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Old But Gold will continue to have a home here, and the site will be changed to reflect that.

The older woman asks about the gentleman’s son, and the gentleman remarks that he is asleep, calling him a ‘little monster’.

We learn that the older gentleman is named Roger, who doesn’t seem excited about Victoria coming, even going so far as to suggest just giving her a month’s salary and sending her back. It seems that the older woman, Elizabeth, is hiring Victoria to take care of Roger’s son and assist her around the house. We also learn that Roger and Elizabeth are siblings, and that Elizabeth also doesn’t know Victoria. So, to recap, nobody knows anybody.

Roger is also confused by Elizabeth’s motives, since she’s basically hiring a stranger all the way from New York (side note: this isn’t a spoiler or anything but I had to look it up. Collinwood is located in Maine, so it is a bit weird that Elizabeth is hiring someone from several states away). Neither side budges on their stances, but Elizabeth seems to be the one with the final say, and she leaves. Once she does, Roger looks….scared almost? (hmmmmmmm…)

And then he crushes his glass with one hand.

We then get the iconic opening and music.

We once again find ourselves on the train, but this time from a new character’s perspective, an older man in a sharp business suit. The conductor announces that the train will arrive in Collinsport soon.

Collinsport…Collinwood…

The older business man gets a cunning smile at the arrival news, which I’m sure means that he’s totally not here for nefarious purposes.

We transition to Victoria further up the train car talking to an older lady, who explains that the train rarely stops in Collinsport and is shocked that Victoria would accept a job in such a remote place. Victoria then has a flashback to when she received a letter with the job offer, (we also learn Elizabeth’s full name: Elizabeth Collins Stoddard). We learn a bit more about her in the flashback: she’s an orphan who aged out of the system and all of sudden gets a job offer from some random woman she’s never heard of. There’s an interesting tidbit here as she mentions that Collinsport is very close to another city in Maine called Bangor, which seems to be important to her. The head of the orphanage also has no idea who Elizabeth is but encourages Victoria to accept the position (it’s confirmed here to be ‘governess and companion’) as it pays well.

The older lady is still a little concerned about a young girl like Victoria moving to such an isolated town, but the train stops at Collinsport, so she just wishes Victoria good luck. As the train leaves, Victoria finds herself alone on the dark station platform with the older businessman. He seems to have some history with the town, as he knows that there aren’t any taxis that come to the station. A chauffeured car is arriving for him, though, and he offers to give Victoria a ride to the hotel.

He introduces himself as Burke Devlin and jokes that Victoria has reached ‘the beginning and end of the world’. However, when Victoria asks him if he’s heard of Collinwood, his charming personality drops for a second as he says he’s very familiar with the house.

After a quick transition, the two arrive at the hotel, with Burke offering to call a taxi for Victoria. He also urges her to leave Collinsport and go back to New York (I’m sensing a pattern here). The front desk clerk comes in and immediately recognizes Burke and is very friendly towards him. Burke, however, treats him coldly and only asks about his rooms and a taxi for Victoria.

But, uh oh, it seems that the only taxi in town has a flat and is in for repairs. The clerk mentions that Burke should remember the driver, but he insists that he doesn’t remember anyone.

The clerk tells Victoria that she can wait in the hotel’s coffee shop until the taxi is fixed. He also hands Burke a message that came for him an hour ago and causes Burke to become…agitated. He leaves after ordering the clerk around a bit more, allowing Victoria to question the clerk a bit about him. It turns out the clerk has known Burke since Burke was a boy. Unfortunately, that’s all the info we’re getting at this time.

We cut to a man in a fedora standing in a near-empty bar (a sign on the wall says the place is called the Blue Whale). He sits at a table just as Burke walks in and joins him. We learn that this new guy is called Strake, a private investigator that Burke hired to dig into the Collins family, aka the family that hired Victoria, aka the family he claims to be very familiar with.

We transition back to the hotel and check in on Victoria waiting in the coffee shop. She strikes up a conversation with the waitress, Maggie Evans, who helps fill in some of the plot. The Collins family is the richest family in town, owning a large fishing fleet and cannery. They also don’t seem to be well-liked, as Maggie calls them kooks and warns Victoria about going up to Collinwood (I’m sensing a pattern here…). She also offers Victoria a slice of apple pie on the house, which instantly makes her the best character in this show.

