“Zoro’s Fury! The Truth About the Smile!”

The opening half of this episode deals a good bit with Yasuie and the sacrifice he’s trying to make and there are things that come across as reveals here, at least for the residents, since what’s said helps to confirm that Kin’emon and the rest weren’t rebels or anything but rather faithful servants that were wronged amid larger events going on. But it also comes as Yasuie, who is atop his perch going off on things with the flashbacks coming up, is about to be killed in a very different way by an oncoming horde. There are a lot of people invested in his death but the whole thing is about to become a bigger show, especially since it’s being broadcast around the area as well. That lets everyone have reaction shots, which helps to space out the episode even more.

The backstory gets fleshed out more as well, taking us back to Yasuie at his height and those that were aligned with him in seeing what the vision of the future was and how it all fell apart. Again, it’s decent and well-presented, though the binging model is what storylines like this really need because we’ve been going on with it for so long and introduced so many characters that it’s become ineffective on a weekly basis – and that’s not including taking a few months off for a pandemic. There are some nice moments in how Otoko ties into things as well which gives it all something smaller and more personal, but it is also just that, another piece on top of what feels like a thousand moving parts where you’ve lost sight of the big picture.

In Summary:

By the time Kin’emon and the others notice that Yasuie is trying to sacrifice his life to save their raid plan, it was all too late. Ebisu Town’s people laughing out loud annoys Zoro, but when Hiyori tells him the reason behind it, he is in for a shock!

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

乂⍱‿●乂