Synopsis:
Yonosuke Hikura is now 16, and he has just been given the responsibility that's been passed down through his family -- to fight demons that threaten Heaven's World, where humans reside. Also handed down to Yonosuke is an enchanted sword called Chitentai, which is to be his weapon against the demons. Helping Yonosuke is a spirit named Tsukinojo Inbe ("Tsuki" for short), who is a representative from the Earth World. Tsuki detects the demons, and Yonosuke banishes them. But one fateful day, Yonosuke loses the Chitentai... and Tsuki's jealous brother Yukinojo sees it as the perfect opportunity to make it his. To make things worse, demons have suddenly appeared. Yonosuke must find Chitentai before it's too late...

Review:
Fight! Spirit of the Sword is another classic case of animating a small portion of an extensive manga series (think "X the Movie" and "RG Veda"), and subsequently ending up with a half-baked piece of work.

Fight! introduces us to Yonosuke Hikura, a typical teenage boy with a not-so-typical family heritage. He's come of age, and now he's a full-fledged demon fighter (like another 16-year old whom we know as "Devil Hunter Yohko"). But Yonosuke is not alone. By his side an Earth World spirit whom he affectionately refers to as Tsuki. Now make no mistake that Tsuki is a man -- even though he looks like a cute girl and even though his seiyuu happens to be superstar Megumi Hayashibara (also Rei Ayanami in "Neon Genesis Evangelion"). Tsuki, meanwhile, has an equally pretty younger brother named Yukinojo. Yukinojo is disguised as a schoolgirl named Rikako in Heaven's World, and very convincingly at that -- he even had me fooled.

It took me two viewing sessions to completely grasp the story that this anime is trying to tell. Events are narrated in a rather confusing manner which consists of a mixture of flashbacks and present-day sequences. The androgynous character designs don't help things much either. Some male characters look female (they have female seiyuus to boot), and I was actually stumped whenever Yukinojo would refer to his "brother" because I originally thought Tsuki was a girl. Hell, I thought Yukinojo himself was female... and I also had the impression that Yonosuke and Tsuki were some sort of couple at first.

The art and animation are quite good. The characters look pretty, but as I've said it's hard to determine just who is what gender -- and my mistaking Tsukinojo and Yukinojo for girls made some of the dialogues just plain incomprehensible the first time I watched. To put it simply, Fight! is one day in the life of Yonosuke Hikura. Its open-ended conclusion leaves room for more, but it also left me wondering why they bothered to release it in all its incompletion. Although it's not really bad, it's far from satisfying.

Miscellanies:
Fight! includes an interview with the seiyuus as an additional feature, and watching it is what clued me in to who was really what. Yukinojo is on the second screenshot below, and Tsukinojo is on the third.

Screenshots:

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Fight! Spirit of the Sword (DVD)

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