Mushoku Tensei II – 17 – Being There

At first, it looks like Rudy is going to go scorched earth, flanked by Rinia and Pursena as he marches into Norn’s class where she’s currently absent with a head full of steam. Everyone in that room knows who he is and that pissing him off is not a good idea. But he tries to stay calm and ask anyone who was mean to Norn would come forward.

Those who come forward instead say that their interactions with Norn all involved them bringing him up in some way, comparing her to him, and urging her to follow in his footsteps. It dawns on him that no one in her class sent her to her dorm where she is currently shut in. It was all because of him.

Rudy knows what it’s like to be a shut-in. He was one in his previous life. But now that he’s a changed person he knows that it’s a brother’s duty to protect his sisters, even if its from himself. Only, he simply doesn’t know what to do. Rinia and Pursena laud him for his loyalty to his pack, but obviously aren’t going to help him on the psychological side of things.

What they can do is smuggle him into the dorm to at least meet with Norn, which is the first step towards getting her out of her room. The three are given cover thanks to Sylphy, who asks Princess Ariel to give an address in the common room that empties out the girls’ dorm. Even getting to Norn wouldn’t have been possible without his friends.

When he knocks on the door, the voice he hears is his own, from his past life. He imagines that his own brother must have felt this way as he visited him in his room again and again, giving arguments for why he should come out, telling him he needn’t come back to school, but only take one small step at a time to returning to his life.

Back then, Rudy ignored his brother, until he eventually stopped visiting him. And while he certainly doesn’t blame his brother for giving up, Rudy doesn’t want to give up on Norn. He knows if he leaves, like his brother did, there’s no going back. She’ll stay shut in. Her life will remain on hold. His experience with being in her situation drives him to want to save her.

Even there in the room, he has no idea how he’s going to do it. He just kneels there silently. We switch to the perspective and inner voice of Norn, isn’t sure what to make of him being there, and realizes she never knew what to make of Rudy. When they first met, she beat their dad up, the person she loved more than anyone and who had kept her safe.

The second time they met, it was outside his mansion when he was arriving home drunk with a woman on his back. She feared him because of the violence she’d witnessed, but when he let her go to the dorms without argument, she felt like he didn’t care about her one way or another, which is obviously worse than outright hatred.

At the academy and the dorms, Rudy was a universally respected and feared celebrity, and everyone who interacted with Norn spoke to her in the context of her relation to him. No one saw her for simply who she was. They even struggled to remember her name, because all that mattered was that she was his sister.

As she sits in bed, Norn realizes that all those opinions about Rudy from those at the academy reflected what two people she does trust told her about him: that he’s actually a good guy who has gone through some rough times. They said he’s not the person she thinks she is based on her limited time with him, and now she’s old enough to understand that they’re probably right.

But there’s still the matter of exorcising her mistaken idea of who and what Rudeus Greyrat is, and that can only happen by interacting with him. It just so happens that she calls out his name at the exact same time he calls out hers, and that leads her to pulling back the curtain and getting a good look at him.

Rudy might feel helpless as he stands there, but the words he chooses end up being the ones Norn most needs to hear: I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do either. I’m here for you. I won’t go away. I’ll see you for who you are.

Hearing these words opens the floodgates for Norn. Hearing those words convinces her that her fear was in her head: his clenched fist isn’t one of impending violence, but the same frustration she felt, and that their dad felt. Because her dad and her brother didn’t run, she won’t run either.

When Rudy sits beside her on the bed, Norn falls into him and lets it all out, finally able to see her brother for who he is, and who those others knew him to be. He’s someone who cares about his little sister, is there for her now, and won’t abandon her. He’s someone whose chest she can cry into as long as she needs to.

The next morning, she greets both Rudy and Sylphy with a smile on her face before stepping into the morning light and walking away, flanked by new friends. She and Rudy never exchanged any other words—neither of them heard the words we heard in their respective heads—but it doesn’t matter. You can tell that after that night, they’re both going to be all right.

If anything, Rudy admires how strong Norn is for sorting through her feelings mostly on her own, though he can’t know just how crucial his presence and words were to her finally coming to grips with who he is versus what she thought of him. It’s another heartfelt, happy ending. I could get used to these vibes, though the fact the next episode is titled “Turning Point 3” gives me pause.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST +
CERTIFIED GODDAMN TEARJERKEr

 

Classroom of the Elite – S3 12 – Here Because of Your Lie

This penultimate episode of Classroom’s third season sees the third years and Manabu off, and begins with his graduation address to the school. It’s a sober yet stirring speech, and while you could call some of its content clichéd, there’s a reason clichés are cliches: shit works. He tells anyone in the room with doubts to keep moving forward fearlessly, and the world will welcome them with warm arms. Suzune is clearly listening to her brother intently.

Class C has been demoted back to Class D, but Chabashira-sensei wants to impart on all of them how much progress they’ve made in the past year, and that improvement will be something to build on for the next. Ichinose’s class took a licking from Ryuuen and the former Class D, but she keeps on ticking, taking it as a valuable lesson. As for their alliance, Suzune ends it, wanting to pursue Class B or higher with her and her Class’s own strength. No hard feelings.

The term year may be ending, but Ayanokouji is looking to the next one as prepared as possible. The day after he calls a suspended Sakayanagi, a secret meeting is arranged with him, Arisu, Chabashira, and Mashima. He reports that Chairman Sakayanagi’s suspension and the special exam results were set up by Tsukishiro. They’re willing to hear him out, and Arisu is willing to side with him—at least until her dad is back in charge.

