Yomi no Tsugai Episode 9 "Embrace and Whisper" - Japanese Fans React to the Eerie Tenaga-Ashinaga Battle and Kagemori's Dark Turn
Overview
Yomi no Tsugai Episode 9, 'Embrace and Whisper,' delivered what Japanese viewers are calling the highlight of the entire first cour: the eerie Tenaga-Ashinaga tsugai battle inside the Mayoiga, animated with a creepiness that several fans warned is 'not something to watch late at night.' The episode also pulled back the curtain on the Kagemori clan β the seemingly kind old patriarch is revealed to have a pitch-black side, treating people as disposable 'stock' and using medical bills to keep them on a leash. And after weeks of silent tsugai, fans finally got Whisper, the first tsugai that actually speaks (voiced by Ayumu Murase).
This article translates reactions from the active 5ch anime-board threads right after broadcast. Beyond the action and the darker plot turn, the comments swing between Yul's startlingly Sengoku-era attitude toward killing his attackers, the cozy slice-of-life comedy of a Joyful Honda home-center run (complete with a search for fundoshi as bow material), a debate over whether Gabu-chan is a girl or a boy, and the franchise's pacing as a 'slow burn' that rewards manga readers later.
Background: An Arakawa Hiromu work, so the FMA jokes never stop
Yomi no Tsugai is the current serialized work of Hiromu Arakawa, the author of Fullmetal Alchemist β and Japanese fans never let that fact rest. Running through the thread is a stream of FMA comparisons: a protagonist likened to Alphonse, an enemy who 'looks exactly like Edward,' side characters slotted into Mustang and Hughes, and praise for the sharp, deadpan comedy ('that's Arakawa for you') that defined her earlier hit. The folklore-horror designs, like the Tenaga-Ashinaga yokai drawn from real Japanese regional legends, sit alongside this comedic sensibility, giving the show the tonal whiplash longtime Arakawa readers expect.
Japanese Fan Reactions (31)
And there it is β the Tenaga-Ashinaga fight, the highlight of this first cour. It's set inside the Mayoiga, so they get to cut loose with the spectacle, and the flashiness really works.
The color, shape, movement and creepy voice they gave the Tenaga-Ashinaga in animated form β yeah, probably not something you want to watch late at night.
The Tenaga-Ashinaga shows up in a surprising number of works, and no matter where it appears it's always properly unsettling β this time was genuinely scary too. Though it does make me wonder: if someone like Dera keeps bringing goods up from the outside world, you'd think they could get modern clothes too. Is there some rule against bringing modern stuff into the village?
I got hooked and read ahead in the manga β turns out this is a slow-burn type of work. Lately it's like My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, where all the good stuff is packed into the back half. It's a good series, so it's a shame it feels this slow in the anime.
The whole 'King Enma's ledger' aesthetic made me think the author must love Hunter x Hunter. It's basically a shady black-market gig.
Is Gabu-chan actually a girl? I keep thinking she might be a boy β the eyes aren't drawn cute at all, more of an Edward Elric vibe.
Them covering the medical bills for your sick mother basically means you've been taken hostage, doesn't it?
So Tenaga-Ashinaga wasn't Murase-san after all! Murase Ayumu voices Whisper instead β we finally got a tsugai that actually speaks. That's all from the field!
There's a chance it already spoke during Ai-chan's anti-stalker scene β that 'this is my territory' line sounded like Murase's voice to me.
I thought the Kagemori old man was a good guy, but he's pitch black. This might be heading toward a 'both the village AND Kagemori are evil' twist β and then Yul, the SaΓΌ-sama pair and the gang become a third faction that takes them both down.
Kagemori already has more status and money than he could ever need, so as long as nothing overturns that, the status quo is what's best for him. He doesn't really seem to be acting out of good or evil.
The old man talks about people as disposable stock, but the fact that he's putting on this deliberately villainous act right now makes me think he's secretly a tsundere who'll end up looking after them anyway.
The scary part is that several assassins came after Yul too, and he didn't just fend them off β he killed every one of them. The value of a human life here is at Sengoku-era levels.
From Yul's perspective at the time, he probably also figured that if he let a bandit escape, the village would get attacked.
Yul had been killing bandits the whole time he lived in the village, so why didn't he kill Gabu, who slaughtered the villagers?
Leaving alive someone who came to kill you is an incredibly advanced skill. Obviously anyone coming to kill you is unhinged, but just subduing a crazed attacker and then leaving them free is impossible β even jailing them risks the pursuers smashing the cell and coming back in double the numbers. In a village with no police, constitution or laws, you have no choice.
Dera getting wiped not by cropping but by 'Magic Eraser' lol β they didn't even leave the un-edited original recoverable from the trash. Gotta love the brother complex.
Cheers for the new thread~ Asa wanting the surveillance-camera shot of her dear brother with that dignified expression was great.
I bet Asa is the type to get on her knees and beg the manga artist, 'forget the assistant pay, just make me a life-size figure of my brother.'
Searching a home center for fundoshi as bow material was hilarious.
Yul is a fundoshi guy. The home center didn't stock fundoshi. And right on cue, an enemy wearing a fundoshi appears. He's got past experience getting stripped by bandits. The conclusion this leads to is...
Joyful Honda showed up lol β wonder if they'll do a Tsugai collab. This episode's shopping scene, the personal-info-reading bit, the whole cozy slice-of-life part was really nice.
In the manga it was a Vivahome in Saitama β wonder why they changed it.
Nobody seems to be talking about this show at all β is it just not good? But you're still watching? Are you an author die-hard?
I watch it because the comedy has a real edge. The line that got me the hardest so far: 'I'm the person who takes responsibility when YOU screw up!' (half-snapping). That's Arakawa for you.
It's in the upper ranks of various weekly rankings every week β so by what measure is it 'not being talked about'?
The scary thing about the blacklist is that even if you have someone sign a contract with some random tsugai, they can still pull the human's information.
The 7-app itself had no opening to withdraw money, but the moment they added the 7-Pay feature people got robbed left and right β it's that kind of story.
In the OP, during the big cast gathering that turns into a big tsugai gathering, I can't find White and Beta β are they hidden somewhere?
I figured there's no way they're absent when even Essa-hoisa and the Gentleman are in there, so I scoured every corner β but I couldn't find them either.
The protagonist is basically Al, there's an enemy who looks exactly like Ed, the guys are Mustang and Hughes... is this just Fullmetal Alchemist's isekai spin-off?
Source:β