Some time ago I got and watched Baian the Assassin volume 1, and I wrote that I was, shall we say, less than impressed. Then a funny thing happened: I got a gift certificate to Amazon.com. So I picked up Volume 2. Volume two was better, so I got volumes 3 and 4. Last night I finished volume 4 (which comprises a single, double-length episode). Over the course of the series, it is transformed from a sort of buddy assassination drama to a weird man crush these two assassins have on a young samurai, and their concerted efforts to keep him from becoming an assassin himself. It ends up being a curious proposition, because Baian, despite saying every time that it is information an assassin doesn't need in order to operate, uncovers that his target is a real slime ball worth assassinating. In a sense, you never see any people killed who don't have it coming, which really weakens his "this life is a kind of hell" argument.

I still wouldn't pick it up while there were outstanding Zatoichi volumes, but I suppose it isn't the worst show ever to air on TV.

Baian the Assassin is a television show from the late eighties/early nineties in Japan, set in the Edo period, about an acupuncturist who has a side business as an assassin. He's definitely an anti-hero (one of the actions he takes in the very first episode is pretty shocking), but still, he finds himself drawn into the backstories of the people he's going to assassinate for the episode–always with the suggestion that it is rare and unprofessional to ask questions about the victim–which goes a long way to presenting him as something more ethical than a regular run of the mill hired killer.

It isn't bad, but I'll tell you right now: if there are still gaps in your Zatoichi collection, either the movies or the TV shows, pass on this for now. You get two episodes in the first volume here, and although that works out to something like two-and-a-half hours, that's not much for the price you pay. The quality is also pretty iffy, shot for television, direct to video, and it shows. Ken Watanabe as Baian is… competent, but the role doesn't give him a lot of room to act. His sidekick is actually more compelling, in my opinion.

This weekend I also picked up a couple of early Court and Spark records, Ventura Whites and Bless You, which are good, but won't make you forget Witch Season, and also Get Him Eat Him's Casual Sex demo. I would have signed them.