You know, I was harsh on this battle a few chapters ago, but this chapter really brings it together, it actually gives the fight a good hook.

Buddha fought on the human side, though, I was counting against the gods' fighters. I'd also kind of argue that he wouldn't count for either as Buddhism did not originate in China and while Buddha is now considered an avatar by some Hindus, Buddha originally emerged as a religious separation from the corrupt and out-of-touch Vedic religious authorities of his day.

This makes total sense. Reika has always been portrayed as thinking in very direct terms and she cares about the oath she has taken to uphold the law as a police officer. It would in fact be unethical for a police officer to not arrest a family member who is potentially guilty of capital crimes. Most police forces have regulations to prevent this from being a necessity, but this is a story about family.

It also totally ignores the fact that this is what Tetsuo wants to happen. To him, the idea that a person can get away with murder, even himself, even if done to protect his family, is antithetical to civilized society. Tetsuo wants to be arrested because it will maintain his vision of orderliness. The only reason he didn't turn himself in was the concern of anti-criminal stigma affecting his family. But he was more concerned about Kasen and Akira being killed by Kubo and the organization, so he set himself on this path, knowing it would likely end in his arrest. He's glad that his daughter is the one to arrest him because it shows she's grown enough to no longer need his protection.

I'm glad other people are getting the same sense of a drop off in fight quality, but I don't think this fight is uninteresting just because too many samurai or only swords. I think it comes down to two things.
1. The author no longer provides an interesting take on the historical characters on the human side. The Adam fight was amazing because seeing the father of humanity who originally left paradise fight Zeus was monumentally impactful. Writing Sasaki Kojiro as an extremely intelligent fighter who wouldn't give up and Jack the Ripper as a conniving, psychopathic son of a prostitute were not just interesting, they made for great hooks in the fights. Same goes for Tesla + Qin Shi Huang. Whenever the author just focuses on "this guy was really strong" (Raiden Tameemon, Lu Bu, Leonidas, & Okita Souji) the actual fight resonates less because instead of human ingenuity versus godly power, it's just two powerful people fighting.
2. The unique fight combinations were part of what set this series apart. It would pull from the vast annals of human history and mythology to devise interesting match-ups the author could put his own spin on. But as we reach the end of the tournament, almost half of the gods have been Greek, one quarter of the humans have been Japanese (maybe more if Sakata Kintoki becomes a substitute fighter), and we're on our second Japanese god when we've only used one Norse, one Hindu, one Abrahamic, no Egyptian, no Chinese, no Sumerian/Babylonian/Canaanite, and no god or spirit from American Indians or other New World indigenous tribes. It feels like the author is getting lazy and is content to keep throwing in Greek and Japanese stuff instead of continuing to draw from all of human history and make something truly unique.

Genuinely, anything other than a regular modern pistol, lol.

I don't even care about the samurai debate thing, my question is why would the assassins have one of the most conspicuous people (literally the only black person in Japan) do assassinations? I guess stealth isn't really a thing in those games anymore since they're pseudo-RPG open-world slop, but it just doesn't make sense for a guy who is famous for standing out due to his appearance to be an assassin.

So true man, Saihate no Paladin is one of the best fantasy manga ever, and the team making the anime had no respect. At least the manga is still going absolutely crazy.

Holy shit man, this MC plays for keeps. He just keeps getting better.

Nigga, that would be terrifying for anyone.

Maybe one of the best crime dramas/thrillers I've ever read. Can't wait to see how it ends.

Damn this series is good, I'm gonna have to buy it.

Gonna be honest, I've kept up with this because it's just barely interesting not to drop, but this chapter is the first one that's really gotten me excited. I hope it stays this good.

Yanda is maybe the greatest manga character ever put to paper. Evil big brother energy perfected.

I was really expecting some fantasy looking early pistol or pepperbox or something, I was not expecting a modern day firearm to appear. That caught me completely off-guard.

Pretty sure that's Apollo, the guy who was with Rops, the ladybug looking demon with the rope spells.