and Yuno thought that Soujirou could be a candidate.
Soujirou was part of the Yagyuu clan from Earth, and he claimed to be the last of the Yagyuus. The Yagyuu were swordsmen who had clever tricks to defeat their opponents in sword fights. One of them uses the momentum of the attacker against them. The Great Labyrinth had risen, and he seemed undefeatable. But Soujirou had a plan. He agitated the Great Labyrinth enough that he expended a lot of energy using the thermal rays to destroy Soujirou. Soujirou then cut off one of its arms and made the Great Labyrinth punch itself using the remaining arm. The Great Labyrinth wasn’t designed to withstand its own blow, and Soujirou emerged victorious. He was so ecstatic that when he returned to Yuno after the victory, she started to think that Soujirou had helped resurrect the Great Labyrinth just so he could defeat it. Yuno grew resentful of him because, if that were true, then he was the main reason behind Nagan’s current state. There was a different side to her as well, which didn’t like strong people who made her feel insignificant, yet she wanted to join Soujirou. She seemed to have gone with him on his journey to Aureatia. They thought they were alone, but the post-credit scene revealed that someone else was killing the golems directly by removing their life seals.
Final Words
The new anime Ishura is quite thrilling but quite haphazard in its storytelling. The following episodes might be different, but the first one did not reveal too much to get us hooked. The most riveting and shocking moments came in the first few minutes, when Lucelles was brutally killed. Ishura is concerned with showing us the journey of someone who thinks they are weak with someone who thinks they are the strong ones. The truth is that nothing is as straightforward as that. Yuno is shown as a weakling who ran away, unable to save her friend, but she does have the Force Arts. Even Soujirou was interested in learning it, even though Yuno wasn’t sure that the visitors could use the will of the words in the way she could. Soujirou was seen to be the strong one, but if he had rigged the game from the start, then he was actually an evil figure who let Nagan City get destroyed just so he could show his strength. The duo is together for the time being but the mystery figure revealed in the very end might end this partnership.
