#misguidance

We start off quietly in the snowy forest. A crow flies by. The opening credits reveal that Genndy Tartakovsky is the sole storyboard artist on the episode. The text is also in black for this episode.

The credit for character design is shifted as the text’s color is that of the crow. Craig Kellman’s not the only character designer on this episode, however...

More crows gather around, making crow sounds that I never heard before. Still a quiet atmosphere--until

JACK JARRINGLY WAKES UP

AKU IN GIRL FORM?!?!

Like back in EPISODE VI?! or is it just a dream?

Jack swipes his spear around in defense, scaring the crows away. After he calms down, he look up to consider what happened when he fell from a tall tree in the last episode.

Jack hit branch after branch after branch, shouting “Aaaah...” on the way down, and there was a sword-scrape kind of sound and Jack landed on the ground.

Jack sees a trail of blood by him. He followed it.

It lead him to a daughter of Aku, who looks as though died in the last episode’s fight. It turns out, that this one was the one called “Ashi”. I’m not sure from where exactly the blood leaked, but I don’t think that it should be TV-14-V namely for that. She wasn’t slaughtered, either; she just fell.

“Murderer!”

While Jack was looking upon Ashi, his mind was beginning to play tricks (yet again) on him.

“Murderer! Murderer! Killer! Killer! Murderer!”

Of course, Rothchild and his friends can speak English, so I suppose that this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“Killeeeeeerrrrr!”

“No...”

“MURDERER”

“NO! THEY chose the path! They CHOSE!”

The truth is undeniably that Jack killed 4 out of 7 of the daughters of Aku, but it was only for his defense. It’s not like Jack wanted that; he gave them a choice like his father gave.

SCYTHE FLIES TOWARD JACK!!!

Apparently, Ashi wasn’t dead. Not sure what was up with that bloody injury, but she’s back on her feet!

Jack, yet, is too good to be owned by her. He just kicked they scythe with his bare foot, grabbed its chain and whipped it around her and the branch... all in the complex action styles of Genndy Tartakovsky and his amazing boarding team.

“DIE! DIE! WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!” screamed Ashi, very discontent in this situation.”I will undo the evil that is you, samurai!”

She was raised to believe that the samurai is evil, but handling anger with hate suggests that this was personal for her. I assume that either (1) being beaten for relenting/not always attacking or (2) Jack killing her sisters made this personal.

“You are very troubled... AND very confused.”

“Aku is the evil one. Not me.” I guess that Ashi was raised in such a secluded society, that she never heard a thing about who Aku is or what he did. For that matter, said the High Priestess anything about what Jack looked like in the first place? or the fact that he was called “Jack”? Regardless, Ashi repeats herself with hateful name-calling (”Scum!” and whatnot).

Jack was thinking about how to teach Ashi best, when the ground began to shake. Was it something that Ashi said? (like “LECHEROUS SNAKE!!!”)

A GIANT MONSTER EMERGED UNDERGROUND!!!!!

The size of this beast brings 2 creatures to mind, who’re mentioned in the Book of Job: Behemoth and Leviathan.

This beast is very complex on the inside, too, more so the dragon of EPISODE XXI, “Jack and the Farting Dragon”.

*ominous music, drums, percussion, d-d-do do do*

Ok. Are we flying or...

Yep. They’re falling.

During this long fall into the unknowns of the beast, Ashi runs up a falling tree and attempts to kill Jack, scratching him with her scythe (the only other strong act of violence in this episode; the rest is more PG/Y7 level).

“Are you kidding me?”

That... was humorously unexpected of Jack to say. Of course he was scratched near where he was stabbed back in EPISODE XCIII, and apparently Ashi learned not her lesson.

She is hit by another tree in another attempt and became unconscious.

The two approached a bunch of holes in the body. Jack, in his righteous nature, grabbed Ashi, surfing a tree and streaking straight as an arrow into one of the holes.

Jack and Ashi were somewhere in the beast... maybe not the belly of it, though it kind of sounds like it, Looks like there’re taste buds everywhere... fields of taste buds!

Aww. Looks like Jack is cradling a little doll in his arms... as if she were a daughter of his own instead of Aku.

Jack then sat down on one of the taste buds or whatever... which gave off some sort of gas or something.

Laughing gas, perhaps?

“My Lord and Master, Aku, may it please you for all eternity: the samurai is dead.”

“Um... I’m right here.”

“Fool! We’ve been swallowed by a monolithic creature! You’re dead.”

Really? Then she would be dead, too.

“I’ve been inside giant creatures before. I’ll find a way out.”

How came Jack out of that two-headed worm in EPISODE XV, then? “There’s no magic. Is there?”

Ashi was still relentless. “I will never stop!”

“Yes, yes. I know. ‘Til your dying breath--but, once you see how misguided you are, you will see the truth about Aku.”

