黄泉のツガイ

Okay, Ivan’s daemons abilities make sense now. One sword cuts and transfers matter while the other cuts and transfers energy. I guess Shingo’s dead. Good riddance. Sucks that the “gather information” plan failed but at least Asuma made it out alive. Ivan’s a particularly tricky bastard. At least they know more of his abilities to pin him down properly in order to beat him next time. Imma be honest, closest comparison I can make to the disgust I feel at dungbeetle girl’s work is Mahito. And she’s also a yandere. God, what a psycho. Asuma and the “Is going to stab you” face does good work. That kid was not ready for more surprises. It’s been way too long but the twins have a lot of stuff to talk about with Zashiki-Warashi.

For those who suspect so, seeing as 東村 / Higashimura means "East Village", 西ノ村 / Nishinomura is quite suggestive as "West Village". (Technically the ノ / " no" makes it "Village of the West", but it's there because Nishi-mura as a location name doesn't roll off the tongue. Too much use in modern household names for it to be special too) -- While I'm talkative on language, seeing as my previous post on Daemon namesakes proved a hit, here're some other ones I had written: Right and Left Right and Left, or 右 / migi and 左 / hidari need no explanation. Their collective title 左右様 / Sayuu-sama however very much does. The Kanji may look like it's just saying "the Great Left-Right", but 左右 / sayuu as a whole word is also often used in a lot of geometry or direction-related terms. Plus, it's sometimes used as a noun for "one's attendants" too. But most notably is that as a verb, 左右する / sayuu-suru means to "assert control, influence or domination", by man or by nature, by your or another's will. (Case in point, Yuru's line in Episode 8 about "Why do others get to dictate how we live"? "Get to dictate" here is 左右される / sayuu-sareru ) A pair of Daemons whose title can mean myriad things including "asserting control over your sides/flanks", fitting for beings meant to counterbalance Break and Seal and their myriad usages huh? Nonetheless, Sayuu-sama is understandably not an easy title to bring into English in a cool manner; just look at how Crunchyroll twisted themselves with "Left and Right" as the title while still keeping "Right" / "Left" for the individual names. Square Enix Books on the other hand decided to skip the equation altogether with "the Divine Guardians", and honestly I think that works in context of their purpose. Additionally, as others have pointed out they're also modelled after Komainu , between their twin statue relics, their lion and dog traits as humanoids, and Right's smiles/Left's frowns reflecting their A-Un / 阿吽 synchronous nature. Kotetsu and Jirou Hana's Daemons, Kotetsu / 虎鉄 the cat and Jirou / 二狼 the dog. While phonetically-speaking these are not uncommon cutesy and gruffy Japanese names for pets, ours however roughly translate to "tiger iron" and "second wolf" respectively. Their title 前虎後狼 / zenko-kourou translates to "tiger ahead, wolf behind". An expression of Chinese origins for when one calamity follows close after another, equitable to "out of the frying pan and into the fire" or "caught between a rock and a hard place". Or given the pair's tracking abilities, it may as well mean "there is no escape". White and Black Hikaru's Daemons deserve a mention: For the white, ホワイト is Katakana for the English "white", and also slang for stationery like correction fluids, white-outs, twinks, 修正液 ( shuusei-eki ) or whatever you know them by. For the black, ベタ / beta is in reference to the action of painting art, manga, etc. using a single colour. ベタ印刷 / beta-insatsu is also a term for "solid printing". Both of these are common tools of trade for manga artists, so better names for them would be "White-Out" and "Black-Ink" Seeing as their title is indeed just 黒白 / koku-byaku / "Black-White" though, oversimplification is all too easy Ai-chan and Makoto-kun I may as well spotlight Jin's Daemons while I'm at it. Ai-chan / 愛ちゃん and Makoto-kun / 誠くん mean "Love" and "Sincerity" respectively. I would say they group rather well to a man whose pure Katakana name of ジン is a homophone for 仁 meaning "Compassion", yet ironic given their Yakuza-based backdrop. Yin-Yang The new names of Asa's new Daemons, Ohagi and Daifuku are both Japanese confections. Specifically, Ohagi usually comprise of whiter rice on the inside and coated with darker red bean paste on the outside, while basic Daifuku comprise of darker read bean paste on the inside with rice cake on the outside. Blacklist The pair of Whisper and Embrace need no further explanation. While they're commonly known by the borrowed English title of "Blacklist", this title comes with the Kanji name of 閻魔帳 / Enma-chou , AKA Enma's Register. In Japanese myth, Enma the King of Hell has a Register that's effectively a Book of Life used to judge the passing dead and their deeds. (閻魔帳 is apparently also a nickname for notebooks that teachers use to record their students' grades and attendance, but not sure if this usage is still current or in-style) Akai-san and Midori-san (or Miss Red and Mister Green) The pair of fox and tanuki belonging to part-timer Makoto Tachikawa. Their title, 狐狸変化 / Kori-henge roughly translates to "Fox-Tanuki Shapeshift", an expression for monsters of that kind or for bad people who do bad deeds in secret, especially by deceiving others. Now some may notice that the fox is not red and the tanuki is not green (but their tail ribbons are), so what's with their names? That's because "Akai Kitsune" and "Midori no Tanuki" are in fact cultural references to a pair of famous instant noodles . Debates are held about which is better, and plenty of collabs exist to this day. Daikyou and Shoukyou The perv mercenary Ivan's long sword Daikyou / 大凶 and short sword Shoukyou / 小凶 . They respectively mean "Big Misfortune" and "Small Misfortune", like those on Omikuji /fortune slips from Shinto shrines Their title is just written in Katakana, マガツヒ / "Magatsuhi". While Magatsuhi no Kami / 禍津日神 is a Japanese deity of calamities, "Magatsuhi" on its own is also used in general to refer to folk spirits that bring disaster (and that villagers have to ward off). One can interpret their spatial/transfer powers as playing to their namesakes and "bestowing" curses/misfortunes unto a desired target. Oshira-sama In Japanese folklore, Oshira-sama is a guardian deity of the home, as well as the deity of silkworms, agriculture and horses. Often worshipped for treating women's sickness, protecting children, success in farming, etc. Some say they have the power to predict fires and earthquakes too. According to myth in the Tohoku Region, Oshira-sama was born from a stallion and a maiden falling in love. Angered by the affair, the maiden's father killed the stallion and stripped it of its skin. "The skin then wrapped itself around the daughter and took her up to heaven. Later, they descended from heaven, incarnated as silkworms. After this they became the guardian gods of families. (Given Arakawa-sensei's farm life upbringing, it's more reason to give her some spotlight) Her myth is included as part of the Tono Monogatari / 遠野物語, AKA "The Legends of Tono", a 1912 compilation written by folklorist Kunio Yanagita . This book was reportedly cited by Arakawa-sensei as the motif behind this series, and its influence can be seen in other featured entities like the Zashiki-warashi, the Mountain Gods, etc. In fact, it's widely regarded as the harbinger of the study of Japanese Folklore (and precursor to modern day ghost stories, urban legends, etc.)

