黄泉のツガイ

I hate being treated like an idiot though. Like with the recap bullshit as if I can't remember what happened one episode ago. That and the idea that I'd watch 19 out of 24 episodes of a show and still need a cliffhanger to be invested at that point or I might just randomly drop. Or if I did hate it so much that I was about to drop it that a cliffhanger would be enough to pull me back in. Honestly most of the time I drop shows it's because they perpetually end in cliffhangers and every week it feels like I'm watching the last 10% of the previous episode and the next 90% of the new one which is immensely unsatisfying.

Nasty cliffhanger to end the episode on, and clearly intentional too, with 2 minutes of recap footage used to start the ep If he thought he was just hallucinating before, that poor security guard is definitely going to need a paid leave now to pay for his psychiatric treatment lol The dere twins strike again. Man, Asa honestly scares me more than that chick from Obsession. So unhinged when it comes to her brother--breaking stuff, kidnapping and threatening kids, breaking more stuff, and having to be physically dragged away from Yuru LMAO Thoroughly impressed with Ivan holding out one against four for so long. I love how much he weaponizes his words that even the usually calm and collected Yuru couldn't help but fall for his bs. Great to see tho that it was Asa's words that helped him calm down when he was basically having a mental breakdown on whom to trust just a few episodes back

Asa's Yuru radar is so strong, she was able to hear his voice coming from outside with the windows closed lol. I do like that she told fake Asa to not lie to Yuru, and to tell him the whole truth. She knows taking her out would be worse for Yuru, and if she is fake, Yuru has a bond with her.  I do like tsundere Yuru with Danji, it was really sweet to see him showing he cares even if it meant missing out on information about his parents. And I really like Danji went off on him for not prioritizing the information, I really hope after fake Asa talks it out with Yuru, we'll see them being the childhood friends that they should have been.  I really like how Yuru took the spot that Ivan wouldn't be able to see him from, seeing Ivan in such a disadvantage with arrows and then Left and Right attacking him at the same time was exciting to see.  I'm glad Yuru was able to suppress his rage because I was really worried he'd lose it from Ivan's provocations, it's interesting that Asa's words are what calmed him down. I feel like that fact alone might change how he sees her. I am concerned about Left, I hope there's no harmful side effects from whatever Ivan did to her.

From what we've seen of Break being ableto break everything - ohysical objects, daemon contracts, barriers etc., I'd imagine Seal can seal pretty much everything. We know it can seal daemons. It can probably seal physical objects away in some way, and perhaps it can seal contracts that become unbreakable? An interesting question just popped into my mind. What happens when Break and Seal collide? Do they just refuse to attack each other? They're the only daemon pair we know of that doesn't contract a single master, so what if the masters are in opposition? Can Seal seal Break, or can Break break Seal? Lol

How the show has handled the imitation Asa has been one of my favorite things these past few episodes. It started off with some people complaining that Asa was reduced to a caricature of herself, then we get the reveal that it was a literal caricature of Asa, only for the show to then lampshade it by commenting that the caricature isn’t that far off from how she actually is, which is the entire reason the twist works on the viewers in the first place. The imitation’s behavior is completely believable for me.

You really can't blame Fake Asa for her reaction to the real Asa considering what they did to the Village. She has no reason to believe Asa won't hurt Azami. As for the rest of the episode, all I can say is fuck that cliffhanger! Not gonna lie, that fight against Ivan was annoying. Dera should've shot him when he had the chance. Like, I know Dera made it clear that Ivan might die if he shoots, but it's either that or Ivan escapes which I assume is what's gonna happen next episode. >_

I think its primarily because left and right werent trying to kill him to get info out of him. Once the others showed up he was clearly being dogpiled on and started losing. Hence why he tried to goad Yuru. On top of that I can buy him fighting back so well cause hes used to it. Left and right have really only started moving again after 100s of years as stone. Plus left and right likely aren't used to anything being able to cut them due to them being stone. I get where you're coming from. But I feel theres enough in Ivan's corner that him being this good doesnt feel too out of place imo.

Except he didn't start to lose that's my main problem with this fight dude get an arrow one to the leg yet the end of the episode is him out speeding the creatures made of stone and lighting and the God View Archer and the God view Sniper. We know he does because the preview for the next episode show him in the woods meaning he gets away from the warehouse district he's in. This one character kind of killed this arc for me to be honestly he's that one character in a story that even though other have power or are strong feels like he's from a different plane of existence.

Keep in mind that it's not just Ivan. In an earlier scene we saw one of his swords stab him in the leg against his will, so they're capable of contributing to the fight. They could be tweaking the arcs and angles of his swings to make him inhumanly consistent, they could be adding force to his swings to make him inhumanly fast, they could be altering the momentum of his swings in ways impossible for a regular swordsman, etc.

It's kinda sad that Fake Asa have put up the act for so long that she seems to genuinely consider Yuru as her brother, judging from the way she calls him. It looks like Asa's Ani-sama sensor is as sharp as ever. At this rate, they don't need the complicated tracking that the Kagemoris usually employ. Asa is good enough for the job😆. Yuru and Danji's little fight was so heartwarming to see. Their friendship went through the gutter, but a bond forged for so many years is a tough one to break. It may take a while but it seems reconciliation is up in the air for the both of them. God, Yuru shooting in front of the full moon not only makes for a sick visual but is also proven to be practical since it messes with Pervman's vision. Yuru once again shows us his great battle IQ. The cliffhanger was criminal😭 but the scene of Yuru's temper going dangerously high only for him to regain control upon Asa's words...it looks like he's come for care for her more than he admits.

she seems to genuinely consider Yuru as her brother, judging from the way she calls him. This is what im most excited to learn about right now. There are clearly circumstances that we dont know about. Cause Danji and (fake) Asa clearly care about Yuru. (Real) Asa also likely saw that as well. Hence why she told fake Asa not to lie to Yuru anymore. I really want to know more about the village and how things ended up this way. Also why Danji and Asa lied for so long. Also more about Danji's "mom" cause she was mentioned a bit back as pivotal in all this.

They were really hanging the lampshade, too. Last episode, people were complaining about anyone who pointed out how overdone and one-note Asa was... "How dare fans think about the show, and question it! Just shut your brain off and blindly trust in the FMA author!" And then this episode lampshades that with an in-universe character claiming they couldn't tell the difference between the supposedly flanderized Asa and OG Asa. Is the 'joke' still funny if it's true? Is the author excused from overdoing the bro-con bit if they make fun of themselves for it?

For my part, 'twas not blind trust but educated guess. Arakawa-sensei has shown before with FMA that she plans thoroughly ahead and is calculative about which characters should be present in what place for the greatest fireworks, and with Silver Spoon she's shown she can write plenty of grounded family drama with normal relationships too, siblings or otherwise. Would someone as foresighted as she is, who knows what hits for the audience, who isn't in desperate need for popularity and sales after 4 other successful series (that all got adaptations no less), who now has to be more efficient because of TWO ongoing serialisations and tending to her family, really go for something as lame as bro-con behaviour for no good reason? For cheap appeal? Given the overall results, I say it was calculated: the early stage heavier dosage of this behaviour is to box-in first timer expectations surrounding Asa's character, only to culminate in the switcharoo and then steadily subvert it, tone it down and reveal more layers to her. In fact, the whole early stage has always made me think that Arakawa studied the current mindscape of the modern audience, what tropes archetypes and stereotypes tends to run in their heads now, then play to those expectations at the surface level before revealing what the real essence underneath she wants to go for actually is.