WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Ayashimon Chapter 15, "Always Having a Blast" by Yuji Kaku, Adrienne Beck, and Brandon Bovia, available in English via Viz Media.
Ayashimon is a love letter to the battle manga that have come before, primarily those that were published in Shonen Jump. From Maruo constantly talking about the heroes from famous titles to even performing his own rendition of Jotaro Joestar's famous "Ora" punch, there's no shortage of cameos and homages to the series that paved the way for Ayashimon. Recently, even Ten has gotten in on the homages, though not in the way one might think.
In Chapter 15, Ten donned his mask, which increased his power output as a tenzurushi yokai. While most yokai that have appeared so far have masks that reflect their lore and characters, Ten's seems...oddly familiar. With the addition of a curl on the top of his head, Ten's mask is reminiscent of that of Marvel's Spider-Man, particularly the shape of the eyes and how they convey emotion. The eyes narrow when he thinks and grow wide when he's surprised, much like that of Spidey's own mask. The correlations don't end there, as Ten's ability to hang from ceilings is similar to Spider-Man's wall-crawling abilities.
Peter Parker never thought about fighting crime when he first gained his powers. Instead, he used them to make money as an entertainer rather than using them to help others. When a thief who had stolen some money ran by him, he did nothing and let the man run by him, saying it wasn't his responsibility to stop him. This same thief would later go on to kill Peter's Uncle Ben in a robbery gone wrong. This would be the inciting incident that would lead Peter to use his powers to stop those who would hurt others. Before his superpowers, Peter was always seen as weak and was bullied by Flash Thompson.
Ten has always been a coward, apologizing to anyone who even looked at him the wrong way. He never wanted to fight, but Urara and Maruo have pushed him to want to become stronger. He was pushed around by bigger, stronger yokai that have seen Ten and his abilities as weak and useless. But thanks to Maruo and Urara, Ten has learned to stand up for himself and has found a reason to fight. In his fight against Wakku, he used the Wanyudo's underestimation of Ten's phasing abilities against him, using his wit rather than strength to win.
Whether the similarities between the two are intentional or not, Ten embodies what made Classic Spider-Man so popular. A timid, seemingly weak character learning to use their gifts and smarts to fight against opponents makes for great storytelling, and Ten is just another in a long list of characters to fall into this category. He has gone from a small-time, low-level criminal to someone who has faced off against two of the largest gangs in the city.
Hopefully, as the story progresses, Ten will continue to come into his own and become a stronger fighter and a powerful ally to the Urara Group. He's already shown the promise, he just needs to continue on this upward trajectory and believe in himself. He's already dropped a pile of motorcycles on someone, so who knows what other creative ways he could come with to use his abilities.
