So, we get an episode focused on our Monk and Doctor this time, allowing them to provide a fairly interesting contrast, all while progressing the main plot.
After the battle with Ichibanboshi’s brother ends expectedly abortive, the theme of the contrast is a rather friendly debate between Sogen and Suzuran about the nature of life, death, and souls. This is provoked by catching up with the man who was wounded by one of the evil swords in Episode 1 as, despite having been properly tended for that injury, he’s dying for an unknown reason. At the funeral we learn that Suzuran, while playing Buddhist monk (and womanizer) is actually a Christian priest, hence why he ended up slated for execution.
While the two seem to have incompatible views in the first conversation, the sword fragment worked into Suzuran’s staff leads them to a particular site, which they come to suspect to be a lair of the masked demons. A later conversation sees Sogen change his tune somewhat, admitting that while he can’t see souls, there might be evidence for their existence, and that such a thing would be a massive source of power. This causes the two to suspect that’s what the Masked Demons are after, harvesting souls to use as fuel
Meanwhile, Ichibanboshi is not doing so well, as might be expected when confronted with the fact that his brother is a villain now and evidently killed their mother. He trains his strikes until his hands bleed, and gets barred from field work on account of his state. This extends to the end of the episode when, having enough evidence to consider the place a likely hideout of the Masked Demons, the Shinsengumi prepare to raid it, and Ichibanboshi is ordered to remain behind.
At the same time, we see Ichibanboshi’s brother meet with the original Masked Demons leader who recruited him in a creepy room with a weird giant machine (presumably some sort of soul reactor), indicating that (to use Star Wars as a metaphor) there is an Emperor to the brother’s Vader act.
All in all, there’s been a somewhat surprising amount of space for character in this show. It’s probably better for it, though it’s still not doing anything particularly remarkable: it’s just a basic fun show going through basic but entirely serviceable plot beats. I don’t really blame anyone who dropped this, but I’m fine keeping on.