10 Second Anime - Blade and Soul - Episode 8

Blade and Soul - Episode 8

Yuu and Aruka, two apprentice siblings finally meet. The Flower Monks discover their location. Jin Varrel versus Aruka, part 2. Yuu dies.

Heh.

You know, if I were a mortally sick dog boy, and I woke up with four beautiful women looking at me as they hovered over my bed, I would think I was actually in Heaven. Of course, Yuu just cares about the food being brought in.

If there's anyone who talks even less than Aruka in this show, it's Jin Varrel. Even the guy with damaged vocal cords talks more than she does.

Aruka is not much of a talker, this much we know, but I liked how she tried to share a moment with Yuu by eating filled buns like she did with their late master.

Again, Yuu cares too much about the food when you have someone like this sitting in your bed.

I think the master had his work cut out for him with Aruka. Usually, he had to teach students who needed to empty themselves of emotion to use their spiritual energy to expel Impurity. In Aruka's case, he needed to fill her with emotion, because it was the act or motion of emptying that made the techniques work best. The character for "sky", the title of this episode, also means "empty," which is nicely evocative for the conversation the two students have.

Eh?!

Um, if Yuu is really dead, then who's going to be doing the little omake and preview at the end of each episode?

Geh.

Aruka and Jin Varrel clash again. And again, it's near the hideout of the Pleasure Gang. And again, Hazuki is trying to poach the kill from the very people who contracted the bounty on Aruka! But there are some differences.

Aruka had someone with her who could actually help her, but with all that use of spiritual energy, Yuu knew he was going to die no matter what happened. Aruka figured out how to use her butterfly mark to nullify the Impurity attacks, but this was after Yuu was wounded again, and she was filled with anger, and then she used that emotion against the Impurity. She even got a clean hit on Jin Varrel, and we saw a clearer picture of her former self before she vanished. Tactical retreat? She even seemed happy she was wounded.

Hmm.

I still don't understand exactly how Jin Varrel's situation works. We saw previously that she had to envisage her former pure self on top of her opponents to use her Impurity attacks, but this seemed like the first time one of these images actually fought back enough to hurt her. And why is Yu Lan happy to see this pure version of Jin Varrel in real life? Lots of things are being revealed, but so far are introducing more questions as they slyly answer old ones.

I'd also like to hear Aruka talk this much in the coming episodes too, or maybe feel different emotions than the loss she feels now. The vengeance she feels for her master is just following the rules set down by her Sword Clan, but the connection she felt to Yuu might be the strongest thing she's felt so far. Well, you can't seek revenge unless you feel loss. Maybe she'll be more serious about it, instead of meandering around the land and giving us random episodes.