FallLover

Long-Arm and Long-Leg creep me out extra in the anime (as a lot of folks have also commented) so I'll focus on other things, but I continue to be intrigued by this perhaps unintentional habit of giving Left more of potentially Right's lines?

This sort of happened in Episode 3, though the manga makes it a bit more ambiguous about who's talking (while it's implied, at least in English, that it's Right). Here, it's very obvious that Right is the one talking (in the manga). You could argue the hair is colored in because we're looking at the person talking from the back, but that right arm (and part of his shirt) is very obviously Right's. I'm not upset about the change, I just find the change interesting. It means they share more dialogue, I guess, though I haven't done any checks to see if one of them talks more than the other one.

But speaking again about this, folks have suggested the Seal user who helped seal Long-Arm and Long-Leg is the current holder of Seal, but we don't know what they look like. The idea being a past user of Seal is still alive, hence why future Seal users die and stay dead trying to obtain the power (e.g., Yataro). The manga and anime only show the monk. Perhaps the Seal user dressed as a monk and that's actually the Seal user, who knows? I do appreciate that Left and Right leave it unclear if the monk is still alive or not. As they note elsewhere in re: Yamaha's age, they don't really understand human lifespans, so it's quite possible the monk died at some point and either they didn't know about it or haven't thought too hard about the age issue. It's also possible that, given we know Minase can Seal ages, the Seal user of the past sealed the monk's lifespan. Also possible the monk and Seal user are still hanging out for some reason. Lovers? Family? Platonic companions? Remains to be seen O.o Regardless, the monk is a possible future contact with information on the only known past Seal user (given Yataro never obtained Seal, and Minase "suddenly gained a portion of Seal's power" - Volume 10, Chapter 39: Ambition and Impatience). Or maybe the monk trained someone who trained someone else etc., or left records about it. I imagine an arc where Yuru, rather than deciding to die to obtain Seal (if he thinks it's a possibility) tries to trace down previous records of Seal users. Maybe he thinks something is off about Yataro's death besides the Everything Else about that situation.

It's the way Dera pays attention to Yuru here that gets me. He cares about his foster son/charge.

The fight's good as usual because it's, you know, Studio Bones. Seriously, if you haven't watched Sword of the Stranger, you are doing yourself a disservice.

And we finally get to see Yozakura! (And Asagiri's eyes alkjdlaj)

I wonder if Asuma got his ears pierced to take after Gonzo, or if Gonzo took him. Gonzo has his ears pierced when he first meets Iori, so it wasn't him and Asuma getting them pierced together, though maybe Gonzo took him for it. That'd be cute. I don't think it's mentioned in the manga but at this point I don't remember.

I'm sure this came up in Silver Spoon in some form, given the subject matter, but I didn't get far in that. So -insert Izumi Curtis laughing-

I want to know more about Dera's life as a mercenary O.o Probably means not good things, considering what mercenaries usually do, but it is curious, given what we see of him in YNT. I want to know what his daemons were like, what his mother was like... Yes, I want Gabby's story, but we still have basically just tidbits about Dera!!! What was Roei like when Dera was little!!!

Imagining poor Ken terrified while Yuru and the daemons run all over the Lost House.

Arakawa's art is wonderful as usual, but I like how the anime emphasizes what's happening here. Yuru is definitely losing that eye if he ever gets Seal.

I also still love Yuru's trick here. He's so smart. Terrifyingly so.

And the tragedy of the villains dying strikes again. Arakawa always so painful with that angst.

Overall it was another decent episode. And next ep is Ken at last :3 He's in so much of the preview, best boy :3

Other thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episodes 8-9, Episode 10 (you are here)

An Ivan/Asuma fanfic

Read the manga by Hiromu Arakawa as tankobon, individual chapters are on Manga Up

Website for the series