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That's fair if you don't like storylines that feature betrayal. Since it is Cid doing it, it isn't really straightforward and plenty silly along the way, so hopefully the comedy can keep things light enough for you until the arc is over in a couple episodes. This arc is the second half of LN 3 and based on the previews, they are adapting at least through the first half of LN 4.

The frenzy has begun

From his (~~kinda~~ very stupid) POV, he thinks he is saving them from being destroyed by the MCA and plans on employing them to run the new company that he forms after both Mitsugoshi and MCA are destroyed. Overall, this arc is probably one of the most popular within the fandom with some great gags and misunderstandings.

If you are still anxious about what is to come, some vague spoilers:

We have begun the next arc now featuring fan favorite John Smith; Cid's most recent alter-ego in which he fancies himself a super secret agent tasked to destroy and then rebuild Mitsugoshi. I actually think the anime did a pretty good job of motivating his actions here. I remember the first time I read the LNs I was a bit confused as to why Cid decided to destroy Mitsugoshi. If you are confused, his thinking is basically this:

• Mitsugoshi have become too successful too quickly, making enemies of established powerful entities like the Major Corporation Alliance (MCA)
• Being an upstart, Mitsugoshi won't survive the fight against the MCA
• So, in order to save his friends (Shadow Garden), he plans on destroying both Mitsugoshi and the MCA and reforming under a new name with the help of Yukime and her resources in the Lawless City
• This conveniently puts him at the top of the new organization where he can directly make lots of money instead of his friends making money off of his ideas
  • It is important to remember that Cid doesn't realize that all of Mitsugoshi's money can be his if he asked. He just thinks that Gamma et al are running a business off his ideas but still play "pretend fight the cult as Shadow Garden" with him at night sometimes
• All the while, he is hiding his identity as John Smith from Shadow Garden because...it's cooler that way, duh

The anime also certainly added quite a bit of Delta fanservice this episode. I especially like the bit where he was mindlessly feeding her his food from the counter. Additionally, we got a tiny bit of Delta's backstory through her meeting her brother. If there is one complaint I have about this series, it is that I wish we knew more about the Shadow Garden girls and their backstories. We have gotten some glimpses here and there (especially if you include mobile game content), but there is a ton more that could be told.

The ED this week is sung by Mayu Minami (voice of Kai). We also briefly saw Kai (along with Omega, Nu, and Alpha) when they sprung their sting operation in the cold open of the episode.

Yeah, it is such a straightforward, cartoonishly evil plan that it doesn't even really make sense. If your entire kingdom's population is comprised of mindless super soldiers, that pretty much halts cultural and technological progress right there. Not to mention any kind of economic interaction outside the kingdom since these awakened soldiers seem to be incapable of independent thought and speech. Just, what is the point of ruling such a boring country?

Then again, I am not an oligarch, so maybe I just don't get it.

Welp, can't say you couldn't see it coming. I hope everybody is strapped in for what looks to be a fifth full episode of Helck's backstory. Maybe the strategy was to have the giant exposition dump this far into the story so that you keep watching out of a sunken cost fallacy. This is such a huge chunk of the story, it might have just made more sense to start the story with young Helck/Cless and tell the story chronologically.

Gate is one of those shows that sounds interesting to me, but I have seen very mixed reviews for it. There are enough shows on my to-watch list that it has never really made its way up to the top. I might have to check it out though. I like the premise of mixing our technological world with a magical fantasy world. That premise is one of the reasons that caused me to watch Vision of Escaflowne. However, that show just pretty much eschewed fantasy for the most part and was a straight mecha anime with light fantasy touches.

One of the things that I think make this series better than a generic harem series is that Rentaro is a fantastic MC. He always goes above and beyond to make everybody happy. He never uses the looming threat of their death if they reject him to influence their desire to join his family. Really looking forward to this series if they keep it as wild as it has been so far. The crazier they get, the better.

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.

@[email protected], @[email protected] would it be possible to pin again?

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.

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.