Ayanokouji’s primary goal in all of this is survival, and the protection of the three years he has at this school, because he’s all but convinced he’ll be headed right back to the White Room after graduation to mentor the next wave of subjects. In the meantime, both Ayanokouji and Suzune attend the swanky graduation party, but she doesn’t approach her brother, feeling like it would be unbecoming of someone trying to step out of his shadow.

Ayanokouji hangs back, and eventually gets a moment with Manabu, who wanted to see him anyway. He asks Ayanokouji to tell Suzune to meet him by the front gate at noon on his last day of school. When that day and hour arrive, Ayanokouji meets him there first. Manabu expresses his gratitude for what Ayanokouji has done for his sister, but now expects more of him. He doesn’t like Ayanokouji hiding his talent or living under the radar. Ayanokouji says he’ll give it some thought.

After they shake hands and Manabu sets off, Suzune finally arrives, wearing a cute pink cardigan, blue skirt … and newly, dramatically shortened hair. “I see you’ve changed,” her brother remarks, and it’s a line with multiple meanings. For while Suzune may think she’s made no progress and her brother is repulsed by her, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In one of the more genuinely heartwarming scenes of the entire run of CoE, Manabu makes clear that he has every confidence that Suzune has what it takes to become a great leader and person, and is already well on her way. He also tells her he pushed her away so that she would be freed from her illusion of him and stand on her own.

He also apologizes for lying when he said he preferred long hair, because he knew she liked having short hair and wanted to test if she’d take him seriously. In that regard, the Suzune of a year ago would have never come to him as she is now, with her hair back to the way she prefers.

As he expresses how much he cares for her and draws her into a loving hug, a joyfully tearful Suzune tells him his lies are the reason she’s there right now. It’s a hell of an emotional catharsis for these two that’s been three seasons in the making, all thanks to our boy Ayanokouji. That said, I somewhat doubt next week’s finale will keep these feel-good vibes going.

The Apothecary Diaries – 20 – The Hidden Spare

Maomao’s fine, everyone! If anything, she looks even more like a chuunibyou from the future with her new face and leg bandages. But there’s no rest for the recently beaten and wounded: she must make a full report to Jinshi, Gaoshun, and Basen about just how she knew that pillar would fall.

Maomao lays out Suiren’s conspiracy, much of which I had already inferred last week. Jinshi & Co. having to catch up, combined with Maomao’s subdued reaction to learning how important Jinshi is, kind of takes the air out of the room and feels recappy, even if we needed verbal confirmation. Basen constantly angrily interrupting was also annoying.

Things pick up a bit when Lihaku, who is apparently Maomao’s police informant now, tells her that Suirei was found dead of poison in her room and is scheduled to be cremated. Before that happens, Maomao asks Jinshi to allow her to inspect the corpse, remembering the “resurrection” medicine Suirei mentioned at her hilltop garden.

Maomao opens up the coffin to reveal the corpse of an entirely different woman. The doctor who examined Suirei, and knew her personally, is shocked, but Maomao indulging her curiosity has blown this case wide open: Suirei, the one with the intellect, courage, and cojones to pull off such an intricate conspiracy, is still at large. Maomao wants to catch her so she can teach her that resurrection medicine.

However, the “Suirei incident” is swept under the rug for now, which is probably for the best considering how many people ended up dead. The episode re-focuses on Jinshi, and the revelations continue to trickle out: He’s not a eunuch, nor is he twenty-four. Rather, he’s the nineteen-year-old brother of the current emperor, and he takes drugs to suppress his manhood.

The Empress Dowager gave birth to him the same time Ah-Duo gave birth to the current emperor’s firstborn son, who died soon thereafter and resulted in Ah-Duo being unable to have any more children. The younger brother’s identity was concealed as “Jinshi the eunuch” to run the Inner Palace and ensure the emperor produced a son to replace him as heir apparent to the throne.

Thus far, the emperor has had a son with Lihua, who passed away, and a daughter with Gyokuyou, who can’t be emperor. That said, things may soon be changing: Jinshi informs Maomao that Gyokuyou’s cycle has halted, a sign she’s pregnant again. Perhaps this time the emperor will get his son and heir and Jinshi can get his own life back…maybe a life with the brilliant and cute apothecary??

Jinshi dispatches Maomao, whom he trusts over any other physician, back to the Inner Palace to tend to Gyokuyou. She’s happy to be back in a place where she doesn’t have to worry about bumping into Lakan, and seeing the emperor play with his daughter, her opinion of him as a lewd lecher is starting to soften.

What with Loulan being the daughter of a high-ranking official who is no doubt trying to ascend the ladders of power, and the loss of his longtime friend and most trusted advisor Ah-Duo, even the emperor’s got his problems, and isn’t just an old dude who loves big bazongas.

Solo Leveling – 07 – Going Up to Eleven

Fresh off his victory over a C-Ranked boss, Jinwoo comes home with beer and fried chicken for him and Jin-Ah. He doesn’t think too much about the fact that he had to kill fellow humans and focuses on the fact that he did what he had to do to get stronger and protect his family. He also learns that due to his leveling up, he is no longer able to get drunk on beer.