That’s what this episode is kind of about: “teaching the truth in love” to the misguided. It can be pretty hard to do that with an adversary, but Jack’s heart is in the right place.

By the way, about that line “’Til your dying breath”...  to be specific, Ashi’s line was “I WILL KILL YOU AS LONG AS I HAVE BREATH IN MY BODY!” Not that it matters to Jack, but I was conscious of this.

Jack and Ashi are not alone as a bunch of buck-toothed parasitic crabs stomp there way toward them.

These guys have little legs/arms that’re as sharp as a sword. One sliced a leg off of another, and Jack decides to use that leg in defense.

For this shot, “Gooey Splat” sound (052405 on the Cartoon Trax Volume 1 library) accents their blood... or is it jam? Come to think of it, the insides of their limbs are colored as peanut butter.

Some of their stomps make that “phwick” sound you often hear in Spongebob, for some reason (perhaps the squishy surface?). Their jaws snapping also sound like one of the old-fashioned bone crack sounds also used in Spongebob (It’s assumed to be a Horta Editorial/Hacienda Post sound effect).

After he heard a scream from behind (from Ashi??), Jack rushes over to save Ashi from the monsters. Ashi continues to fight Jack who is already in another fight.

Some creature blood (or jam) lands in Ashi’s eyes. Jack uses this opportunity to chain her to his back for safety, struggling to keep Ashi from fighting him. Then Ashi is hit by one of the creatures, becoming unconscious again.

Jack begins to run further into the body, escaping from the crab-like pack. I never thought of a creature’s insides could look of such beauty. It’s like a whole other world in there! I wouldn’t mind living inside one of these guys myself.

In darkness, a voice beckons. “Ashi...

Ashi...

Ashi...”

“KILL THE SAMURAI!!!!!”

Hey... I thought that the mouths weren’t supposed to move on their masks.

Ashi is scared awake by a dream, too, as was Jack. They’re in an area glowing with bright, spiky little plants and dandelion-like balls of fluff floating around.

“What are we doing, Jack?”

One of those fluff balls begins to talk to Jack. Could this be a vision?

“Waiting”, Jack responds.

“Waiting for what?” is a good question, but she assumes that Jack knows the way out and wants to go. Jack is not willing to leave Ashi, believing that she was merely innocent with her way lost... not “pure evil.”

“You’d know about that. Wouldn’t you?”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Well. Then, may be, you’ll talk to me!”

Jack’s dark side apparently enjoys company. “Leave me alone”, Jack responded. “I don’t want to talk to you, either.”

Meanwhile, Ashi, with no idea probably as to what’s with Jack, grew tired... until a lobster-like monster grabbed hold of her.

“It’s all my fault; she’s here because of me.”

“Look! Why do you always have to get involved?” Jack’s dark side questioned. Jack himself tried to explain what’s up with this Ashi girl. Then Jack’s dark side noticed that Ashi was gone.

Jack suspected that something took her and decided to use one of this pointy flowers as a potential weapon. Jack’s dark side may as well get himself out of here for Jack’s sake, but Jack was intent on saving Ashi... and beat the slime out of the big crustacean.

“You’re welcome”, Jack replied.

“I’d be happier as that creature’s EXCREMENT than be grateful to you!”

:O how RUDE!

Happier as excrement; huh? Then whose scream was that when the giant crabs surrounded Ashi? but then why else jumped she into one of their mouths?

“What did you expect?” the floating speck taunts him again. “A hug and a kiss?”

Not that she would be Jack’s type, but he wasn’t it in for the love. Just a true, heroic little act of kindness; that’s all.

“Aku! My master! This fool knows not of your greatness! Your kindness!! YOUR UNDERSTANDING!!!”

At this point, he should expect nothing but hate and slander from her.

Aren’t they just nuts and bolts, Jack? Just nuts and bolts. Think that.

“Every thing... every word... every thought that you know... is... WRONG!”

Jack decided that he heard enough and started to teach the truth to her, that Aku has all of this nature destroyed, with waste and monsters and all.

“Where do you think we are?!” he asks her, which is a good question. In what creature and what part are they anyway? That is not important for the moment, though.

“Believe what you may, but, if you open your eyes and let go of the hate, you will see the truth.”

“Die”, Ashi whispered.

Well... at least he tried.

*wsh wsh*

“Rain? Urhh!”

Funny; I wouldn’t think of rain hurting.

“Huh!”

*wsh wsh wsh wsh wsh*

That looks not like rain...

Now Jack must face the challenge of pulling every single sharp... needle or whatever off of himself...

...and Ashi.

“You know? Uh... many people pay money for this. It’s called acupuncture.”

Not even a blink or breath from her.

“Never mind.”

Jack continues looking for a way out, walking through very quiet areas of the body, glowing with all sorts of beautiful colors.

A giant, caterpillar-like insect passes by like a train.

It looks as though it shed its protective leg coverings off. Jack ponders of some use that they could make.

