Category Archives: Series

Frieren Ep. 30: Of immutable futures, and immutable nature

In the first half of the episode, Frieren and company are hired to once again polish a hero’s statue. Naturally, we assume that it’s another statue of Himmel. After all, they did go on a 10-year journey, and Himmel saved a whole lot of people. It just makes sense. At the same time, however, I can’t help but wonder if they ever failed, and if they did, how often? That’s probably not the sort of thing Frieren wants to remember, but failures due tend to feel more… hm, vibrant in our memories? Maybe that’s not the right way to phrase it. Still, it might be a nice change of pace to see that the party doesn’t always succeed. So far, most of their “failures” have had a positive spin. For instance, them running away from danger in last week’s episode. Or when Himmel failed to pull out the hero’s sword. The only time I feel like they’ve truly failed was when they allowed that demon child to survive a little longer than necessary and thus take an extra life.

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The Holy Grail of Eris Ep. 3: Never lose sight of yourself

Constance will have to infiltrate yet another location, and this time, we’re attending an invitations-only, masked ball. It will be a decadent, immoral party full of guests with secrets — secrets that our girl can leverage to pay off her family’s debts. But first, she will need Scarlett’s old mask, because this will encourage people to come up and talk to Constance. I just find the whole thing a bit silly, because Scarlett’s mask is so indistinct. There’s nothing about it that stands out. You’re telling me that there are still people who would recognize such a plain-looking mask, and connect to Scarlett, a woman who died years ago? Sure.

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Sentenced to Be a Hero Ep. 3: Norgalle’s brave stand

The surviving miners are about to get torn apart, eaten, or whatever it is that faeries do to their victims. Luckily, our trio of plucky Heroes — Xylo, Norgalle, and the conspicuously named Tatsuya — arrive just in the nick of time for dramatic effect. They quickly dispose of the faeries in the vicinity, but they know more are coming. As a result, Norgalle quickly goes about arming the miners with enhanced shovels and pickaxes for literally the fight of their lives.

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Tamon’s B-Side Ep. 4: What is love?

Jerky McJerface, aka Ori, actually manages to goad Utage into taking a bet: if he becomes the new center of F/ACE, she has to switch her loyalties and become his housekeeper. After all, if she’s so confident in Tamon, then why not accept the bet? Surely, Tamon’s biggest fan would never doubt his success. But why even entertain this asshole? Just kick him out. I don’t understand why people always give an inch to jerks like Ori, in real life or in fiction. Utage apologizes to Tamon afterwards, claiming that she literally couldn’t say otherwise. Bullshit. She didn’t have to say anything! Literally grey rock Ori. Let him talk. Oh, he’s saying shit about your oshi? It. Doesn’t. Make. A. Difference. But now there’s added pressure on Tamon to succeed.

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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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