Jinho asks to meet with Jinwoo. While it’s never in doubt that Jinho will keep his “boss'” secret, he also asks that Jinwoo assist him in becoming a guild master, which requires him to pass nineteen more raids. He offers him 30 billion to participate in these raids. And while that would have been an offer Jinwoo couldn’t refuse in the past, he refuses it here, because his unique ability to level up could allow him to surpass even the seven S-ranked hunters.

While Hwang’s younger brother seeks revenge, Jinwoo goes running with Jin-Ah, and his sister finds she’s unable to keep up with him. Even if she still considers him “E-Rank”, she figures he’s still a hunter, and is thus a cut above normal people. Even when she breathlessly catches up to him, he’s ready to keep running past his daily quest of 10km.

Going beyond the daily goals nets Jinwoo a new key that allows him access to the “Demon’s Castle”, an S-ranked dungeon and the toughest challenge his faced to date. The gatekeeper of this dungeon is a Cerberus who he’s unable to wound deeply even with his fancy dagger. It then buffs itself so its abilities are doubled, and Jinwoo’s HP suffers a precipitous drop.

When he considers using his teleportation stone to flee the battle, it is wrenched from his grip. He then decides to use a potion in his inventory that hardens his skin at the risk (or possibly guarantee) of permanent muscle damage. Throwing caution to the wind, he drinks it, and proceeds to whale on the Cerberus until it is defeated.

Having defeated the gatekeeper, he earns a new key to the Demon’s Castle itself, which he dares not enter in his current weakened state. He also gains the formula for the Elixir of Life, a potion that could cure his mother. All he has to do is acquire three items to brew it, all of them located in the aforementioned Demon’s Castle. It will be no easy task, but he’s come too far to turn back now.

Solo Leveling – 06 – Eight Legs, Six Heels

Jinwoo estimates that the giant snake boss and the golem boss he defeated were probably D-rank. That makes this spider boss C-Rank, and while he’s not sure he can defeat it at his current level, he’s also keenly aware of the fact that he’s not afraid to engage it in order to find out.

As he launches a series of quick probing strikes, he determines the spider has an extremely tough exoskeleton and periodically spits acid. These strikes drain his stamina, but he’s able to use “Full Recovery”, a Mega Potion-like reward from a previous quest, to get it all back and attack the Spider’s weak spots – its eyes.

Jinho can’t believe what he just saw an E-Rank Hunter do … unless Jinwoo is one of the rumored “False Rankers” who are able to conceal their full strength. When Dongsuk returns, he assumes the boss wasn’t that tough, and Jinho managed to bring it down with his trust fund gear.

He’ll spare Jinho … if he kills Jinwoo. Whether it’s because he’s a good kid and won’t hurt his aniki, or because he knows full well he can’t beat him (or both), Jinho sides with Jinwoo.

Dongsuk’s mage fires off a spell that slams Jinwoo into the mana crystal wall, and he believes that’s that for the Weakest Hunter. But then a window appears for Jinwoo declaring a new Urgent Quest: Kill the six enemies trying to kill him, the “Player,” or he will be assessed a penalty: his heart will stop.

Jinwoo took this job because he wanted some cash to pay the bills, but Dongsuk and his Strike Team just had to be evil assholes. Now the system is giving Jinwoo two choices: kill fellow humans for the first time, or die. There’s no choice, and Dongsuk’s men soon learn they have no chance against him.

In a matter of moments, Dongsuk is all who remains of his dastardly strike team. We’ll never know how many other lower-ranked Hunters they lured into their schemes only for them to be killed in the dungeons and written off as unfortunate casualties of the raid.

Yet despite all of the evil he’s committed, and the fact he tried to kill Jinwoo three times, he still begs for mercy and offers to pay him double what they agreed along with all the crystals. Jinwoo isn’t willing to deal with someone who has already proven untrustworthy. And the C-Ranked Dongsuk may be strong, but Jinwoo is stronger, and still leveling up.

Jinwoo went to a dark place in that dungeon, but it’s not like he had a choice. He may call himself a murderer, but what he did was self-defense; Dongsuk and his men weren’t going to stop until he and Jinho were dead.

When the two emerge and are debriefed by a guild official (whom we saw having tea with a couple friends, one of them working with S-Ranked Cha Hae-In), she assumes, like anyone would, that Jinho and his fancy armor and sword was the hero of the day.

Jinho knows better, but doesn’t say anything that might call attention to Jinwoo. As rain starts to fall, he’s mentions he’s glad he made sure Jin-Ah had an umbrella. He says it as if grasping for something to retain his humanity and sense of normalcy.

7th Time Loop – 05 – Chipped Nail

Theodore invited Rishe to the chapel to tell her that her brother is a murderous monster who even killed his own mother, and his killings aren’t limited to war time. Rishe responds that she’s “fully aware of the facts” and has still chosen to be Prince Arnold’s bride. Before Theo can protest, Arnold arrives, no doubt tipped off to the meeting by Rishe.

Arnold shoos Theodore away, then tells Rishe he warned her to stay away from him. When Rishe asks why everyone says he’s so cruel when she’s only seen him as a kind and considerate man, Arnold hisses that he’s looked after her too well. Putting his hand around her throat, he orders her to disabuse herself of that false notion. But she won’t. She trusts what she’s seen, and can’t see him as a cruel person.

Arnold sees in Rishe’s eyes the resolve of someone on the battlefield, prepared to stay true to their convictions even if it leads to her death. He’s killed others with that resolve in the eyes of others, and they’re the ones he feared most. Rishe decides to frame her situation as having dreams that she’s been killed, and the lingering fear she’s already dead and just living in a long dream after her death.

