English Dub Review: Mission: Yozakura Family “The Flower Meaning of Kuroyuri (Black Lily)”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kuroyuri taunts Taiyo about the possibility that his family may have been killed for a reason, but then escapes and puts into motion his real plan: to kill the corrupt politicians who tried to kill him but ended up killing his daughter.

OUR TAKE

Oh whoops, my bad, I guess this plot went on a little longer than I initially thought. Kuroyuri, or rather his true identity Kurogao, is still basically Taiyo’s big milestone in his development as a spy and assassin, but in more ways than I expected. Not only is he a test of Taiyo’s ever increasing skills that he’s learning under the Yozakuras, but he is a foil and possibly cautionary tale in how Taiyo may choose to deal with the loss of his parents and brother, which is looking more and more to have not just been the result of a simple tragic accident. That said, we still haven’t seen or heard much about his family, so this loss is kinda emotionally nebulous until we do, but if they do indeed have a mysterious past that’s linked to assassins, I’m sure we’ll actually get some proper flashbacks with them soon enough. Or hell, maybe at least some actual designs and names would just be nice. So, yeah, that’s still sad and all, but significantly less so when these immediate family members are kinda just reduced to “mother, father, brother”, and so on. But uh, yeah, I think I was trying to say something nice? Where was I…

Yeah, so Kurogao. Wow, what a change up in both design and demeanor so quickly, almost like he was a boss monster who entered his second stage. Last episode he was a goofy dancing guy in a pink afro who liked to dance around to hide his plans from eavesdroppers, but now he’s a guy with regular hair who has literally black eyeballs for whatever reason. Oh, and those Red Blue Yellow triplets from last episode also come back, revealing themselves as each having an elemental attack somewhat connected to their color. Red uses flames to burn stuff, Blue uses pressurized water to cut stuff, and Yellow uses electricity to cut stuff. Maybe we can complete the Kanto Pokemon theme and have a Green sister who uses plant vines and poisons and such. But yeah, looks like the bad guys are getting somewhat more interesting in their gimmicks, and that’s probably going to just get more complicated and complex as the show goes on. And if it does, it’s at least clear that Taiyo, Mutsumi, and the rest of the Yozakuras will be able to face all of these threats head on, with two thirds of the series left to go.