History Manga / UshioAndTora

* BladeOnAStick: The Beast Spear, which goes through steel and youkai like a hot knife through warm butter, but doesn't harm humans. Ushio uses it more like a [[CarryABigStick staff]] whenever Tora gets uppity.

** Ushio carries the IllGirl Saya on his back after he finds her passing out on the street.

* BackForTheFinale: Just about every single character and even enemies the heroes meet shows up to do their part in the finale. Justified by the fact that one of the key roles of the protagonists is to rally disparate individuals and groups to work together. Gets turned UpToEleven when [[spoiler:Saya opens up the Gates of Hell so that ''every dead character who met or was avenged by Ushio'' can join the fight]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ushio_tora.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ushio_and_tora.jpg]]

* BaldOfAwesome: The battle-ready monks mostly have clean-shaven heads.

''Ushio and Tora'' / ''うしおととら'' is a manga by Creator/KazuhiroFujita, famous for its portrayal of classic Japanese monsters in a modern setting such as the Kamaitachi and Kappa (as well as having the heroes kick monster butt) and the interplay between the two leads, Ushio & Tora stretched 33 volumes of manga and was adapted to a short 10-episode OVA. Ushio and friends appear in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover game, ''VideoGame/SundayVSMagazineShuuketsuChoujouDaikessen''.

* NotSoDifferent:

* OverprotectiveDad: Reiko's father, who was driven mad due to his wife leaving him for one of his students. Shortly after he dies, his spirit turns into a demon which haunts her and prevents any boy from getting too close to her. At least until Ushio and Tora put a stop to it.

* OutsideContextProblem: The youkai in Japan didn't anticipate three things. [[spoiler:Hakumen no Mono is a powerful being who annihilated them rather easily, it was a surprise because Hakumen disguised itself as a female who arrived from China. And then the Beast Spear arrived in Japan, indiscriminately slaughtering youkai along the way. Then as Hyou explains, no youkai nor exorcist in Japan anticipated the asafuze, a never-before-seen species of monsters that came from somewhere else. Flashbacks larer reveal that Hakumen was born from Shagakusha, an Indian man. By a twist of fate, Shagakusha was the first wielder of the Beast Spear, who tossed the weapon overseas into Japan when he's about to die in China. Unknowingly, he also transformed into the first Asafuze and leaped to Japan to seek Hakumen.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: Hyou lost his wife and five year old girl to a monster some 15 years before the story started. During that time, he became a BadassPreacher to hunt that creature down and destroy it. As a result of this FreudianExcuse, if he sees that a child was killed, hurt, or even simply threatened enough that they scream in fear, he doesn't hesitate to kill whoever's responsible for doing that to the kid, whether their monster or even human.
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Kirio's "mother" attempts this when she was about to be killed by Tora and Ushio. She promises not to hurt anyone again if he saves her. In a moment of TooDumbToLive, she then immediately starts attacking Ushio and the priests again the moment she's able to. When Kirio finally realizes his "mother" is a lying bastard, he ends up killing her himself.

* VillainousRescue: Tora does this, and invokes the trope ''a lot''.
** Tora does this in episode 3 after Ushio is swallowed into the painting by the demon living in it. He claims he's only doing it so he can eat Ushio later.
** Tora unintentionally rescues Mayuko from some demonic heads that were trying to eat her in episode 4. He then defeats most of them on his own because he was mad they tried to eat her before he could, and later because they thought they stood a chance against him.
** Tora does this again in episode 9 to prevent Juurou from finishing off Ushio. When he's questioned later about why he cares what happens to Ushio, Tora merely claims Ushio would taste better alive after Juurou disables him.
** In fact, he does it so much [[SubvertedTrope it isn't so much villainous]] as much as him being VitriolicBestBuds with Ushio and a {{Tsundere}} about it.

* WeaponWieldsYou: The Beast Spear is a sentient weapon that can move on its own, which explains why Ushio, an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent, instantly gains the necessary prowess to fight monsters whenever he wields it, and why he's just a normal human when he lets go of it. This is best exemplified when the spear automatically [[spoiler:stabs Juurou when Ushio let his guard down trying to persuade Juurou by talking]].

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Even after Ushio offers him a second chance, Juurou attacks him anyway, and lets the Beast Spear kill him when it automatically moves to protect Ushio. He tells Ushio this is for the best and he can die satisfied since he only wanted a human to understand his pain and apologize.]]

** Done again in episode 5 against a multi-knife attack, this time with Ushio intercepting the attack for a nearly beaten Tora against Hyou.

** Izuna attempts this in episode 16 against the MonsterOfTheWeek, but it's subverted when Ushio manages to save her anyway. [[spoiler:Unfortunately he was using the spear's powers even more, and after they leave Satoru's body, the Beast Spear starts taking over Ushio's body and transforming it.]]

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Hamburgers as a substitute for human flesh for Tora.
* TraumaticHaircut: When Ushio is [[spoiler:completely possessed by the spear,]] the only way to get him back to normal is for the girls he's saved to comb his long hair, yanking huge strands of it every time.

* TuckAndCover: Tora does this for Omamori.