黄泉のツガイ

I think it is safe to think that the village was inherently sketchy, After all, the parents felt it essential to escape with Asa. And the village sent assassins after them. And it created some sort of monster to masquerade as Asa (to make sure Yuru remained compliant). The Kagemori clan seems sketchy too (was the large-scale massacre required -- were ordinary farmers implicated in the decisions of the village leaders), And now yet another group appears -- that seems even more sketchy, Lots still to find out. I can't imagine this season will be more than a prologue to the story,

" And it created some sort of monster to masquerade as Asa (to make sure Yuru remained compliant). " Isn't that a daemon to that grandma ? Would make sense to me with how it protected her when she was thrown away to a wall. " Lots still to find out. I can't imagine this season will be more than a prologue to the story," Ngl I hate and love that because this is basically like AOT and one of the few animes I had to read the manga once the S1 was over because I had to learn more about it. With how AOT took like 4 years for a S2, I'm glad I switched for that one but then the anime is kinda less surprising, obviously.

>Despite being five episodes in, I still can't figure out whose group to trust because just when I thought we'll have two opposing factions (Higashiyama folk and the Kagemoris), we're also introduced to a third one this episode. And a rather aggressive one too. Honestly, I like that because it keeps you on your toes as you are waiting for answers. For Yuru to have a debate that Higashi Village is where he grew up, but they lied about Asa as the fake kept him in the village. Kagemori holds the real Asa, who is actual family to him. On the flip side, they did attack their home.

honestly same. For now I'm trusting Yuru only. I mean, the village was sketchy af, but asa and the kagemoris were the one who killed people in the village in front of their kids, and I don't fully trust Dera, etc either. And now we have another faction, not to mention that asuma is suspicious too. > I kinda dig how sensible of an MC Yuru is and it's refreshing he handles things with some rationality. Same. I'm glad the protagonist isn't THAT stupid 😆

Honestly both groups overall feel kinda shady. I'd say Asa, Yuru, Gabby, the 3 suit guys, and the 2 acting as the guy's parent's seem like the only "trustworthy" group of people for now, they definitely give off those "main crew" vibes (tho bald guy has *slight* traitor vibes, mainly because of the lack of emotion), anyone outside of that is still very much tbd. Old guy from the Kagemori's looks like it could be a coin flip right now, he could be either ultra nice/ strong old guy type character actually trying to protect them, or old guy that looks nice but is actually the (or one of the) main antagonist/ mastermind.

Ah sorry I was talking more on a meta sense, that's why I said "trustworthy" in quotation marks, I meant that she's just likely not one of the "bad guys" of the series or is unlikely to be secretly "evil" (antagonistic), mainly because she has looks and characteristics that primary characters tend to have in this type of series aka "main crew vibes". Now if you want less meta reasons, for starter so far it seems like she and Asa are close friends so she might be less on the Kagemori's side and more on Asa's side, meaning she less likely to betray her and more likely to stick on Asa's side should the Kagemori and Asa end up at odds with each other Besides, we already know the mountain people were a weird (potentially evil) cult clan thing, who's to say who was or wasn't in on the whole thing, the old woman and fake Asa seemed all nice and innocent but they certainly weren't, and real Asa herself went in there with the intent of wiping out the whole village, so we don't yet truly know exactly how "evil" Gabby's actions really were. We *do* know that she doesn't kill kids which means at the *veeery* least she's not an evil psycho murder hobo, and going back to the meta sense, I've seen much worse be forgiven/ forgotten in various other similar type of anime, I mean even if those people were innocent, it could always be explained by saying she and Asa were tricked/ lied to by the Kagemori clan, as long as they're regretful they'll be "redeemed". Lastly, even without a "redemption", most of the characters so far seem to be morally grey at best and don't appear to mind getting blood on their hands, so as long as they can get Yuru to forgive her (or at least not want to kill her) then there should be no issue with her being a "trustworthy ally" to the main crew.

> There's something uniquely hype (and lowkey scary) about an ancient archer who's a beast with oldschool tech getting handed a modern bow. Not the exact same thing (esp between english and japanese archery methods), but this is a very fun video about a traditional english longbowman trying out a modern super compound bow for the first-ish time. The draw mechanics are quite different so he will need quite a bit of time to learn the differences but the power is certainly there esp on the lower end.