She tells him that whether this life is a dream or not, she’s not running away. If there’s resolve in her eyes, its the resolve to live as his wife. Stunned by her words, Arnold moves his hand off her throat to her chin, pushes her close, and kisses her, saying “there’s no need” for that kind of resolve.

The meaning of those words eludes Rishe, who is working herself down to the bone developing the product she’ll use to win over Chief Tully and Aria Trading Company. That product is nail polish that protects and strengthens nails. Her maid Elsie is enchanted by the look of Rishe’s sparkly, smooth nails, and Rishe applies some on her hand as well.

While doing so, Rishe learns that Elsie can’t afford to live her life for herself; it’s all she can do to put food on the table for her poor family. Poverty seems to be a deep-seated problem in the empire; Rishe wants to do something about that, and being the crown princess-to-be, she actually can.

In the meantime, she offers Elsie a bottle of the polish in whatever color she likes. Rishe’s kindness brings tears to her eyes. They’re tears she insists are of happiness, but we learn later it’s more than that.

Rishe knows going into her meeting with Tully that simply presenting the product of nail polish won’t be enough to persuade him. She’s not a fellow merchant but a customer, and Tully says the finest merchants choose their own customers.

Rishe proposes building upon the prince’s establishment of a minimum wage and hiring labor from the slums. Tully dismisses this as needless charity, but Rishe uses his own words from one of her previous loops to ask him why simply choose customers when they can produce them.

Giving the poor jobs will give them money to spend, thus making their employees their customers as well. Inspired by Elsie’s story, Rishe is determined to turn the slums from a place of despair to a place of hope and opportunity, where the common folk don’t have to give up their dreams, big or small.

When Tully sees how badly Rishe wants to work with him, he tells her he could use that fixation to wring her dry, but that’s when she whips out her trump card: she knows that Kaine’s little sister Aria, namesake of his trading empire, has an illness, just as she did in her previous loop.

In loops since then she’d become a skilled herbalist and scholar, and discovered a medicine that can cure Aria within a year. When Tully bends to one knee and basically surrenders, Rishe tells him she’ll give him the ingredients and formula for the medicine without conditions.

Rishe would only ask that Tully consider that the families in the slums care about their families as he cares about his, and humbly asks if he’ll help her. Tully again bows and tells Rishe that her words have moved him to think about the people of the slums for the first time. If he can help their families as Rishe is helping his, then they can do business together.

Rishe should be proud for finally defeating Tully in a business negotiation, but she’s not one to rest on her laurels. A lot of logistics and planning will be needed, both for the nail polish concern and her wedding. But as was previously established, Rishe had barely slept for days. When she collapses out of apparent exhaustion, it comes as no surprise.

What very much does come as a surprise is the fact that once she collapsed, her trusted maid Elsie and her guard Kamil, two of the people she’s come to trust most, betrayed her by kidnapping her and handing her to Theodore in those very slums. Perhaps Elsie’s tears were more about guilt than happiness.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Theo threatened her and Kamil’s families in order to make them work for him. If he didn’t, then even someone as shrewd as Rishe wasn’t able to see the traitors among her. Regardless, their betrayal is a brutal gut punch after such a well-fought victory.

Solo Leveling – 05 – Messing With the Wrong E-Rank

With all the blood, gore, and dread of the first two episodes and Jinwoo’s well-structured leveling up since his reawakening, there hasn’t been a ton of time for comedy on Solo Leveling. However, the nurses gossiping about how swole Jinwoo has become, one of said cute nurses asking for his contact info, and Jin-Ah also noticing said swole-ness is all funny as hell. Dude is finally getting some attention. Meanwhile, Hunter Baek Yoon-ho, one of only seven S-Ranks in Japan, gets fluffy TV interviews.

Now that he finally has some strength, Jinwoo is eager to put it to use providing for his family. But he also doesn’t want to have a high profile or draw too much attention to himself. To that end, he takes a menial but well-paying C-Rank dungeon job filling the 8-man quota for a 6-man “strike team” with no healer. His job will be to carry their baggage. The second quota-filler is Yoo Jinho, whose daddy bought him the finest armor and weapons for his very first raid.

The leader of the party, Hwang Dongsuk, seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and while his team lacks a healer, they make up for it with their offensive ability. Upon entering the dungeon they eventually encounter a horde of giant ants, but the team shows excellent training and coordination in handling them with ease.

Even so, the forebodingly dark dungeon promises to have tougher enemies, and Jinho seems like a prime target for the first victim of those enemies. As for Jinwoo, he only kills one ant with his food when no one is watching, so everyone assumes he’s the same old Weakest Hunter, serving as nothing but a porter. But he’s no greenhorn like Jinho; he advises extreme caution.

It’s right around when Jinwoo is questioning why a non-fighting gig is such a good deal when the dungeon’s tunnels are strewn with spider silk and they eventually come upon an absolute bonanza of mana crystals—perhaps a billion yen’s worth. There’s also a giant slumbering spider that Dongsuk is oddly certain won’t wake up.

Jinho asks to take a look at Jinwoo’s contract, and it doesn’t say anything about not giving him a share of mined crystals. Dongsuk seems fine with this, but since the party member responsible for the mining equipment left it back at the starting point, so Dongsuk has everyone but Jinho and Jinwoo head back for it.

