WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tribe Nine Episode 9, now streaming on Funimation, as well as Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, now streaming on Disney Plus.
Tribe Nine is a sci-fi sports anime set in Neo-Tokyo, where ceaseless fighting between "tribes" has forced the government to implement the "XB Law," meaning tribes must settle their disputes via games of "Extreme Baseball." This is a simplified yet considerably more dangerous variation of baseball that involves various types of advanced equipment. The series has many surface similarities to the Star Wars universe, including memorable yet intimidating masks and the lightsaber-esque "beam bats" that only especially skilled players can control.
Episode 9 saw the conclusion of the game between the protagonists' Minato Tribe and the chronic cheaters of Ota Tribe. It also contained flashbacks to the brutal training Chiyoda Tribe's Ojiro Otori and Minato Tribe's Kazuki Aoyama received at the hands of the despotic Tenshin Otori. However, it was the episode's shocking final scene that revolutionized Ojiro's character in a way that also provided the series' most meaningful connection with Star Wars lore yet.
What Happened in Tribe Nine Episode 9?
After Episode 8 revealed Kazuki's backstory and quest for revenge against Ojiro, Episode 9 opened with a flashback to their disturbing training. Tenshin pitted Ojiro and Kazuki against each other to see who could become "The ultimate player" and take his family name. When Ojiro beat Kazuki, Tenshin ordered him to break his arm so he could never play XB again. The fact that Ojiro followed this absurd request without objection but would later be offended at Tenshin's disrespect for the rules of the game revealed his twisted sense of right and wrong.
In the present day, news of Ota Tribe deliberately causing judge robots to malfunction inspired Tenshin to investigate their technology, telling Ojiro, "I'll do anything to win, whether it's crooked or not!" Meanwhile, Ota Tribe's Kiyoshiro Haneda prepared to kill his leader Fucho Sonoda in order to take his place. The following shot was of blood pooling on the floor, implied to be Sonoda's -- but the image panned up to reveal Tenshin's dead body at his throne instead. Ojiro stood over him with a bloody fist and simply said, "Despicable."
The thoughtful editing of the scene made Ojiro's murder of his mentor feel even more shocking. The cut to black after Haneda raised his knife initially seemed like it was intended to censor the ensuing bloodshed, but it was actually to mask the transition from one murder to another. Ojiro's disgust at Tenshin's underhandedness contrasted the cheating Ota Tribe, but the smash cut between them was a reminder that the two tribes weren't so different. The audience is used to Ota Tribe's backstabbing ways, but the same respect for order that made Ojiro so disgusted at Tenshin's words also made it surprising that he would murder his superior.
How Did This Mirror the Most Controversial Star Wars Movie?
In Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, the villainous Supreme Leader Snoke turned Kylo Ren away from the light side of the force to train him as his dark apprentice. Snoke continually undermined Ren until he realized who his "true enemy" was and killed him, succeeding him as supreme leader. Similarly, Ojiro's murder of Tenshin has altered not just the landscape of Neo-Tokyo but also the narrative structure of who the heroes' main obstacle is. Both series sacrificed powerful but straightforward villains to focus on more conflicted, morally ambiguous characters.
At the end of the episode, Kazuki revealed he did not want revenge on Ojiro but to "save him from ruin" since he "stopped smiling" because of Tenshin. This revealed two striking similarities between Ojiro and Ren's stories. Firstly, Tenshin had convinced Ojiro that he was taking him on the path to power, but the fact that he has not been happy since defeating Kazuki suggests he has sacrificed more than he will ever gain. Similarly, Kylo Ren's constant battle with the pull of the light side reinforced that he truly belonged in the world of good that he tragically took for granted. Furthermore, both Ren and Ojiro have people who want them to be redeemed: Rey and Kazuki respectively.
What Does Tribe Nine Do Differently?
The biggest difference between the two murders was the motive. Ren killed Snoke to prove he had exceeded his power and symbolically move on from "the past," and because he felt Rey could offer him more than Snoke ever could. Ojiro killed Tenshin because he was disgusted by his dishonorable obsession with victory. Essentially, Ren killed his master because his own thinking had evolved beyond Snoke's philosophy, but Ojiro killed his master because he felt Tenshin had betrayed the philosophy they had developed together.
Another potential difference concerns the possibility that Tribe Nine could pull off this twist even better than Star Wars did. Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker revealed that Snoke was merely a puppet of Emperor Palpatine, even implying that Ren's killing him was part of the Emperor's plan. Given the unexpectedness of Ren's succession and the newfound independence it gave him, this revelation could be accused of undermining his character development. Hopefully, Tribe Nine will more deeply explore the implications of the dark student becoming the master.
Fans can only theorize if Ojiro's future will take a similar trajectory to the disgraced Jedi's. Tribe Nine might not have been directly inspired by Star Wars, but these two scenes' similarities serve as a reminder that a villain's character development can be just as fascinating as a hero's.