“I like the back fur.”

“You look hideous!” Ashi hisses.

“From you, ‘hideous’ is quite acceptable.”

Not that Ashi meant it as a compliment, but Jack is content enough. It is fashionable, whether or not it looks weird, Blue and green are my favorite colors (or color duo), too.

Climbing up some more vein-y tubes of some sort, a gust of wind blows. “We’re close”, Jack felt.

Still misguided, Ashi, like an anchor, decided to pull Jack down... but that isn’t stopping Jack.

Jack reaches to the point of a dark, acid-bearing pit, glowing with such colorful creatures. This is probably the scene animated by James Baxter, although his cinematic sense of traditional animation is generally more obvious, but Robert Alvarez & Randy Myers’ sheet timing is good enough.

Ashi saw things like she never saw before. “Even in the bowels of the darkest of creatures”, Jack preached, “there is beautiful light.”

Speaking of light, a big white beam of light shone within. Their way out!

Jack had a new goal: “Use the flying creatures to escape and not fall into the pool of acid.

Right.”

Another problem lurked in the dark.

Near the way out, what appears to be a giant fish skeleton chased them! That’s kind of redundant, though, since it hasn’t really a stomach. Being a skeleton, Jack and Ashi could, like, slip easily through it.

The next flying creature is more colorful and fast as lightning!

Literally!

That creature comes to a halt and the two are flung onto some floating, jellyfish-like creatures which look like they have kelp for tentacles. A good place in which to hide, but, if they’re scared enough...

well... they pop. Talk about being scared to death!

*shee-whoosh!*

Luckily, Jack can jump really good, like back in Season 2 opener EPISODE XIV.

It almost looks like Jack and Ashi were blown out of a geyser...

but it’s actually just, like, a pore in the giant beast. Given how many places are inside him/her, we can only imagine the unbelievably massive scale of the creature.

The two fall into the ocean and find refuge on an island nearby. There, the two cough the water out, but Ashi is still not motivated that Jack is not the true evil.

Something about Ashi’s looks in this scene look sort of different; perhaps these models were designed specifically by Lynne Naylor-Reccardi.

There’s just something about it her here that kind of makes me to think of Lynne designing. Perhaps the extra bangs from her hair being wet?

Suspicious of Jack still being “evil”, she quietly and slowly sneaks up on him... until she gaps at something buzzing by--a ladybug. She saw one of them before, back when she was a child in training--during which her mother intervened: “These frivolous distractions are poisonous for your mission; they are not part of Aku’s order.”

Unlike her misguided mother, who killed a ladybug, Jack allows for this ladybug to walk on his gentle hand and fly away.

Then, Ashi drops her scythe and decides to start some serious thinking, and the episode comes to close.

An important question returns to mind: Had the daughters of Aku any idea who this evil samurai looked like?

Lynne Naylor-Reccardi, wife of the late and great Chris Reccardi, returned for one more episode of character design in this series, and James Baxter is credited for “Additional Animation”.

There’s a typo in Grey Griffin’s name (”GRAY” instead of “GREY”). Tara Strong voiced the little speck of fuzz that is simply called a “vision”, and Corey Burton (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Ranger Smith) voiced the crows--or, more likely, the voices in Jack’s mind.

It’s time to talk about what we learned today. What values in this episode can serve as one’s own virtues?

Jack knew that he was dealing with a deadly assassin who was very hateful and believed that he was evil, but, instead of killing her in defense, he chose patience to consider a way to teach her the truth. When the two ended up inside the monolithic creature, Jack chose to save her every step of the way--even while she was trying to kill Jack.

It can be hard to teach the truth to those who are misguided by their beliefs of wrong things, but we must be willing to help one another out, regardless of the situation. Jack was in a dangerous position with Ashi, but he wanted to show her the evil that Aku did (and was). He refused to leave her out--He put a savage enemy’s life above his own, and his patience eventually paid off as Ashi came to think about what both Jack and the High Priestess taught her.

This episode showcases some very colorful creatures that remind me of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Wander Over Yonder somewhat, and they are probably the ones animated by James Baxter, whose professional, cinematic traditional animation credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Klaus, The Prince of Egypt, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted. While the show’s animation is stylized differently, it is a noteworthy effort.

Is the monolithic creature inspired by Behemoth or Leviathan, as described in The Biblical Book of Job? This creature’s insides may be more fictional, but what is his/her actual root? What is the species?

Since there is no language or inappropriate dialogue in the episode, shouldn’t [adult swim] change the rating to, at most, TV-14-V? It’s very misleading, and this episode has some real wisdom to teach. After all, creator Genndy Tartakovsky said: “My goal was to make a show that I would enjoy whether I was a kid or an adult.” This season was one of the sweetest memories of media in my entire life, and I personally believe that it deserves to be a part of every kid’s life. Someone should discuss airing these on Cartoon Network (with respect to censorship)!

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