In the fortieth episode of the second season of Gargoyles, I DEEPLY LOVE THIS EPISODE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Gargoyles.Â
Trigger Warning: For nonconsensual drugging.
Oh, this is just SO GOOD, y’all. There’s a surprising amount of worldbuilding packed into these twenty minutes, and it’s so impressive! It’s also a fantastic episode for me to get to in the same batch as “The New Olympians,” which a polar opposite reality in terms of mythical creatures and humanity. Look, I was shocked when the citizens of Ishimura, Japan watched as their local gargoyle clan attacked the thieves who tried to take advantage of them. I honestly thought it was an animation mistake, but NOPE. The town of Ishimura has a symbiotic, mutual relationship with their gargoyles. IT WAS SO VERY EXCITING TO SEE. It speaks to a possibility, one where gargoyles and humans can work out their differences and survive together.
This isn’t the only new thing introduced here, though. The gargoyles of the Ishimura clan are also integrated into generational teaching for the humans, though it had been many, many years since they had last taught anyone bushido. The humans protected the gargoyles during the day. AND THE GARGOYLES FACED INWARDS TOWARDS THEIR CITY INSTEAD OF TOWARDS THE SUN. Oh my god, the cultural differences here were so fascinating! I love that the writers thought about these sort of things and put them on the screen.
I say that because it helps make the story given to us mean a whole lot more. I am still in awe of the fact that “Bushido” gave us a scheming antagonist who turns into a redemptive protagonist in LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES. Yama gets an entire arc that some shows struggle with over the course of an entire season or show, and yet, it’s pulled off here in relatively no time. Ishimura seemed like such a utopia – or at least as close as you could get to one in this context – and yet Yama hated it. He felt trapped. Controlled. So he plotted with Taro to give the gargoyles a different kind of existence, one where they’d no longer have to hide within Ishimura.
I assumed that Yama knew the ramifications of this choice, but I’m even more enamored with the idea that he saw this as a stepping stone, a means to an end. He actually thought that Taro –who lied to the gargoyles about Ishimura, who drugged Elisa, who attacked his fellow citizens, who set up an ENTIRE GARGOYLES THEME PARK SO HE COULD MAKE MONEY OFF THEM – was going to be a man of his word. Thus, Yama becomes a naïve character, one who has a misguided idea of how to attain his own happiness. It’s all the expense of himself and his clan, though he doesn’t see it until it’s too late.
Yet when that moment comes, he respects the system of honor (FINALLY) that he’d lived with his whole life. He puts his body on the line multiple times while fighting Taro, and then, he leaves Ishimura after dishonoring them. HIS WHOLE ARC IS LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES LONG AND I WILL KEEP SHOUTING THIS OVER AND OVER BECAUSE IT’S SO GOOD. How does this show keep introducing such incredible characters every goddamn episode? Why do I keep wanting spin-offs of all of these new locations? Because, y’all, this writing is so good. I haven’t even touched on the other clan members, or how cool it is that Elisa teams with one of the citizens to PUBLICLY HUMILIATE TARO FOR HIS CRIMES. Oh my gods, I just adore this episode.
The video for “Bushido” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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