I’ll say up front that was probably my least favorite episode of Yomi no Tsugai. That’s admittedly a pretty high bar but every series is graded on its own curve, in a sense. It was wall to wall fighting for starters, which isn’t as interesting as the more varied palette the series usually paints with. It also featured a ton of Gabu who is, by a safe margin, the worst character in the cast and one of the worst Arakawa has ever come up with.
That’s not to say it didn’t have ample redeeming qualities. It filled in some gaps in our knowledge, though it relied on narration for some of that which is the first time the series has done that I think. Shingo has a bounty list, and Gonzou’s tsugai are prominently featured on it – unsurprisingly. As it turns out (via narration – a little clumsy) Gonzou’s main daemons are Hyakki-Yakou. They have the ability to ensure compatibility between other pairs of daemons. That may sound kind of underwhelming but in fact, it allows the clan head to overcome the main obstacle to contracting with multiple pairs – thus explaining his own Hyakki-Yakou. I called it that last week without realizing I was being so literal.
Meanwhile Akio has in fact fallen into a trap set by Jin, who’s known for a while he was a traitor. “Asa” wasn’t even Asa – it was Tachikawa’s fox daemon in disguise. Jin has prepared a ton of firepower to subdue Akio, out of respect for his own tsugai Yama-no-Kami (Mountain God). That includes Gabu of course, who truly is a bloodthirsty sociopath. I get that her daemons are powerful but it’s hard to believe an organization as meticulous as the Kagemori would rely on her given that she’s a total loose cannon. She thinks nothing of disregarding Jin’s orders not to kill Akio or Mountain God, and would have done so had she not been stopped.
The pertinent question here, it seems to me, is who Akio is working with. It’s not Higashi Village, who he disdainfully accuses Jin of being in league with (and sharing the details of the warehouse event). It could be the Shingou faction I suppose, though I don’t think they would want Asa dead for obvious reasons. Finding the answer is probably one reason Jin is so intent on capturing him alive, which he’s finally able to do using Tachikawa’s tanuki daemon (“the worst fate possible” indeed). Tachikawa-san has turned out to be a lot more important than it first appeared. Hikaru is going to be pretty pissed when he sees the state of his studio – are we finally about to see his dark side?
Resourceful Yuru has managed to get the jump on Shingou, thanks to a weapon hidden up his trouser leg. Interestingly when he tells Asama not to move or he’ll kill Shingou, Asama mutters “I wouldn’t mind if you did”. Yuru grabs Shingou’s phone (he was on a call) and his so-far only demand is the release of the child hostages. But Shingou manages to summon his own tsugai, and they’re none other than Raijin and Fujin, Shinto’s legendary thunder and wind Gods, and they turn the tables on the daemon-less Yuru. This week was a veritable “best of the youkai encyclopedia” – we also met a pair of Namahage (owned by Natsuki) who keep asking where the naughty children are.
The next big event, seemingly, is the intersection of Gonzou and Shingou. I can only assume Gonzou has come to the warehouse district to deal with Shingou head-on, and that would seem potentially very uncomfortable for Asama. But he seems like the sort of guy who always has a couple of self-preservation bailouts in any scenario. Clearly Shingou is strong or he wouldn’t be where he is, but it’s curious that Gonzou – who’s being presented as if he’s the biggest dog in the pack – would have let him carry on with his rebellious agenda for so long.