The action at the start of the episode was well done and man did everything happen fast. For Ivan we see what happens when the daemons and their user have high capability. There is no way anyone could do what Ivan was doing. Asuma was so close to getting his revenge until Ivan took it from him. What seems like Mineyama's daemon is very creepy collecting the deadbodies and storing them. Poor Azami it's endless suffering for her.

No wonder Left felt like complete ass, she just suddenly was reduced to the strength and stamina of a human who had the shit kicked out of him by two living statues for an hour. Even moving her heavy stone limbs must feel impossible. Meanwhile Ivan's body was pumped full of the pure concentrated power of a deity that's used to moving around with a metric ton of weight on her shoulders. His body would feel like it weighed a feather by comparison.

A lot of people are complaining he's too powerful but honestly, it kinda rules. It legitimately felt like the the main cast fighting him were in real danger of straight up getting killed if they slipped up, especially since the show seems to have no qualms about outright killing characters. It's been nice that its felt like there have been real stakes, esp. compared to the route shows like Reincarnated As A Slime have chosen to go with this season.

For sure, Ivan's presence just like his Kimblee model just oozes danger. Right and Left holding him off makes him feel neutered, but as soon as you put him next to any team less defended or responsive and he's like an instant death button. Just like how in this episode when he teleported into the office. When I first got to this scene, I was afraid for Asuma's life. Can you imagine how it was for us cliffhanging on that for a whole month!?

I appreciate that he's powerful as hell, but it's not like he came out of that encounter unscathed. He has a nasty hole in his leg that will take time to heal, plus he had to pull out his trump card that he said will leave him incapacitated for days, and even then he ran away rather than keep fighting. It feels pretty even at the end, honestly. I don't know what people who say he's "too powerful" are talking about, especially with the reveal that he's actually working for the real masterminds behind Shingo.