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Started off the week with a rewatch of the current four episodes of Yuusha no Kuzu (Scum of the Brave). I Wanted to check my reaction to it, because I’ve been enjoying it, but that’s very much not the common opinion. And I’m still enjoying it. It’s not great by any means, but it’s good, solid entertainment, mostly on the strength of the characters. I have no real complaints about it.
Next up was the most recent episode of MF Ghost. It was a decent filler episode. I have to admit I did laugh out loud when grandma did the patented Initial D / MF Ghost heel pivot to accelerate and brake at the same time and drift a corner in her kei truck. And they’re really leaning on the romance angle, and I have mixed feelings about that. If they stick with the Initial D formula, then the romance is doomed, one way or another, and I don’t want to see that happen to either Ren or Kanata. But if they break with tradition and give them a happy ending, that’d be great.
Spent a while then gently bouncing off of stuff, trying and failing to find something that hooked me. There was something that kept nagging at me though, and I finally gave in to it. Since the OP/ED thread last week, I’ve been thinking maybe I should go ahead and watch season 2 of Sousou no Frieren now rather than waiting to binge it later, as I’d originally planned. But that meant that first I’d want to rewatch the first season. And that’s an odd thing - I rewatch lots of anime, but for some reason, I almost exclusively rewatch sentimental favorites and guilty pleasures. If something is undeniably outstanding, like Frieren, I have some sort of aversion to rewatching it. I’m not sure why. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I dove in and did it. And it was just as good as I’d remembered, and arguably even better, since I appreciated the whole First Class Mage test arc more the second time around, I think because I spent so much time the first time on edge, afraid that they were going to kill off characters I liked, and this time I knew that everyone who mattered to me was going to survive.
And conveniently enough, I finished up the day the latest episode came out, so just watched the new ones straight through after the rest. And… I’m actually sort of worried about this season. I’m afraid the corporate powers-that-be aren’t going to be able to resist flogging that cash cow for as long as possible, so Frieren is going to actually get to Ende about the same time that Luffy becomes the Pirate King.
That said, I am looking forward to Fern and Stark’s date.
And the rest of the week was spent bouncing off of stuff (most notably Gnosia, to which I’m trying to give another chance, since it’s still ongoing), rewatching random favorites (a couple of episodes of Kemurikusa, the last episode of 86, the first episode of Makeine…) and catching up with current season watches.
Trigun Stargaze - still more or less following the original story, so now we’re moving into Legato and the Gung-ho Guns (though I don’t think that name has been used for them, and I assume at least the cheesier ones from the original aren’t going to appear in this more serious reboot). And Milly’s already warming up to Wolfwood.
Scum of the Brave - I’m still enjoying this - the characters are still amusing and still have good chemistry, and we’re getting some hints of a deeper plot.
You and I Are Polar Opposites - adorable even by this series’ already high standards, and I loved that Tani handled the sight of Suzuki in a yukata exactly right, unlike pretty much every other romcom MMC in existence.
Journal with Witch - still phenomenal. Asa’s starting to come to understand her relationship with her mom better - most of her memories of their interactions so far have been more or less positive, but it’s also undoubtedly notable that her visual image of her mom has been relatively cartoonish, while Makio’s memories are all negative and her visualization is hard-edged and excruciatingly detailed. In this episode, we could see the difference, as Asa first remembered her mom, looking sort of soft and vague, telling her she could be whoever she wanted, then later, looking much more sharp and defined, butting in and taking over and making her decisions for her and belittling the decisions she made for herself. The scene later when Asa again remembers her telling her she can be whoever she wants, then she thinks to herself, “I will be who I want, so take that” was brilliantly subtly revealing. And the whole scene with the lawyer was terrific - both the way he came around to understanding them, and the moment when Asa revealed that when Makio said she could join the band club if she wanted, she just sort of automatically didn’t believe her, because “she’s an adult.” Another insight into her mom and their real relationship.
Last episode, Makio refused again, and notably forcefully, to tell Asa why she hated Minori. I expect that if it keeps going like this, she’s not going to have to - Asa’s going to figure it out on her own.
And something’s brewing with Emiri - she ended up hanging with the cool kids while Asa didn’t, and they’re potentially growing apart. I really didn’t expect that - after the focus on Emiri earlier in the series, I expected them to end up like Makio and Daigo. But that’s sort of par for the course for this series - things just work out however they work out, and maybe they’re just going to grow apart, which’ll be another thing that Asa (and Makio by extension) will have to deal with. And will.
So far, if there’s an overarching message to this series, that’s what it is - life just is whatever it is and all you can do is try to make the best of it, and if you’re honest and essentially kind, things will work out, one way or another.
Most of the Gung-Ho Guns in the first anime were taken from the Trigun and Trigun Maximum manga (the exceptions were Caine the Longshot, who was a pure anime-original, and Chapel the Evergreen, who had been mentioned but not depicted in the manga at the time, so the anime team created their own character design). So the rest of them—Midvalley, Zazie, and so on—may well show up in the rebooted anime.
Ah - thanks for that. It’s been too long since I watched the original, and I’m a bot fuzzy on the details.
E.G. Mine already appeared and was dealt with relatively early in Stampede, and Leonof appeared a couple of episodes back in Stargaze.
Zazie was actually a recurring character in Stampede and has already appeared in the first episode of Stargaze, and is portrayed as essentially the consciousness of the planet - a sort of collective consciousness of the worms. They’re fairly sympathetic (and even sort of grudgingly friendly with Meryl).
Hoppered appeared early in Stargaze. He nursed Vash back to health after Lost July, not knowing who he was, then challenged him to a fight when he found out who he was, which is what drug Vash back to reality.
Legato appeared briefly in Stampede, and again in the most recent episode of Stargaze and appears to be set to play much the same role in this as he did in the original.
And Midvalley was introduced in the most recent episode snd looks to be the focus of at least the next episode.
Even this experience is universal, huh? In my case, I think, it’s because I’m subconsciously afraid of not liking it as much so it stops feeling special. I dread the feeling of disappointment.
Frieren has an insanely great cast. Almost everyone is likeable. Who are your favourites?
Fern is my favorite, no contest, but I wasn’t worried about her during the first class mage tests. The ones I was most worried about then were Kanne and Lawine, and sort of surprising myself, Übel.
Though I didn’t notice them as much the first time through, I grew to really like Laufen and Denken this time through - she’s the granddaughter he never had, and it’s really pretty sweet.