Inuyashiki Last Hero Episode 4 Review: Samejima

Maybe I’m just a lowly fangirl, but I love this show, I love Ichiro, and every time an episode of Inuyashiki is over, I wish I were binge-watching this a few years later.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 鮫島

Plot

A gross Yakuza guy, after having opened the episode by force feeding his genitals to another Yakuza guy, sets his eyes on a very regular girl (Fumino) who is dating a very regular guy (Satoru) and are planning to get happily married and have a bunch of kids. Their happiness is obviously interrupted by Samejima’s wish to rape Fumino, which leads to her abduction and drugging by the mafia. Fumino, being a lot more badass that I’d expect, grabs Samejima’s katana and injures his hand, then escapes to safety, or so she thinks. She runs back home to Satoru, but Samejima finds them and tries to kill Satoru, despite him offering him massive amounts of money. Ichirou breaks in (very unimpressed by Samejima’s shenanigans), kicks his lackeys around and then tries to immobilize him by… very tighly hugging his waist? What? I was hoping he’d hug him hard enough for his brains to explode, but instead he gets shot in the head and faints. He wakes up next to dead Satoru, but manages to bring him back to life – no thanks to his alien healing skills, but to good-old CPR. He tracks down Samejima, and turns him and all the other Yakuza bosses to talking corpses, by basically leaving them paralyzed and blind. After giving them a small lecture, he saves Fumino, and returns her to Satoru. Happy ending.

Episode Highlights

That opening, though: I could have expected many things, but watching a tattooed guy getting mouth-raped in the beginning of this episode was not one of them.

Bro, you really need to hone those skills: if that was Hiro, he would have dealt with this situation in no time. Ichiro really really really needs to step up his game and understand how his body works.

What a cute couple: Obviously, the purpose of presenting us with such lovely, simple, and relatable characters is so we can build some empathy with them for when the world is going to start falling apart. Still, Fumino and Satori are absolutely lovely, both of them.

Fumino’s bad-assery: The strength of her spirit just goes to show what this girl is made of. I was cheering for her the whole time when she grabbed that katana and sliced Samejima’s hand. You go girl.

Hiding spot selection fail: Just saying… if the mafia is looking for you you should probably not hide in your own house. In fact, you might wanna get in a plane and gtfo of the country for a while.

Ichiro’s quality entrance: As usual, Ichiro is super intimidating, walking in wearing just his trousers and ready to kick ass… not. I just love this guy.

CPR uber alles: Your alien medicine might not work, but apparently some really violent CPR can help you bring back the dead. That didn’t make too much sense.

Bitchslapping around: Love love love the way Ichiro showed up at the Yakuza convention and just bitchslapped everyone out of the way, without even looking. Awesome and hilarious at the same time.

Speech: When Ichiro was talking to the mob, I found myself wishing someone like this actually existed. And this has never, ever happened to me with any other superhero.

Rampage scene: I thought the scene of Ichiro taking in all these bullets was awesome, but the following one where he took on the whole mob and messed them up was even better.

Themes & Trivia

Yakuza: basically what you would call the Japanese mafia. They have a huge presence in Japanese media and are easily identified by their massive tattoos, irezumi.

Ichiro for president

His loving and humble nature is what makes the show so great, more than the fancy production and kickass storyline. I love this character; in fact I think he’s the best character I’ve seen in a long time.

Do you also love and worship Ichiro? Let us know in the comment section! See you next week with another Inuyashiki episode review on MANGA.TOKYO!

NEXT TIME: Yuko Shishigami (獅子神優子)