This past week saw probably my favorite episode of Frieren yet (Episode 7). That show keeps delivering each and every week. I went back and re-read part of the source to see how far it has adapted so far and the current episode ended partway through chapter 15. So, that means that they have only adapted 14.5 manga chapters in 7 full episodes. For some perspective, the most recent Frieren chapter published was 115. Incredible show with probably one of my favorite EDs in recent memory. If you have yet to check it out, I cannot recommend it enough.

The other thing I watched this past week I wanted to mention is Suzume no Tojimari. I am a bit late on checking it out as I wanted to wait and watch it together with my wife and our schedules don't often align in a way to watch a whole movie together (she works more on weekends while I work during the week). I had two main takeaways I wanted to discuss. First, the movie is absolutely gorgeous. If you are a fan of animation as an artistic endeavour, then this movie is right up your alley setting everything else aside.

The second thing is that I felt the story really let down the rest of the movie. Keeping this general and spoiler-free, there are too many things the story was trying to accomplish in too little time. So, it never really spent long enough on any particular story beat or explained things enough to make the viewer get invested. I have lots of thoughts about this, but don't have the energy to write it all out. Overall, and this might sound harsh, I thought Suzume was kind of like the anime version of Avatar (the movie). Everything about its production was stunning, but the plot didn't live up to the rest of the audio-visual sensory experience happening on screen.

I know that second take is kind of spicy given the overwhelmingly positive reception the movie has received, so happy to elaborate behind spoiler tags below.

@ram@lemmy.ca, @N3DSdude@lemmy.ml would it be possible to pin again?

I continue on my unending quest to keep up with good Oneshots that I see get posted to Mangadex. It means I have to sort through the giant pile of Touhou doujin oneshots that get posted, but I do it for all of you out of love. Some of my favorites from the past week:

• Shishunki ni Rikai no Aru Ane no Hanashi - A silly story about an older sister trying her best to be understanding of her brother as he experiences the trials and tribulations of puberty.
• Futari no Kyori - A single page oneshot that nails the punchline.
• Android wa Bug wo Shiranai - Learning about human emotion through an android.
• Boing Ninja - Like Naruto, but with more boing.
• NSFW Shokujin Shokuyuujou - This isn't the sexy kind of NSFW, this one is a horror oneshot. I am not usually a fan of horror in manga/anime, but I thought this one was well done.

Finally, I will wrap up this post with my weekly shoutout to read Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyu-bu.

Loved the potato puns this episode, particularly Spudcalibur and Ifritter. Also, the preview makes the next episode look very interesting. I still wouldn't say I love this show, but I feel like it has hit a stride after a bit of a rocky start and it is enjoyable enough to stick with it.

Every other MC wishes they could learn her powers.

This one is just a single page, so a quick read!

I have seen elsewhere that it is a pun and can be loosely translated as either Frieren's at the funeral or Frieren caused the funeral. But I don't really know enough Japanese other than to say those are fairly liberal translations.

葬送 (sousou) literally just means funeral, フリーレン is Frieren and the の (no) in between usually indicates possession in some way.

I went back and checked how they did this in the manga and this episode actually ends mid-chapter (chapter 15). So, it wasn't a cliffhanger at all in the source. However, I really like how they did it in the show. The cliffhanger was really well done.

Edit: Also, yes. We have only adapted 14.5 chapters so far in 7 episodes.

Finally got a good dose of Mirika this episode. I look forward to her camping adventures with the group! One of my favorite gags in this series is how Shino is constantly finding herself in compromising situations with Naoya. It's funny to see her lament as much in one of the eye catches in this episode.

Also, I hadn't really looked up the cast previously, but I kept swearing this episode that I recognized Shino's voice. After looking it up, its no wonder I recognized it as she is voiced by none other than Rie Takahashi.

This is a great point I hadn't thought about before. This is something that is not present in the manga to the same extent due to the medium being inherently black and white and still images. The animation really adds a lot of character to the world in how it is portrayed so peacefully most of the time; Frieren waking up gently in the woods to butterflies landing on her nose for example. Even the demons themselves in this city are smartly dressed, extremely cordial, and outwardly forgiving of being threatened by both Frieren and the local lord. However, their true nature is so discordant with the rest of the world it adds a lot to their "otherness".

This thing is an alien that has been beaten into a shape that makes it look vaguely human. But scratch it the slightest bit and the alien comes out.

This pretty much describes demons in Frieren. Different demons you have to scratch at harder than others, similar to how better AI models you have to engineer your prompts better to get it to break. The best fictional stories are the ones that can help us to better understand and contextualize the nonfiction world around us.

Another great episode. Really loved the first part about Himmel not wanting Frieren to be alone and that is why he had so many statues made.

One of the (many) things that I really enjoy about this series is its portrayal of demons. They really feel quite alien but relatable at the same time. They fall right into an uncanny middle between human and monster that always has you second guessing yourself about them. Frieren probably says it best in that they can understand our speech, but can't be communicated with; drawing a clear line between being able to speak and being able to understand and convey thoughts and emotions through speech.

There are many parallels I can draw between this series and Mushishi, but this portrayal of demons reminds me a bit of how mushi are described by Ginko. They are more or less wild things living in nature and when they intersect with humans bad things can happen, but it isn't out of malice or any kind of emotion, it is simply surviving in the environment it finds itself. I think Frieren views demons in much the same way. They are not hurting humans out of malice, but simply creatures that find themselves in a world full of humans. As a survival strategy, the demons found ways to use humans to their advantage, it just so happens that those strategies involve manipulating and taking advantage of human emotions.

One of the things I was most curious about how they were going to adapt this season was the explanation of Claire's newfound powers. I never thought that the way the LN described this part was very clear and it is only through later discussions with other fans that I got a good understanding of it. I think that the anime actually does a better job of setting up and explaining this. Plus, we get to see Aurora-sensei and JK Claire in the process, so that is a win.

The fight sequence was quite modified from the source, but I actually really like it. Characterizing Elizabeth's attack as literally raining blood was a great touch. My favorite part of that sequence was Aurora/Claire trying to use Cid's All Range Atomic. This was a great anime original touch and I loved everything about it. From her initiating it, Beta realizing what is going on and freaking out, and finally Aurora trying to do the Cid atomic voice. Just chef's kiss.

We get to see a new ED this episode by Maaya Uchida (voices Nu). We also get to see the setup for the next arc in a post-ED scene. If you liked the design of Yukime and didn't want to see her leave the story yet, then this scene should give you hope. Also, just as a meta-aside, the next arc is probably the overall fandom's favorite, so look forward to it!

Edit: I forgot to mention that this begins one of my favorite ongoing gags in the whole series. In which Cid thinks Claire is just a chuuni having chuuni delusions about things.