Shortly after they leave the spider’s lair, Dongsuk orders the opening sealed, trapping Jinho and Jinwoo inside. Jinwoo now knows what his instinct was telling him: these guys are playing dirty. It’s sadly a common occurrence in such situations where there’s no cameras or witnesses to any crimes that occur in the dungeon.

The thing is, it wasn’t until after it was confirmed Dongsuk was backstabbing Jinwoo and Jinho that I feld like they’d actually be okay. The spider may be a C-rank boss, but it doesn’t seem as frightful a monster as the giant snake Jinwoo destroyed with his bare hands. He’s got this, so it’s just a matter of whether he can keep Jinho safe. If they’re able to get some mana crystals out of it and give Dongsuk’s party some payback, that’s a bonus.

7th Time Loop – 04 – Tricks of the Trader

Despite knowing Aria’s Kaine Tully in a past life, he sees right through her entreaties for procuring her wedding, turning her down flat with the excuse that his wares are not becoming of an imperial crown princess. While initially bewildered by such a stonewalling, Rishe remembers the opening Kaine gave her before departing. Kaine said he and his men will remain in town for a bit, so Rishe dyes her hair and sneaks out of her villa.

Rishe drinks all of Kaine’s men under the table before he even arrives, leaving the two alone for negotiations. Rishe obviously can’t tell him her overarching plan to prevent her death, but she can tell him she wants to be a trading partner and ally, not merely a customer. Kaine agrees to give her a week to come up with a business plan that’s worth his while.

She sneaks back into her chambers to find Prince Arnold waiting for her. He’s not mad—he made clear she can do what she will with her time—but isn’t enthused about her going out alone in the dead of night unescorted. If she has future business in town, he’ll accompany her, without interfering in that business. She prepares him a midnight snack of soup with medicinal herbs, lamenting that she’s a terrible cook, but he enjoys it and they eat it all together.

Before bidding her goodnight, Arnold asks Rishe if she’s met his younger brother. She hasn’t, and he warns her not to entertain him if he shows up. One minute we see this brother smirking in a seedy tavern, the next he’s waking up in Rishe’s garden plot. Introducing himself as Theodore, he has the face and voice of an angel, but gets close to Rishe and tells her he intends to “save” her from her hostage status.

Rishe would like to dig further into what exactly Prince Theo’s Whole Deal is, but she only has a month to come up with her business idea for the Chief, so she tables that for now after her bodyguards are unable to even tell her how the brothers get along. She does accidentally walk in on Arnold ordering the armies be brought into the city to protect the commoners. She notes that this Prince Arnold, who seems to be forcibly enacting policy to benefit the commoners, isn’t the same prince who killed her.

Upon retiring to her chambers, Rishe finds a sealed note ostensibly from Arnold summoning her to the chapel at midnight to “tell her a secret.” But Rishe wasn’t born yesterday, and when she arrives dressed down in mourning black, she fully expects Theodore, not Arnold, to be there.

Honestly I would have been content to watch Rishe get into the nitty gritty of researching the capital in order to develop the most profitable plan, but Theo makes for an enticing wild card, adding palace intrigue to what has so far become a not-very-laid back seventh loop. But let’s be real here: Rishe isn’t one to just laze about, as much as she says she might want to.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 14 – Eternal Love

Fern remembered Stark’s birthday and gave him the gift of a silver bracelet. But when Fern’s birthday arrives, Stark does not give her a gift. She is rightfully pissed, but is perhaps a bit too harsh in her protestations, leading Stark to run off. Sein, an older male, tells Fern that perhaps she should go after the young, emotional Stark. Frieren agrees.

Fern finds Stark in the town plaza, but can’t quite work up the courage to talk to him. Sein, in turn, buys Fern a birthday gift; a cute pouch with a butterfly motif, like her hairpin. Sein, an older fellow, knows that Fern would rather she and Stark get along, so he gently urges her to go to him and work things out, in her own time.

By the time Fern finally confronts Stark, he’s the first to apologize; he had actually remembered her birthday, but wanted her to pick something out for her present, as he wasn’t sure what would please her. She in turn apologizes for being too harsh on him, and actually wears a smile as she accompanies him to the market so she can pick something out.

I’m not going to say Fern and Stark are the cutest goddamn couple in all animedom. But I’m also not going to not say that. These are two young people who were so carefully honed into the demon-obliterating mage and warrior that they are that they scarcely had time for things like romance, but here they are, still trying their best.

Both Sein and Frieren observe the two from a rooftop, glad that they were able to make up on their own. Sein notes that both youths could benefit from the guidance of their elders, but he considers himself lacking in the mature adult department.

It comes as a surprise to Sein for Frieren to report that Heiter was not always the wise and dependable priest he knew. On her adventures, Heiter was drunk and/or hungover more times than not. As the years progressed, he matured, as all people tend to do.

In his older years, Heiter still looked forward to the time when his Goddess would praise him in Heaven. But until then, Frieren decided she’d be the one to praise him, with a simple head pat that meant all the world to him. In the present, she applies the same head pat to Sein, who was instrumental in getting Fern and Stark to make up.

The party ends up availing themselves of a ride aboard the wagon of a merchant to the next town. Frieren notices that the design of Fern’s bracelet, given to her by Stark, resembles a ring that Himmel once gave her. Frieren rifles through her disorganized luggage and eventually finds that ring. That very moment, the wagon is snatched up by a giant demon bird monster. That poor horse!

