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.

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 have been continuing to try to keep up with new oneshots to share with the community. There have been some good ones I found (and a lot of trash, like a lot a lot). A couple in no particular order:

• Cure Aida - Story about two friends and being magical girls
• Junketsu no Asmodeus - NSFW - What if the exorcist and the demon of lust get magically bound at the hip?
• The Smell of Happiness - A story about a dog.
• Kit-Kat - How you eat your kit-kat says a lot about you.
• Inari no Ongaeshi - Bonding over food makes life-long friends.
• Tomodachi ni Natta Sakana - What happens after the class's fish dies?

In ongoing series, I continue to torture myself with Rent a GF and JK Kuzuhana. Two series that should have ended a long time ago and see the author go to great lengths to stretch things out. A step up from those would be Nagatoro and Akutsu which both feel like they have had concrete steps forward lately. In the same vein, Uzaki-chan has been really funny lately as our protagonist struggles against his inner carnal urges like it is Shadow Link or something like that.

@Taos@lemmy.ml @seraph@lemmy.ml @N3DSdude@lemmy.ml any chance of getting this pinned in place of the older thread?

That is what internet strangers are for!

Incredible start to this series. One of my favorite manga of all time, come to the new medium in an exceptional adaptation to the beginning arc of this story. So far, this series really rewards a careful viewing, providing so many details and emotion in the visuals on screen rather than having a character explain everything with exposition. The show isn't afraid to let time pass, not just in the story, but to linger on a shot, extend a montage, or have a silly sequence just to provide some characterization. This story, much like another of my favorites, Mushishi, embodies melancholy so well. I can't wait to see the rest of the series get this kind of treatment.

Dad is on board and we even see the return of Waluigi in the credits page!

It's nice to see a Gamo-focused chapter. It also served to show how much Nagatoro's attitude has changed over time.

Horimiya this season feels a bit underwhelming. I feel like if the original run had incorporated these bits into the story and the show expanded to two seasons it would have worked better. However, trying to tell these stories removed from the context of the larger story does them a disservice.

I also think there is a reason most of these bits of the story were cut originally. I think the first season rightly focused more on just Hori and Miyamura. A lot of the episodes of this season focus on other characters with Hori/Miyamura acting as a supporting character instead. They are cute stories, but just don't have the same narrative heft as when the main couple is the focus.

Yeah, agreed. I understand that the series is posted on Twitter, so there is a four image limit per post, but man if I don't want some longer, meatier chapters out of this one.

I have been working through a bit of a backlog of series I have let accumulate before diving into new stuff. Because of this I have read a bunch of series in the past fortnight, but wanted to highlight just a couple. In no particular order:

• Tsuyokute New Saga: This series just had its final chapter posted, so I thought it was a good chance to pick it back up again and see how it ended. Overall, the ending felt extremely rushed. Through the first half or so of this story I thought it had a lot of potential, but it never really seemed to pay off in my opinion. I especially was surprised how poorly the final boss character was handled.

  Spoilers for the end of the story

  The final boss character that is trying to become the new Demon Lord, referred to as Black Wings, was basically a brand new character that is essentially an infant? IDK, it was weird. I was expecting Black Wings to be an alternate version of Kail that had time travelled again and instigated the war. The final aim of the war would have been to create a world in which there is relative peace between humans and what is left of the Demons because they allied together to defeat the common foe of Black Wings Kail. This would also explain the sympathy that other characters showed Black Wings because he would have been suffering while inflicted untold hardships on people he knows during the war.

• Saikyou Juzoku Tensei: Cheat Majutsushi no Slow Life: I had read the WN for this story a while back and enjoyed it but had left the manga sit in Tachiyomi unread all this time. I sat down one night this past week and blew through the chapters that are out (which are not many). The series is marked on MangaDex as on hiatus, so I don't know when or if I should expect any future updates to the manga, but what was there was pretty faithful to the story and I definitely liked how they treated some of the characters, Gizel in particular. If the premise sounds interesting to you, check out the WN as it is complete and reaches a pretty satisfying end.

• Maou ni Natta node, Dungeon Tsukutte Jingai Musume to Honobono suru: Another isekai entry to the list and another story that I originally had read most of the WN prior to picking up the manga. Overall, I liked the manga adaptation, but it felt a bit bland compared to the written version. It is one of my favorite WNs, but the art hasn't really elevated it. I will probably keep up with it since it has some really nice moments, but I am probably going to let this one pile up a bit before bingeing a batch of chapters.

• Shinryaku! Ika Musume: I picked this one up after I previously professed my love for the series Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyu-bu and @IdleSheep@lemmy.blahaj.zone pointed out that I should check out the author's previous work, bringing me to Ika Musume. I have been really enjoying the series so far. The art and SOL comedy feels very similar in both works. So, if you are a fan of one, then definitely check out the other!

• (NSFW) Tsugumomo: I had let a bit of a backlog of this series build up, so I thought I would knock that out to catch up. It seems as though I picked a good time since the most recent chapter more or less wraps up a bit of a story arc and the new powers feel earned (plus it's nice to see Kazuya having fun in combat).

• Ore no Ie ga Maryoku Spot datta Ken – Sundeiru dake de Sekai Saikyou: This is a chill isekai in the same vein as Isekai Nonbiri Nouka no Nichijou which recently had an anime adaptation. This is yet another series in which I first came across the WN and then picked up the manga. The manga has done a good job of capturing the laid-back tone of this story. There is never any real danger and problems are resolved trivially easily since the MC is so OP, but that is kind of the whole point of this type of story. The manga is most of the way through the WN at this point, just 1-2 more arcs to go if my memory serves. The WN just kind of ends unceremoniously, so I will be curious to see if they modify the end of the story in any way for the manga adaptation to wrap it up in a nice bow.

With this chapter we have moved into LN Vol. 5, ahead of the officially translated volumes. It's nice to see grown-up Zeta make her appearance in the manga.

Man, Mushishi was one of the very first anime I ever watched and I have been chasing that high ever since. Nothing else has really hit the same way. I tried some others that I have seen recommended (Natsume's Book of Friends, Kino's Journey), but Mushishi is truly excellent.