This was a bit of a weird episode. There was almost no interaction between our main couple because Honjoji is just shutting down. Instead, the bulk of the episode focused on a coworker and his divorce. I get why a show that is about an impending (fake, but maybe not fake) wedding would bring up divorce. However, the way it was handled this episode didn’t really work for me.

The show couldn’t seem to make up its mind about whether to treat this with humor or with seriousness, and it kind of ended up not succeeding with either tone. The whole acting like a gorilla thing was just bizarre. Meanwhile, we see glimpses of Honjoji’s memories of being a child to divorced parents. I feel like it is a missed opportunity to spend less time chasing a grown man-ape around and more time on either her or the child. I just didn’t think that chasing this guy around Scooby Doo style really served any purpose other than an attempt at humor that didn’t really land for me.

In any case, George was a nice discovery this episode. He is that one person in any workplace that has been around forever and no problem ever phases them. They’ve seen it all before and are the person that you turn to when you need to rely on that experience.

I am hoping that we get more of the main pair next episode. I mean, at least talk to each other.

Personally, I think Kyomoto is a couple things at the same time. She is a fellow artist that inspires a mangaka to do better and at the same time is a stand-in for the fans that provide the satisfaction that all that work that went into the art/story was worth it. I know some artists irl that are really good, but they are always comparing themselves to other’s art and think that they could do better.

I haven’t watched I Want to Eat Your Pancreas either, so I can’t directly compare the two. I think Look Back was touching for sure, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it reached the top tier of emotional anime movies for me. I ended up not needing my box of tissues for example.

By comparison, when I want to watch something like Tale of the Princess Kaguya, I prepare a fresh box of tissues and go ahead and clear my schedule for the whole weekend. That movie destroys me when I watch it.

Confession time. Despite being a moderator for the !manga@ani.social community, I had never read this oneshot before. So, I was going in about as blind as I could have been. I knew from the way people talked about it to have a box of tissues on hand and that it was about manga, but that was about it.

There were so many great moments that were in here. First, I liked One Piece on the cover of Shonen Weekly Jump when they were looking up the results of the manga contest. @rikka@ani.social

Their partnership really seemed to work well. It was tough to see it come undone when Kyomoto wanted to go to art school. You can really feel how hurt Fujino felt in that moment as she was trying to exploit Kyomoto’s insecurities to keep her from leaving. The visual framing of this sequence was brilliant as well. They had consistently been showing Fujino leading Kyomoto around by the hand, dragging her out of her shell. Then, when this conversation happens, they aren’t joined together anymore and a tree is shown literally dividing the frame right between them. Driving the proverbial wedge into their relationship as Fujino is trying to shove Kyomoto back into her shell to keep from losing her.

The part that really started to get to me was when Fujino picked up the old 4-koma that she drew that had lured Kyomoto out of her room back when they first met. It was tragic to see her blame herself and her art for the death of Kyomoto. As we transitioned out of that, I had no idea where the story was going to go next. I was not expecting the supernatural turn that came next at all. I must admit that I was confused for a little bit about what was going on.

The alternate history timeline was interesting. We see Kyomoto at art school, doing her thing and somehow scraping by with some degree of independence just like she had wanted. One thing I liked about this alternate timeline was Fujino’s dynamic entry and rescue. It looked like it was straight out of a manga panel. The irony of this timeline is that if Fujino had not lured Kyomoto out of her room, Kyomoto would not have died at art school. Sidenote: this sequence of events has to be inspired by the KyoAni arson attack, right? It is too similar for it not to be the case.

The titular 4-koma that Kyomoto drew, depicting a humorous take on the attack and rescue was actually hilarious. I absolutely loved the joke in the final panel. As somebody that has read tons of 4-koma over the years, that is a top tier reveal.

The shelves of Kyomoto’s room being full of Fujino’s work was incredibly cute. It was very touching and did a great job of showing how Kyomoto never stopped being Fujino’s biggest fan, ever since elementary school. I loved how this scene culminated in Fujino literally looking back to see the coat that she autographed all those years ago hung up prominently on the door.