We get another flashback of Victoria talking to a friend as she packs to leave. Even her friend wonders why she’s traveling all the way to Maine when it’d be easy to get jobs in New York. Victoria admits she doesn’t want to go but feels she has to in order to find answers about herself. What those answers are we still don’t know.
After the flashback ends, we cut back to Burke and Strake, who is telling Burke all about Elizabeth. It seems she is the one in charge of the family business, but she runs it from the house, never leaving to go into town. In fact, she hasn’t left the Collinwood property in eighteen years, and, while there are plenty of rumors, no one is for sure why.

We cut back to the hotel as Victoria’s taxi arrives. Despite literally everyone telling her otherwise, she is still determined to go to Collinwood. However, before she leaves, she does ask Maggie if she was just exaggerating everything. To which Maggie says she was, though it’s obvious that she’s lying.

After a quick fade to black, Victoria finally arrives at Collinwood. Elizabeth greets her at the door, though she’s very quiet and stoic about it. We also get a good first look at the interior of Collinwood, and it definitely feels unnerving.

But, that’s where our episode ends, and there are still lots of questions that need answers: what is Burke up to? What’s the rest of the Collins family like? And, most importantly, why is Victoria so insistent on being at Collinwood?

Discuss down below, and see you in the next review!

We open with a very trippy sequence of a beautiful blonde woman chanting a strange mantra interspersed with scenes of two martial artists performing katas (a choreographed, structured pattern of techniques, for those that don’t know).

After the episode’s title card, we get a little more clarification: It is April 1989 in Tokyo, Japan, and the Junior Martial Arts championship fight is underway. Our two combatants are Shurato Hidaka (who we will refer to as Shurato) a flashy, yet laid back young man, and Gai Kuroki (who we will refer to as Gai), who is more withdrawn and introverted. The two are also best friends from childhood, so this is less of an intense competition and more of a friendly match to see who is the best. They were also the two martial artists from the opening scene (hmmmmmmmm 🤔)

The fight begins, and it’s clear from the start that they are evenly matched, neither one landing a hit. We also get a bit more personality traits established here: Shurato prefers going all in on attacking without considering defense at all. In a flashback where he’s training as a child, he even says that if he knocks down an opponent in the first punch, there’s no need to defend. Which, I mean…

On the other hand, Gai prefers waiting until the right time to strike. In his own flashback, while Shurato races after a thief, Gai uses the alleyways to cut off the thief and stop him.

A strom begins to form outside as the two continue the fight, both managing to get hits in, but neither one can get a decisive blow. Finally, the two leap at each other in one final attack, but a bright light appears and surrounds them right as they collide. The blonde woman from earlier shows up as well, chanting a new mantra as the light grows brighter. Shurato and Gai are thoroughly confused, but before they can ask questions, they both vanish in a flash of rainbow light.

We then cut to the blonde woman surrounded by three kneeling figures in a room filled with glittering light. We learn from one of the figures, a man in a turban, that the woman is Lady Vishnu, who announces that the two have been successfully brought over and that the eight Hachibushu have now been gathered. Turban Man turns to one of the other figures, named Reiga, and instructs him to go find Shurato and Gai.

After that, we get a gorgeous shot of this new world the two have been transported to. A massive temple sits on top of a towering rock spire, surrounded by small floating islands and a vast grassy plain. The sun is shining, and everything is covered in green vegetation and sparkling lakes and rivers. You can smell how fresh the air must be even through the screen.

After a quick fade to black, we see Shurato waking up in a grassy field filled with flowers. What wakes him up? A girl with teal hair dressed in an outfit straight out of I Dream of Jeannie kissing him on the lips.

Shurato is flabbergasted at being kissed by a strange girl (he even wipes the kiss off his lips 🤣) and demands to know who she is. The girl introduces herself as Lakshu and her pet, a small flying…bat-thing named Mii. Shurato then asks the next important question: why she kissed him.

Lakshu is a bit put off by the question, but explains that she wanted to see if the myth about a handsome prince awakening from the kiss of a goddess was true.

