That being said, Mikio is an ex-professional who has certainly sparred or trained with naked blades before. His reluctance to use real blades initially came from not wanting to hurt her rather than fearing being hurt himself.
Putting aside the natter (which has a point, as an aside), but the initial entry completely misrepresents the scene its talking about.
In the scene itself, Mizu doesn't unsheathe the blades to "win", so the bare-knuckle comparison is faulty; nor does she win the spar because they're unsheathed.
Rather, Mizu won the spar because she was significantly better than him, and she unsheathed the swords to show it - not, because it would give her an advantage, but because it would be harder to win a spar with naked blades without actually harming her opponent, which is what she does. Literally all her attacks are flourishing disarms showing off her ability to strike as closely as possible without actually connecting with the naked blade, something that is very difficult to do (compare it to William Telling with an arrow; its much harder to deliberately not hit your opponent when aiming that close).
She unsheathed the swords not to win, but to show off.
And that was clearly what Mikio was troubled by; he found how much she enjoyed fighting off-putting and the fact she seemed to deliberately emasculate him in the fight insulting.
What's more, he's not presented as wrong for this; Mizu has an immediate My God, What Have I Done? reaction and becomes remorseful after. Mikio isn't shown as an insecure misogynist because he was mad his wife bested him in sparring, he's an insecure misogynist because he was willing to let her die over his bruised ego, and may have in fact sold her out for a bounty.
Removing this from Unintentionally Sympathetic.
Putting aside the natter (which has a point, as an aside), but the initial entry completely misrepresents the scene its talking about.
In the scene itself, Mizu doesn't unsheathe the blades to "win", so the bare-knuckle comparison is faulty; nor does she win the spar because they're unsheathed. Rather, Mizu won the spar because she was significantly better than him, and she unsheathed the swords to show it - not, because it would give her an advantage, but because it would be harder to win a spar with naked blades without actually harming her opponent, which is what she does. Literally all her attacks are flourishing disarms showing off her ability to strike as closely as possible without actually connecting with the naked blade, something that is very difficult to do (compare it to William Telling with an arrow; its much harder to deliberately not hit your opponent when aiming that close).
She unsheathed the swords not to win, but to show off.
And that was clearly what Mikio was troubled by; he found how much she enjoyed fighting off-putting and the fact she seemed to deliberately emasculate him in the fight insulting.
What's more, he's not presented as wrong for this; Mizu has an immediate My God, What Have I Done? reaction and becomes remorseful after. Mikio isn't shown as an insecure misogynist because he was mad his wife bested him in sparring, he's an insecure misogynist because he was willing to let her die over his bruised ego, and may have in fact sold her out for a bounty.