Frieren and Fern can both fly, but as she explains to Stark, they can’t make objects larger than themselves, i.e. the wagon, fly for long. Since there aren’t enough mages capable of flight to carry Stark, Sein, and the merchant to safety, Frieren goes with Plan B. Plan B is for Frieren to fly out on her own, behead the monster, and slow the fall of the wagon enough so that everyone else isn’t pulverized. And it works!

Everyone is fine, but the fall damages the wagon, so everyone gets to work repairing it. As they do, Fern is made aware of the fact that the particular design of the bracelet Stark gave her has a special meaning: it represents eternal love.

Neither she nor Stark knew that, so she deems Stark an idiot, but she also has no intention of allowing Stark to replace it with anything else, and is offended by the very suggestion. Needless to say, Fern and Stark are now one of my favorite couples of the season, surpassed only by Chise and Philomena in The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

As the wagon repairs progress, each night Frieren strikes out on her own, in search of the ring Himmel gave her many decades ago. While Stark didn’t know the bracelet he gave to Fern was a pronouncement of his eternal love for her, Himmel knew exactly what he was doing. We know this, because when he presented Frieren with the ring, he got on one knee as if he was proposing to her.

Frieren was moved back then, and remains moved now, by Himmel’s gesture, and so even though Himmel gave her other things, the ring she lost still carries a great deal of meaning for her. It’s fortunate then that the merchant that was giving them a ride in his wagon happens to possess a spell that allows one to locate a lost accessory.

Once she has that spell, Frieren flies up into the air, and a flash of light indicates the location of where the ring was dropped. Just as Fern’s bracelet means a lot to her, and she doesn’t mind that it had the unintended meaning of eternal love, so too is Frieren exceedingly happy to have found the ring Himmel gave her as a token of his eternal love for her.

And let me underscore that it is eternal, as Frieren herself (virtually) is. Even though Himmel has passed away, his love endures, and very time Frieren looks upon that ring, she will be reminded of that enduring love.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 13 – The Push They Need

This week’s Frieren starts out in media res as a well-dressed gentleman tells the titular elf how his lively best friend once invited him to go adventuring with him, but he turned him down and remained in his village, and you can tell there’s some regret there.

When Frieren asks what we also want to know—why he’s telling her this—we cut to a wider shot with perfect comic timing, to see that he’s slowly sinking into a bog, and needs some assistance. Frieren hesitates … because the man’s hand is dirty.

When Fern sees the man, named Sein, Frieren finally pulls him out of the bog. They see him to his village where he invites them to come enjoy their upcoming harvest festival, but the party is trying to reach a larger town for resupply.

He wishes them well and bids they take extra care, for the woods are full of venomous animals. No sooner do they part ways thank Stark is bitten by a snake and starts bleeding profusely from the nose. Frieren is no priest, but the bigger town is too far, so they fly back to the village, where the priest tells them Stark’s affliction is incurable.

That is, at least to this priest. His brother, who happens to be Sein, and comes in to ask why their tub is so small (such a surreal, random joke), is another story. In less than three seconds, he heals Stark of the seemingly incurable poison completely.

Sein’s older brother tells Frieren & Co. what’s already evident: Sein is a genius when it comes to healing magic. Stark believes he’d make a fine addition to their party and Fern tends to agree, but Frieren is hesitant, saying she has an “aversion” to “her own kind.”

Now, as Sein is neither a woman, nor an elf, nor a mage like Frieren, I wondered what she mean by “same kind.” Then Stark heads down to the bar, gambles with Sein and the village chief, the chief takes the shirts off both their backs (appalling Fern), and I got the full picture.

Frieren sees Sein as she once was: someone who was frozen in place and felt it too late to start adventuring. She even felt she had forgotten how to fight demons. But Himmel gave her the push she needed with five simple words: “I’m talking about the present.”

Sein may be a drinking, smoking, gambling priest, but Frieren still wants to give him the push Himmel gave her. Fern’s pleasant and assured tone when she tells Frieren that alcohol is the best medicine (echoing her guardian Heiter’s twisted philosophy) is a delight to behold.

Persuading Sein to give up his easy, comfy life to realize a long-abandoned dream proves difficult, even with Frieren, Fern, and Stark putting on a full-court press of a charm campaign. Eventually they ask his brother what he likes besides booze, cigarettes, and cards.

The fourth thing he likes is older women. When Frieren proudly presents herself to him as a much, much, much older woman, Sein is not moved, not doubt due to her, er, modest proportions. Then she whips out her surefire seduction technique: a blown kiss.

While this scandalizes the reliably chaste Fern and Stark, Sein is again entirely unmoved, and Frieren calling him “sonny” doesn’t move the needle either. She is puzzled by this, because it worked perfectly on Himmel back in the day (as he was clearly far more susceptible to her elven wiles).

When they mention his friend he regretted not adventuring with, Sein tells them he must be dead, having been gone ten years when he said he’d be back in three. He also remembers Heiter telling his brother he could serve in the holy capital and take Sein with him, but his brother didn’t want to uproot him.

After slapping Sein for the first time ever, his brother makes clear he made no sacrifice to stay in the village. That’s where he wanted to be, and he doesn’t regret it. It’s Sein who still regrets the choice to stay put, and his brother can’t bear to watch him regret it any longer. Again Frieren tells him, this is the present.

That evening, Sein visits Frieren, Fern, and Stark, by the river, and tells them he intends to accompany them on their adventures, if only until he finds his friend, who he no longer assumes to be dead. And just like that, the party grows to four, just like the one that defeated the Demon King.