She's geeking out so hard it's as if Yuru is some A-lister celebrity she's fangirling over as opposed to a brother she hasn't seen in a long time or known anything about since their separation. Unless ofc the Kagemori's have a spy in the village who's been feeding Asa info about her bro; which isn't too farfetched when I think about it now. Yuru dotes on his sister (the fake one) himself, but I kinda appreciate how he's very much kept his guard up while trying to keep an open mind when dealing with the real Asa (keeping her at arm's length)--as someone who's basically interacting with a person they don't really know much about normally would. >Tbf, her being separated from her brother for so long is the reason her first mode is even a thing Agreed. I misread what you meant at first lol so I felt like defending/elaborating on my take. Might as well just add that Gabby may only be seeing this other side of Asa just now, and they've been shown to be as thick as thieves thus far. Even when recounting what happened to their parents, she just cannot hide her disdain for the Higashi clan, and that's the Asa Gabby knows best and is BFFs with. Shame Gabby and Yuru got off on the wrong foot, but I sure can't wait for the two of them to meet/interact again (hopefully as soon as next week's ep).

I mean, it could also be a false flag attack situation, for all we know, there could be factions within the Kagemori clan and Jin's reaction to Asuma makes me think there are. My first impression of the Higashi village side was the same as yours, they don't seem that competent, that's why currently on the matter of the disappearance of the parents and this attack, I'm leaning more towards some third party or some members of the clan going rogue.

I somewhat doubt that village was the one who sent assassins. When they were invaded, none of the villagers showed that they are capable of dealing with Daemon users or soldiers. I suspect the third party was the one who put the blame on village, one reason being to make kagemori clan get other twin back. Right now my theory is that village wanted to keep twins from outside world in order to prevent everyone from using them. Kagemori clan (who were former villagers) had different opinion about it and possibly wanted to use twins for good cause. The difference in opinion was probably being neutral versus using twins for good cause. The third party however is 100% the one who wants to use them to cause war, chaos, etc.

The villagers that were killed didn't seem like fighters, but it's possible that most of the village's more capable fighters just aren't in the village most of the time, like Dera for example. If they were mainly relying on the veil and hidden path to keep intruders away, it would make sense for most of their fighters to be on the offensive, away from the village. The assassins being either sent by a third party trying to stir conflict or them being a ruse by the Kagemori clan to trick Asa into trust the people 'protecting' her are reasonable theories, but I'm not ruling out that the village has more powerful people themselves and we just haven't seen them yet. As for your theory that the village simply wants to stop anyone from using the twins: Why make them happen in the first place, then? We know that there hasn't been a day/night twin pair for 400 years, and seemingly that hasn't caused any problems. Yet in the very first scene of the first episode, Granny was insistently telling Yuru's mom not to give birth to Asa until dawn. If she really just wanted the powers from being used, she could've just let both twins be born during the night.

What's bothering me more is Yuru not going to address real Asa fucking murdering his sister? Fake or not, he still treated her as his sister and *revered* her, did all that suddenly vanish? Why hasn't he thought about her once since the first episode? He's healthily skeptical about most things, except for the part where his most important person turned out to be a lie? That he just accepts as fact and moves on instantly? What

I'm still waiting to see if Yuru ends up forgiving and forgetting Gabby's murders, or if he takes justice into his own hands later or just lets her die in some other situation. Despite their associations, the people who were slaughtered were all people that he had grown up around. It'll definitely take a sad story to justify Gabby's actions to Yuru, but even then, it would make more sense if he decides to just avoid her rather than befriending her. I am very interested in seeing how the hunter keeps his eyes on his prey.

Yeah I don't like this part and the moment I saw OP I felt the story needed some way to bond Kagemori or at least Jin group and Yuru together but they didn't even adress the MASSACRE which they caused. Oh also Gabby made point to spare CHILDREN but killed parents. Like we had a terrified daughter see beheading of mother so like how you justify it? How you made readers say: Okay fair enough. I don' think I've received enough info from the story to answer this. Imo the Akira Ishida Kagemori is the most suspicious from the smile and voice alone.