Overall, this was a great watch. The way in which these two managed to inspire one another to greater heights across time and space was very touching. Really enjoyed this.

They really play around with how they draw Ice. Like any good cosplayer, she really adapts to the costume. I was surprised to see an Albedo cosplay mixed in there:

Then, compare how she is normally drawn to when she is in model mode:

I was also glad to see Tsunehiro starting to think seriously about things like his mortality and what to do with the time he has left. He hasn’t told his new friends yet, but with what Ice told him this episode, I think it is just a matter of time before he does.

I really liked this episode and feel like it managed to stay fun with the fishing and goofy characters while also dealing with some serious emotions that Tsunehiro is going through.

Alright, this really is the last clip I made as part of the birthday celebrations. Thanks for the past year everybody!

Aww, shucks… Here’s to another year!

That’s a good theory about Liz faking losing control of her mana. She definitely seemed more intentionally manipulative this episode compared to previous. I think you are right that she likely has knowledge of the game like Alicia does.

Sometimes I just need some Osaka silliness in my life. No stakes, low energy, just absurdity and vibes.

Howdy y’all! Miss Kiyan here! Ain’t from 'round these parts?

My nightmare…

I have read the beginning portion of this manga and really liked it. I am looking forward to this one.

His left arm is against the shelves behind her, while her right arm is the one covering his mouth. Yeah, it is a bit of a trick of the eyes though. You made me go back and look again and my brain did think for a sec that his left arm was somehow twisted around to cover his own mouth.

Yeah, I am confused as well, I feel like there was a lot that was left on the cutting room floor. Either that or the author really wanted to skip past all the prelims to get to a more manageable cast of characters. But, it begs the question, if all the important characters that we know make it to the Archimedes and then make it through this first round, then what was the point of them? It just makes the past couple episodes feel like a waste.

Also, Anaak just figured out it was Bam by watching him. Could nobody else up to this point? I feel like Viole’s identity is the worst-kept secret ever at this point.

Dan Da Dan has been phenomenal so far. That and Orb have been the two shows this season that have really stood out as a clear step above everything else for me. As for waiting for something to finish before diving in, I absolutely do that sometimes. Most recently I did that with the Spice and Wolf remake and The Apothecary Diaries. If I had to pick one that I would be interested in bingeing this season after it wraps up, it would likely be Blue Box.

Yeah, Netflix has been stepping up their anime game. They have gotten on board (mostly) with the weekly release schedule and even agreed to co-license a series like Dragonball Daima so that it also releases on Crunchyroll. I was worried that Crunchyroll was becoming a bit of a monopoly after the Funimation merger, but honestly Netlix is probably putting up a better fight than HiDive right now.

Thanks for the info! I am just going to have to test some things and see how it goes. My wordpress site has quite a number of image galleries, so I’ll probably have to do some experimenting to see how those work.

Pham feels like a cheat code. There are times that Pham just feels like a plot device more than an actual character. Find every piece of furniture and random item that had an explosive spell place on it and move it somewhere outside the castle without anybody noticing? Sure, no problem.

I had kind of forgotten how this father/daughter pair played out in the story, so it was a nice moment to see her come to understand that her father was being courageous when it mattered the most. That picking and choosing your battles was a better strategy for the outcome of protecting those he cared about. @rikka@ani.social

Yeah, unfortunately it is also only really convenient if you are on the ani.social instance. My most wished-for feature in lemmy is some way to link to posts/comments in an instance-agnostic way. Alas…

Hey man, I get it. I especially liked her uniform. The military uniforms in this show were stylish.

Trying to think of what my first anime crush was, I think it was probably Sailor Mercury. This probably has set me up for a lifetime of rooting for blue-haired heroines that will ultimately lose.

That’s true! I hadn’t thought about how silly that was until you pointed it out. Relena has a posse like she is some kind of Villainess.