I’ll go out on a limb and say this was probably the goofiest and most lightweight episodes of Frieren, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I’ve always liked the gentle but often clever comedy that’s been dusted throughout the show, and this episode provided the most laughs to date, making for a nice change of pace: less of a sober funeral, more of a cheerful wake.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 12 – All Who Work Hard are Warriors

Frieren had already shown her trust in Fern and Stark even before their battles with Aura and her lieutenants, but she demonstrates it again as they continue their trudge through a harsh blizzard. Frieren suddenly falls asleep while walking. Without Fern and Stark, she would have frozen to death.

In her sleep she dreams of her party’s visit to the king, who only gave them a pittance in traveling money. Himmel is fine making money doing odd jobs for people on their way to the Demon King. Frieren learns his hero’s sword is a replica, and that Himmel became the man he is in order to prove Heiter wrong: even with a fake sword, he would become a real hero.

Not long after Frieren wakes up (but insisting upon Fern continuing to carry her) they arrive at the Village of the Sword, the custodians of the holy Sword in the Stone (i.e. Excalibur). It’s 49th chief is a little girl, who puts them up in cozy accommodations.

Frieren is fashionably late (by three decades) for her 50-year duty to the village: clearing out monsters. The chief also mentions that the “Lord of the Mountain” has been causing more trouble of late. Still chilled from the long road there, Frieren pushes those threats off until tomorrow.

That morning, the pack wolf-like monsters are no trouble at all for Stark, Fern, or Frieren, and when the so-called Lord of the Mountain shows up, Frieren is not impressed.

Even though it seemingly buries Stark in a shock wave of snow and ice, she doesn’t budge for the duration of their fight. She simply waits for Fern to put up a shield around them, then waits for Stark to lop off the Lord’s arm before she finishes it off with her Zoltraak.

All in all, her 50-year duty is easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. But Stark is confused. Within the cave is the Hero’s Sword, still embedded in the stone. Frieren tells him that Himmel failed to remove it, and went on to become a Real Hero without it. With Frieren, Eisen, and Heiter by his side, they defeated the Demon King.

She assumes the false word that he did pull the sword from the stone was spread by his fans. Someone as long-lived as Frieren has seen the stories of countless people embellished to the point their original identity vanishes. But in Himmel’s case she knows what he did, what he didn’t do, and what he used to do it. Carrying a fake sword didn’t stop him from saving the world.

Freiren, Fern and Stark’s northern travels take them to the first good-sized city in a while. While the youths are free to do what they want, Frieren is content to relax at the inn with a grimoire or two. She also offhandedly mentions that it’s Stark’s eighteenth birthday.

This catches Fern off guard, as now she must get him a gift despite not knowing what he wants. As for Frieren, she shows off her adorably mischievous side by showing Fern her gift for him: a potion that dissolves only clothing. Fern dumps it out on Frieren instead.

Fern searches for Stark, but everywhere she stops he has just left, having helped every single person whose paths he crossed. This gets Fern in a charitable mood, such that when she finally tracks him down, she lets out a rare smile. Unfortunately, her greeting is interrupted by Stark observing that a passing cloud looks like boobs and another like a turd … which is 100% in both cases!

Fern sighs away his childishness and offers to go on a walk with him, and that’s when she asks flat-out what he wants for his birthday. The question confuses him, as he’s never received a gift for his birthday. He then tells her about his village of warriors where weakness wasn’t tolerated, and his older brother Stoltz, the strongest warrior in the village.

His father praised him for defeating monsters without even staining his pure white cloak. But for all his strength and focus, Stoltz cares for his little brother and teaches him as much as he can, even when he gets  mud on that cloak.

His story ends with his village in flames, and him abandoning Stoltz and running away. But Fern tells him the past doesn’t matter, and the warrior Stark she’s known has never run, and she and Frieren will never let him. Changing the subject, she wants to give him a gift to show she cares. He initially asks for a gold bangle, but settles for a silver one.

When they return to the inn, Frieren is preparing gigantic Hamburg steaks, the recipe for which she found in her trunk. It was given to her by Eisen, who used to make the same steaks for the other party members on their birthdays, a custom from his village.

Eisen did it to honor warriors who have worked hard, and as far as he’s concerned, anyone who works hard is a warrior. Stark then remembers that Stoltz made him a Hamburg steak for his birthday once, but didn’t realize it was a gift. The taste nearly brings a tear to his eye, and that’s when Frieren knows she chose well. She also has a little bit of the nudity potion left if he wants it, but Fern again protests.

My Happy Marriage – 05 – Forced Exchange

It fills Miyo with joy to not only learn that a kimono much like her mother’s suits her just as well, but that Kiyoka picked it out for her. The two are getting on famously, which is a big problem for Minoru. He shows Kaya a photo of the happy couple, and when Kaya sees that the hottie who was at her house was Kiyoka, she’s ready to dump Kouji for him, and thinks she can convince her dear father to cancel the engagement.

Meanwhile, Miyo’s life might as well be paradise, as she throws a dinner party for Kiyoka and his aide Godou as thanks for reuniting her with Hana. Kiyoka isn’t ready for how beautiful Miyo looks when she greets them at the entrance, marking the first time I believe he’s outright blushed. But Kaya continues to stew, considering it absolutely unacceptable for Miyo to be happy, let alone happier than her. Karma’s a bitch, bitch!