The village kept asa in a cage and had a magic barrier that could trap people who wander into it to either join the village or be left to starve to death on the mountain to keep the village secret. When Asa got off the mountain they seem to have sent assassins after her to probably keep the power she has from anyone else. So, just because they have a day job as a farmer doesn't make them good people.

I can't believe people are making this argument sincerely lol. You can't just murder non combatants because they're aware their leadership is committing crimes. Even if you can morally justify that obvious war crime, you really can't justify smiling at a child you just beheaded the mother of like it's nothing. These people are pyschos no matter what, and I doubt the story is going to justify that behavior.

Blame the stupid daemons that attacked them while they were clearly still in the middle of sorting everything out and talking things through. While I do agree that the Higashi village massacre is a HUGE deal, Yuru is justified to have asked about the whereabouts of their parents first and foremost. And it's not like getting a good explanation as to why Asa and Gabby did what they did is gonna bring back all those lives that they took.

Idk, the Kagemori is still pretty shady, but I think it makes sense for Asa to resent the entire village. >They imprisoned her for 6 whole years since birth >They kept on sending assassins after her >She think they are responsible for her parents disappearing and possible death Like, killing all the adults is going too far, but also the adults were 100% fine with her being imprisoned, so from her POV they are complicit through their lack of action.

My current theory is that a lot of the villagers aren't actually "real" and were created by Granny to make it seem more legitimate. The fake Asa looked and acted entirely real until she was 'killed' for example. My guess is that there's the surface village with all the fake villagers and the medieval lifestyle, and then hidden below are things like the assassins and such. Even if not, the mangaka's other work also featured characters who did morally messed up things but were also people meant to be rooted for *in the moment*. Very few of her characters except the outright villains were all negative traits. Gabby could very well be a teenaged girl with a fucked up view on taking life, but also someone who fights the same threats as the good guys, it would be in line with the mangaka's style.

> him not showing up to the manor like “WHAT THE FUCK YOU KILLED MY NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS” made me lose connection with his motivations and headspace. I think the issue here is that a lot of assumptions are being made about Yuru's motivations. I have not read the manga, but I think there's a few key things to note about Yuru: 1.) The only thing that seemed to tie Yuru to the village was Asa. Everything he did was for her, and the 1st episode seemed to suggest that Yuru would have liked to leave the village to go "work" at the bottom of the mountain with their parents if he was able to also bring Asa. 2.) The only other person Yuru seemed close to was Danji, who also didn't die. 3.) When Yuru and Danji stumbled on that group of villagers who had been killed, Danji was freaking out, while Yuru was strangely calm and focused. 4.) The story seems to be putting a huge focus on Yuru being a natural "hunter", both in terms of skills and in terms of mindset. The members in the Kagemori seemed to be surprised at how willing he is to harm/kill people if he deems it necessary. 5.) Since being told about the false Asa, Yuru has now been shown to be distrustful of the village and also Dera/Hana to some degree. And now after being told that the village sent assassins after his parents, he probably is now very distrustful. I write all of this just to say that the story seems to be suggesting that A.) Yuru never really had strong ties to the village to begin with, and B.) Yuru isn't as affected by death as the normal person is. This isn't to say that he doesn't care at all. He's clearly has been shown to be angered by it to some degree. But he was still able to control his anger and think rationally, and even put some level of trust in the Kagemori despite knowing they slaughtered the village because he doesn't know who to fully trust/distrust. **This seems to be why Yuru wants to see his parents. It appears he used to be very close with them when he was a kid and still thinks of them fondly, so they are the only people he feels he would be able to trust. He likely wants to get answers from them, as he doesn't feel he will get the whole truth from the Kagemori or Tadera.**

Why do people keep assuming that Yuru is joining the Kagemori team is beyond me. He went there for the explicit purpose of interrogating Asa so he can learn the truth about his parents and the attack, but people keep acting like he just put the other team colors. It's like the idea of a character that is smart enough to listen both sides without letting his emotions dictate his actions is a foreign concept entirely.