Cute chapter this week. I really thought Senpai was going to muster up the courage for the confession there for a minute. Looks like we will have to wait at least until after Nagatoro's match with Orihara before it might happen. It really feels close now though. If they reset back to a will they/won't they after this arc, then it would basically turn this into rent a gf.

What do you think of it? I wasn't really familiar with it but then saw the show got a lot of good buzz, so have been meaning to check it out.

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.

@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.