Godou is a very lighthearted, forward guy, so after a delicious meal and sake, he takes Miyo’s hands in gratitude and jokingly asks her to marry him instead of Kiyoka. Naturally, Miyo takes him seriously and apologizes, for she wants to be with Kiyoka. Kaya fails to convince her father, who tells her to go practice homemaking, so she takes another tack and tries to convince Kouji to swap fiancées with Kiyoka.

Miyo has another dream, which has me starting to think she actually does have a gift related to dreams. In their most intimate scene to date, Kiyoka holds Miyo as she awakens from her troubling slumber, and promises her that no matter what she’s going through, she’s not alone. She’ll never be alone ever again.

Kouji pays a visit to his father, only to find Kaya is already there, and things are already in motion to swap her with Miyo. While Kaya’s father isn’t on board, Minoru and Kaya believe he will be if it’s Miyo’s idea to leave Kiyoka. Of course, Miyo would never, ever want to do that, but we’re dealing with people with supernatural powers, so they may be able to force her to do or say things she doesn’t want to.

Miyo slips up when she fails to put the amulet Kiyoka gave her into her new matching pouch. She and Yurie walk to his work so she can deliver him a homemade lunch, but on their way back she realizes she doesn’t have the amulet, and not five minutes later she’s being abducted by an invisible man in a car.

While Yurie rushes back to tell Kiyoka what’s happened, Kaya takes her leave, and Kouji gets violent with his father. Unfortunately, even though he’s stronger than Minoru expected, Kouji is no match for his dad, who plants him on the floor and has him tied up. Fortunately, Kouji’s big brother is on his side, and unties him and tells him to go do what he needs to do.

Kouji does that, but he knows he alone isn’t enough to stop his father. So he pays a visit to Kiyoka, and begs him for help saving Miyo. It goes without saying that Kiyoka is going to rescue Miyo, it’s just a matter of how quickly and how righteously he punishes those who harmed her. But I’ll still admit, even though I saw it coming a mile away, actually watching Miyo be kidnapped sent my heart plummeting into my stomach.

Mushoku Tensei II – 00 – The Bodyguard

This prologue to the much-awaited second season of Mushoku Tensei shows us what happened to poor Sylphiette (Kayano Ai) after the Fittoa catastrophe. She’s transported to a spot several thousand feet above the gardens of the royal palace of Asura, where the second princess Ariel Anemoi Asura is enjoying afternoon tea.

A giant boar monster happens to attack Asura just when Sylphie arrives, crushing the boar’s skull when she lands on it. She ends up unconscious in a bed of flowers, making quite an impression on the princess, who reminds me of a less sadistic Princess Renner from Overlord: an outwardly cute and kind blonde royal with hidden depths and ambitions.

She wakes up nude (for some reason) in a bed, and when Asura learns the name of the village where she’s from, she informs Sylphie that Fittoa has been destroyed and her family and friends’ fate is unknown. Asura then tells her that she could get in trouble for trespassing on the royal grounds, so she has her assume the identity of a male and her new mage bodyguard, “Silent Fitz”.

“Fitz” finds the hustle and bustle of the royal court tiring, especially when her elf ears can hear all the offhand comments and mutterings about her. When she loses focus, stumbles, and knocks over a noble’s wine, Princess Asura bails her out by gracing the crowd with her beautiful singing voice (courtesy of Ueda Reina).

In that same mingling session, we meet Asura’s older brother, who is in line for the throne despite being an illegitimate child. He suspects Asura is trying to gather support to usurp him, and even arranges for her assassination. Thus Sylphie has found herself in one tangled mess of palace intrigue and backbiting.

On top of that, she suffers nightmares of her fall, but Asura invites her to sleep in her bed. Initially I, like Sylphie, worried that Asura might use her station to take advantage of her, but turns out to only be joking (or saw Sylphie wasn’t into it and stopped). She also admits to suffering nightmares from the day of the boar attack, and finds Sylphie’s presence soothing.

Later that night is significantly less soothing, as an extremely lithe and scantily clad assassin attacks them. Sylphie demonstrates that she’s no slouch by matching blows with the tiny ninja-like killing machine, and even when she’s nicked by her poison blade-animated, , she manages a coup-de-grace that sends the attacker smashing through the room’s main window and into the forest below.

Once again, Asura lives thanks to Sylphie. And while I realize the assassin is just a tool of one of her political enemies, I wish we’d have been given a little more about her besides her name later on, and wonder why she had to be introduced on the lap of that big old bald guy. Oh well…

Under council from a loyal minister, Asura decides to exercise the better part of valor and flee the capital, gather foreign supporters, and bide her time for the eventual coup. That’s right: Asura’s brother’s suspicions are correct! But because he and his pal are jerks and Asura is nice to our elf girl, I’m totally on Team Asura.

Asura even releases “Fisk” from her service, as she regrets the underhanded circumstances under which she was hired and doesn’t wish to burden her further. But Sylphie remembers Asura calling her a friend, and she considers her a friend as well—a friend who is no burden to protect. She puts the Kamina-like shades back on and re-assumes the mantle of Silent Fisk of her own free will.

I quite enjoyed this royal detour from the main story of Rudeus, which succeeded in its world-building and in weaving a simple but compelling story of an underdog princess trying to claim the throne. We don’t meet the other prince or princess above her in the order of succession, but I’m sure they’re jerks too. The promo art for the season suggests Sylphie and an older Rudy will cross paths at some point. I’m hoping they’ll recognize each other and reunite as pals!