Shurato shares my confusion but soon becomes outraged since Lakshu stole his first kiss.

(For anyone even more confused, a first kiss is very important in Japanese culture and is often portrayed in media as something you save for your one true love)

However, Shurato isn’t too mad as Lakshu is a cute girl. (of course😒)

Shurato finally introduces himself to Lakshu and notices that his clothes are now completely different (for reference, he was wearing a martial arts uniform before but is now wearing a tunic and sandals). We also get some more gorgeous shots of the beautiful nature in this world, and once again

Shurato, obviously, asks where the heck he ended up, but then he quickly gets distracted by the fact that Gai is nowhere to be seen. Which is strange since they both got transported together. As he looks around trying to find Gai, he stumbles across a massive stone statue of Lady Vishnu and recognizes her. He gets a bit more serious and once again asks Lakshu where he is. Lakshu has a strange response at first, though, as she asks “Did you lose your memory?” (Something tells me this will be important later). She finally does explain that this new world is called Tenkuukai. Shurato asks if that means they’re in space, which may seem like a weird thing to ask, but that’s because Tenkuukai roughly translates to ‘sky world’.

Before we can get any more information on Tenkuukai, Shurato notices a strange object attached to his tunic: a small, golden statue shaped like some sort of beast. Lakshu seems to recognize what it is, but, once again, an interruption appears. An armored silhouette appears on the statue of Lady Vishnu, unrecognizable at first. Lakshu refers to it as Yasha-Oh, but Shurato finally sees who it is: Gai.

Who then tries to kill him.

Shurato is understandably confused by the situation and briefly considers that this is all some weird dream, but hitting himself with the golden object proves that this is all too real. Gai, meanwhile, still continues to try and kill him until Lakshu steps in, explaining that Shurato must use his Shakti to gain the power to fight. Gai throws her at Shurato, and Shurato finally fights back, headbutting his chest and demanding to know why his entire personality seems to have changed. For a brief moment, it seems like Gai has snapped out of it, but it was all so he could land a nasty blow on Shurato’s shoulder.

Wounded, all Shurato can do is block Gai’s sword with the golden object, still unable to process how his peaceful and gentle best friend has become so bloodthirsty and violent (it is very strange, isn’t it 🤔).

Suddenly, bright light!

The golden object begins to glow and transforms into two different objects: a lion-shaped flying sled and a mace. Lady Vishnu’s voice begins chanting a new mantra before Shurato himself says it and transforms, gaining his own set of armor (just a side note: Gai’s armor resembles a wolf and Shurato’s resembles a lion). With the transformation done, the real action begins.

Shurato is easily able to defend against Gai (he doesn’t even really try🤣) and asks one more time why Gai is acting like this (Shurato, this man has been trying to stab you for the past 10 minutes. I don’t think he’s going to stop anytime soon). Gai just continues to state that he will kill Shurato (hmmmmmmm 🤔), so Shurato kicks him off a cliff.

Gai is stunned from the fall, and Shurato goes to help him (Shurato! He. Is. Trying. To. Kill. You!). His reward for the effort is a punch in the face (unsurprisingly). Gai then starts to chant a mantra of his own and lightning begins to shoot from his sword. Shurato decides the best course of action is to run toward it.

All the lightning coalesces into a powerful gust of wind shaped like a wolf, which blasts Shurato and everything around him into a giant pile of rubble, trapping him. Before Gai can land the killing blow however, help arrives from Reiga on his own flying sled, who transforms into his own phoenix-shaped armor.

Side note, when transformed each person is given a…title for lack of a better word. Gai is Yasha-Oh, like Lakshu mentioned, Shurato is Shura-Oh (very obvious, I know), and Reiga is Karura-Oh. Just some extra info to keep in mind. Side note over!

Gai tries to fight Reiga, who just summons a giant phoenix made of fire that carries Gai off to the horizon. Our episode ends with Reiga carrying Shurato to the massive temple with Lakshu and Mii following not far behind. All the while, Gai, far away, still swears to kill his once best friend.

We still have lots of questions: what exactly is Tenkuukai? Why did Lady Vishnu summon Shurato and Gai? And, most importantly, why is Gai acting so weird? Discuss down below!

See you all next time!

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