Category Archives: Series

Journal with Witch Ep. 3: The long, winding road back to normalcy

Going through someone’s personal belongings like this — it must feel weird, doesn’t it? It’s like an invasion of privacy, but what privacy? They’re dead. And now you get to learn all sorts of things you never expected or wanted to learn, especially since Makio’s relationship with her sister was so fraught with issues. All of a sudden, she starts hearing one of her sister’s sharp barbs. It’s almost like a jump scare. As I said or implied last week, it doesn’t appear as though Makio has ever processed the symbolic death of her family. She simply ran away from it. By putting it off, she now has to grieve both the symbolic and literal death of her family at the same time. But the funny thing is that the symbolic doesn’t have to stay dead. It doesn’t violate the laws of nature for the symbolic to suddenly come back to life. So who knows? Maybe as Makio confronts her past and thus old hurts, she’ll come to realize things weren’t as broken as they seemed. Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, but she might have some love left for her late sister. You never know.

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You and I Are Polar Opposites Ep. 2: First date

Now that Tani is dating Suzuki, he’ll find himself gradually integrated into her loud and boisterous friend group. Yamada is only the first of many. But it is a little strange that he doesn’t have his own friends to introduce to her in return. Like who has he been hanging out with all these years? Nobody? Nobody at all? Has he been a loner this entire time? Sadly, this does seem to be the case.

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Frieren Ep. 29: I trust you with my life

Frieren finds a magic-nullifying stone that is supposedly worth a fortune. As you can imagine, something like that would render her and Fern rather helpless. As a result, Fern wants them to get rid of stone as soon as possible. My first thought is, Isn’t that a bit drastic? I mean, they do have a warrior capable of slaying a dragon. Why not rely on Stark to protect them until they can properly sell it? But Frieren turns the crystal into a light show before quickly following Fern’s advice. Unfortunately, they can’t avoid the crystals that easily, because the party soon stumbles upon an entire cave network full of said magic-nullifying crystals. It’s practically a gold mine. And also, the women have no choice but to rely on Stark now.

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The Holy Grail of Eris Ep. 2: An unexpectedly tantalizing mystery

I’m enjoying this show more than I thought I would. I’m also digging the world-building. High society isn’t all dainty women and gallant men. Rather, it’s seedy and grimy, full of sordid affairs and shadowy encounters. This is more of a mystery than your standard villainess anime. Scarlett has Constance running to and fro, gathering evidence and generally sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Problem is, it sounds like Scarlett’s former friend had already tried this. Perhaps due to being a shrewd woman, Lily Orlamunde dug too deep and learned too much. Whatever she uncovered eventually drove her to commit suicide. People usually take their own life to prevent themselves from even greater suffering. So assuming Lily wasn’t depressed, what sort of horrendous future was she trying to prevent?

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Sentenced to Be a Hero Ep. 2: The heroes yearn for the mines

We last left off with Xylo’s foreboding promise: “I’ll find you. I’ll find the one who set up me and my Knights. The one responsible for Senerva’s fate. I’ll find you… and I will kill you.” He said this as he was sentenced to be a hero. Buuuuuuuttttttt that’ll all have to wait, because he and his fellow heroes have a new mission: clearing out the nearby Zewan Gan Tunnels. After all, if he or any of the heroes disobey, they’ll lose their heads. It makes you wonder, then, if Xylo even has a plan. As long as the “Temple folk” have the power to detonate the seals around their necks, what can he do? How can he possibly even make any move against them? In fact, how long has it been since he was condemned to this fate. Does he even feel strongly about getting revenge anymore? Assuming he does, at some point, we need an arc where Xylo operate independently. Maybe that’ll be the final arc of the season.

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