Some quick, loose thoughts on the episode.

— Yuru believes he was attacked by a bandit when he was just a kid. It was definitely not a bandit. HIs father tells him not to tell the village about what happened that day, so that pretty much confirms it: this had to have been someone who knew about Yuru’s potential, and did not want the kid to grow into it.

— Seeing his father try to comfort him, then later seeing him tell his wife what had happened, I can’t even imagine the twins’ parents having to later make the decision to take only one of their children with them. Maybe it was a necessity, but even so… they did so knowing the risk that Yuru might grow up to resent them for abandoning him. You gotta make hard decisions in life, but I don’t know if I could live with that.

— Oh, even before his parents left, Asa was stuck behind bars everyday. I guess she held onto this early memories of her brother, and it developed into her current… well, rather worshipful demeanor towards him. I guess when you haven’t seen a loved one in a long time, you might build them up in your mind. Kinda like mythologizing them.

— Back in the present, Asa reveals how she was captured and killed, thereby triggering the awakening of her Break ability. The pathway constructed from (presumably) human skulls is a bit on the nose, though — as is the giant skull in the distance. Death, deeeeeath, deeeeeeeeeeeeeath! I like how Googling Yomotsu Hirasaka brings up the final dungeon to Persona 4 (which didn’t have skulls).

— The strange, masked (I think?) Daemon informed Asa that she could only come here after dying. So yes, the village sent an assassin to kill her, but did they do it to get rid of her? Or were they trying to awaken her powers? And are we even sure it was an assassin from the village? ‘Cause if this is how you awaken, then even your allies would want to “kill” you.

— Hm, the Daemon told Asa she could end wars with her powers, but I don’t think they’ve caught up on how military combat has dramatically changed. If she poses enough of a threat, her enemies could just carpet-bomb her position into oblivion.

— The Daemon demanded that Asa choose between life or death. What if she had chosen to chill here, though? Like just kick her feet up and start hanging out with her new buddy. What does her new buddy do everyday anyway? Are there even days in Yomotsu Hirasaka? Do you even need to eat here? Bathe? Sleep?

— Back in the mortal plane, the assassins were freaking out over Asa not coming back to life. Oh yeah, they definitely weren’t killing her to kill her. By the way, did they really have to stab her in the neck? Sheesh, you can kill people without making a bloody mess, y’know. Not that I have firsthand experience, of course.

— Oh, they’re definitely from the village. Eh, I was kinda hoping that maybe one of Asa’s allies would reveal themselves to be untrustworthy. Also, did the “bandit” at the start of the episode not know that the twins could come back to life? I mean, sure, there’s always a chance that the twin could’ve chosen death…

— Actually, now that we know just how powerful Break is supposed to be — again, it can supposedly end wars even if I find that claim dubious — I don’t understand what the assassins were hoping to accomplish. Okay, let’s awaken this girl’s super-mega-duper strong powers and then… pray that she won’t punish us for stabbing her in the neck? Like c’mon, this is stupid, right? What did they think she was gonna do when she came back to life? Have a pow-wow with them? Sure enough, Asa murdered her captors. Well, they started it.

— So what happened to Asa’s mortal wound? Did the gaping hole in her neck just seal itself back up when she chose life? Did her body magically replenish all of her loss blood? Yeah, yeah, I know it’s a fictional show about magical demons, so you can always hand-wave minor things away without affecting the rest of the plot. Still, I would appreciate a greater attention to detail. That would greatly differentiate this show from other bog standard action series… which is what this show currently is at the moment. It’s just okay. It’s nothing special so far.

— Well…? What’s Yuru’s reaction to what Asa just told him? I can’t believe the anime is holding out on us. He finally learns something that harrowing about his dear sister, and we don’t get to see what happened next? That’s a letdown. Eh, maybe Dera’s arrival interrupted Yuru’s thoughts… but even if that’s the case, it’s still a letdown.

— Wait, what’s going on here? I don’t remember this. Were these Daemons that had attacked Gabby in last week’s episode?

— They make this guy seem so shady, I almost wanna say it’s a fake-out.

— The head of the clan seems amiable enough. Not towards Dera, though. As an aside, I never like it when shows turn someone’s “killing intent” into something almost tangible that anyone within a five mile radius can feel. This sort of thing always strikes me as incredibly corny. Just like when someone can look at another person and spot that they’ve had intense combat training: “I’ve been observing them closely, but I can’t find a single opening! They must be a true warrior!” This never fails to make my eyes roll.

— Everyone mentions ominously how there’s no guarantee that a twin would come back to life after being killed. This seems to really freak Yuru out for some reason. But again, back in Yomotsu Hirasaka, Asa was given a choice between life or death. Maybe the twin that stayed dead just didn’t want to embroil themselves in the inevitable power struggle.

— The old man invites Yuru and Dera to have breakfast with them, which means that the initial portion of next week’s episode is gonna have even more yapping. Bro, I feel like we just yapped all episode. Also, I would not want to break bread with the Gabby kid. Unless she somehow knew that every single villager she killed was an evil murderer, nothing can possibly justify what she did back in the first episode.