You bring up an interesting point that I hadn't really thought of before. The fact that Fern is being raised through her adolescence by Frieren must have an impact on her. Frieren does not really seem like the type to be emotionally supportive as Fern is dealing with a tumultuous world around her on this journey. It would probably make Fern a bit weird to other humans as she has certainly picked up aspects of Frieren's personality that have rubbed off onto her (just like Fern has influenced Frieren).

I understand that this show is not the most beloved or best story by any stretch, but I really love the characters in this show. It is like having a cast full of Aquas from Konosuba. They are all so stupid, but likable in their own ways. This episode probably features the most controversial part of the whole story when Mirika kidnaps Naoya. I do really like the OP for this season, but the visuals in the OP give away a lot of the story that is yet to happen. The manga might be over, but at least we still get to spend a bit more time with these goofballs that can only seem to speak with capslock stuck on.

It's great to see Frieren recognizing that she has changed since the last time she fought one of those monsters and illusory Himmel was such a bro to make it easy for her to blast him. I think it is a bit unfair to criticize Fern for freezing up fighting a monster when she did just fine against Qual when he was unsealed. Looking forward to seeing the party fully assembled and some action next episode.

Also, the OP has grown on me a bit since last week. It's not my favorite ever, but it is pretty good, especially paired with great visuals. The ED is amazing though.

So good to see my favorite LN series back with Season 2 so quickly. So many things I can say, but I will keep it to the highlights.

• I think it was a good choice to do a tiny bit of recap to make it clear that Claire won the Bushin Festival. I remember a lot of people not really picking up on that at the end of last season. Though, I am sad to see they pretty much cut the scene of Cid treating Claire to dinner, it was a pretty funny one. It was nice of Cid to yadda-yadda his way through most of the recap so as to keep things moving.
• The "I smell it" gag and that whole Shadow Garden meeting was an anime original scene and worked pretty well. The anime keeps finding ways to incorporate members of the Seven Shadows that haven't even really had an impact in the LNs yet.
• They handled the early ghoul stuff a bit differently, but I actually like they way they did it a lot. In the LN, Cid didn't really meet Mary in that way, so he was spouting off lines that he made up to sound cool. In the anime, I really like that he copied Mary's lines with everybody that he met as Shadow. I am pretty sure they literally just reused the animation of him saying them multiple times, adding to the gag.
• Skel and Po showing up was nice to see. They don't appear in this arc at all, but this totally fits their characters.
• Claire is just casually decapitating ghouls with a kick. If you remember, we saw Rose do this to a cult member in Season 1 when she gets her magic back during the school attack arc.
• Mary using a blood sword is a nice touch that I don't remember being in the LNs. However, it totally fits with the lore and I really like it.
• The last five minutes of the episode felt like a whirlwind as they rapidly introduced all the new characters for this arc.
• I like the new OP. I was never a huge fan of Season 1's OP, so I am happy with the change. I guess we will see what they have done with the ED next episode.

I like this theory. It's a classic fantasy story beat of having the church/government be the actual evil ones. Also, what we have seen of the human king has not shone the best light on his character. I hope we find out more about Helck's hero awakening in the future.

Backstory dump episode for Helck this week and it looks like we are getting another next week to continue the story. Some thoughts in no particular order:

• New OP: I like this one better than the last. I wasn't expecting a new OP, so it was a surprise, but a welcome one. Also love the visuals in this one.
• We get to see Helck's brother for the first time. He seems much more like a shonen protagonist than Helck, who, even back then, was kind of a goofy kid that smiled all the time (though we did see some more emotions from kid Helck compared to adult Helck).
• Helck had awakened his hero powers as a little kid. I wonder if this is going to get explored any more.
• It seems the only time Helck's smile disappears is when Cless is in trouble. Whether that is when he was getting beaten up or sickly, those are really the only times Helck stops grinning.
• We now know why Helck is so good at construction and cooking. That is primarily what he did instead of fighting, leaving that to Cless.
• New ED: I think this one is my favorite of all the OPs and EDs this show has had.

Looks like we are getting more Helck/Cless backstory next episode. These exposition dump episodes can sometimes be a slog to get through, but I don't feel this one was too bad. We already spent so much time with the characters that we actually want to know more rather than doing two whole episodes of backstory on a character we have just met.

I went into this series blind. I had just seen a key visual and read the synopsis on MAL. I had expected a pretty comfy SOL/comedy centering around a witch and her adopted daughter with comedy stemming from people's misunderstanding based on their appearances. Something similar to Slime 300 crossed with Usagi Drop (two shows I really liked). Those elements were definitely present in the first two episodes. I also would have never guessed that the orange, derpy-looking ostrich creature from the visual is some legendary phoenix.

However, I was not expecting the show to have as much ecchi as was in these first two episodes. Especially ecchi focused around a character that we are reminded several times in these episodes is only 16 years old. I don't really know where things are going to go from here. There have been shows that inject ecchi into the beginning of the series and then tone it down later (Mieruko-chan comes to mind), so I will probably stick around for a couple more episodes to see how it goes.

This show was all over the place and very little of it was any good. I couldn't tell at times whether it wanted to play the story straight or if it wanted to be a parody of tropes but was just bad at it.

Lycoris Recoil is my vote as well. As an aside, I recently started watching Zombie Land Saga and learned that the eyecatches of the girls posing with things are actually products made in Saga prefecture. Anyway, LycoReco's eye catches are great.

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.

They are similar in that they are very silly, comedy first romcoms. The main difference I think is that there is very little to no drama around the fact that the MC is dating multiple people. Everybody just accepts that fact and moves on. It becomes a running joke in the manga when the MC introduces a new girlfriend. 100GF mainly uses the cast of girlfriends to drive the comedy rather than actual relationship stuff.

Talk about a tease! The ED started playing and my heart started to sink. Then, I saw there was more content after the ED and became hopeful. Then it was just Piwi silliness and my heart started to sink once more. Then, I got to see Anne dancing and made me realize everything will be alright.

The next episode preview shows young Helck and his brother, so we should be getting some major backstory.