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These two finally went on a date. However neither of them seem to be able to function like a normal human being. So...small step forward? I wonder if Ooya (landlady's daughter) is aware of the date.

We have begun the next arc now featuring fan favorite John Smith; Cid's most recent alter-ego in which he fancies himself a super secret agent tasked to destroy and then rebuild Mitsugoshi. I actually think the anime did a pretty good job of motivating his actions here. I remember the first time I read the LNs I was a bit confused as to why Cid decided to destroy Mitsugoshi. If you are confused, his thinking is basically this:

• Mitsugoshi have become too successful too quickly, making enemies of established powerful entities like the Major Corporation Alliance (MCA)
• Being an upstart, Mitsugoshi won't survive the fight against the MCA
• So, in order to save his friends (Shadow Garden), he plans on destroying both Mitsugoshi and the MCA and reforming under a new name with the help of Yukime and her resources in the Lawless City
• This conveniently puts him at the top of the new organization where he can directly make lots of money instead of his friends making money off of his ideas
  • It is important to remember that Cid doesn't realize that all of Mitsugoshi's money can be his if he asked. He just thinks that Gamma et al are running a business off his ideas but still play "pretend fight the cult as Shadow Garden" with him at night sometimes
• All the while, he is hiding his identity as John Smith from Shadow Garden because...it's cooler that way, duh

The anime also certainly added quite a bit of Delta fanservice this episode. I especially like the bit where he was mindlessly feeding her his food from the counter. Additionally, we got a tiny bit of Delta's backstory through her meeting her brother. If there is one complaint I have about this series, it is that I wish we knew more about the Shadow Garden girls and their backstories. We have gotten some glimpses here and there (especially if you include mobile game content), but there is a ton more that could be told.

The ED this week is sung by Mayu Minami (voice of Kai). We also briefly saw Kai (along with Omega, Nu, and Alpha) when they sprung their sting operation in the cold open of the episode.

Yeah, it is such a straightforward, cartoonishly evil plan that it doesn't even really make sense. If your entire kingdom's population is comprised of mindless super soldiers, that pretty much halts cultural and technological progress right there. Not to mention any kind of economic interaction outside the kingdom since these awakened soldiers seem to be incapable of independent thought and speech. Just, what is the point of ruling such a boring country?

Then again, I am not an oligarch, so maybe I just don't get it.

Welp, can't say you couldn't see it coming. I hope everybody is strapped in for what looks to be a fifth full episode of Helck's backstory. Maybe the strategy was to have the giant exposition dump this far into the story so that you keep watching out of a sunken cost fallacy. This is such a huge chunk of the story, it might have just made more sense to start the story with young Helck/Cless and tell the story chronologically.

A whole chapter devoted to the leader of Urumin's group. This is the kind of backstory that the author can spend time to tell now that the story is serialized. I have recently been watching Zombie Land Saga and Airu here reminds me of Saki from that show. They are both former delinquents and the leaders of their respective groups.

It was also nice to see our brave MC Kimiya on the last page. He must have been a fan from the very early days.

This is a bonus by the artist to correspond to volume 9 being released.

Your description of The Bully In Charge made me imagine it as a mix between 21 Jump Street and Fight Club. It sounds absolutely wild. I am not too well read on manhwa (basically only follow Omniscient Reader and read Raeliana, an odd pairing I know), so I didn't realize there is a whole genre for Korean delinquents, but I guess it makes sense since there are analogous manga genres. It certainly wouldn't be the first story to start out great and then keep trying to outdo itself until it becomes farcical. Sometimes though, those can still be really fun, even if we end up laughing at them.

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.

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.