e-five

I probably just forgot it then, most likely has been a while, and I think when I did reread it I probably started where this episode ends, funny enough, since everything before it kind of felt like the prologue to me.

When I saw that line somehow I knew it would be the one you would pick

When it comes to pacing, I do wonder how they storyboard this stuff. I feel like the rigid ~25min, 12 or 13 episodes must make it difficult. Like how they're going to split up the future content, I have no idea. I have some idea of stopping points but, there's a lot to do and feel like not a lot of great stopping points, though I guess cliffhangers are a thing.

I do wonder if non-aired anime ever gets more freedom of like, "ok this time we're going to do a 32 minute episode". "ok this season will be 16 episodes". Maybe not a thing but wonder if it would make pacing things much easier

A bit of backstory at the start which sort of rounds the plot out. Feel like most of it was pretty obvious, but they really spelled it out for people just in case they weren't able to pick up on hair styles in shadowy back alleys. I am shocked by what happened at the end of the episode... If it wasn't for the opening which has had the scene this whole time.

I can't quite remember if the whole Hibiki thing was a thing in the WN or if that was added in the LN. I don't quite remember it from the WN, but as 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi noted, it's been mentioned in the manga at least.

It does feel like the demons really had a ton of pieces to play for here. A potential hero party member, messing with Rotsgard, which I can't remember if it was a trade center or education center or both for the humans, but I'm pretty sure it's important. The Limia, king? was it? Empire princess, adventurer guild master (of course mentioned he helped the demons before so maybe not this one, or maybe they'd just consider it a necessary sacrifice), and those Lorel Union folks. And all they had to do was potentially make Makoto less favorable to them. Seems like it should be worth it. Especially since Rona just made an informal verbal agreement not to harm Makoto, it's his fault for not getting things in writing, so he can't be too mad, right?

Excited that it's finally kicking off, one more week, and then another, and then maybe a few more... until the end.

People will have put their kids through college before Rimuru and Hinata actually fight like they have been in OPs since the first season.

Another episode of politics down.

Looks like it's time to hold another festival. Wonder how many the series has had so far...

AST somehow looks good to me despite being a black robe just like literally all other AST glam. Also really like SAM/GNB. SGE however... oof

Definitely was finding it hard to describe what I mean, my store has a bakery/butchery in it and I think they prepare things in-house, like bake bread/muffins and then throw them in plastic bags, make batches of mac and cheese and throw it in plastic tubs, etc. It's possible they ship some stuff in and that wouldn't work, but I just meant for things that were literally like oven to shelves stuffed into plastic bags, maybe it'd be nice if it could be used there.

Not a scientist so couldn't quite tell from the article if this would work for its use case; but all of the prepared / cooked food I see at my grocery store is packed in plastic containers. They all have shelf life of that day / maybe a couple of days (this is like a buffet + packed / prepared meals, not sure what exactly to describe it as). I always thought it would be great if that could be less wasteful, it'd definitely make me feel more likely to buy it instead of all being in single use plastic containers.

Ahaha, I can imagine people being unhappy about it. I always like to see MCs lose battles but win wars, especially when it's not about actual fighting. And this seems pretty realistic in a "your books don't work out" kind of IRL auditing you would expect. I guess the one thing is, with how insanely competent Shiki and crew seem to be, you'd think they would have already thought about this obvious flaw, but I guess you could also chalk it up to them not caring and knowing they could just pave all the capitals if they wanted to.

Wasn't sure if this entire episode was going to be the full tournament or not, but the change half way helped break things up between action and story. Always good to see MCs lose in creative ways. Certainly seems to set up some interesting implications on the future if sides are being picked.

I kept forgetting to mention in the last couple episodes that vol 1 of the LN is available in the West now

Benchmark can be downloaded here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/index.html

Welcome to the Hinata channel

INTRIGUE! the episode

One of my fears with having such a hype OP, not sure how long it will take to live up to it as there's always so much setup

I almost feel bad for Princess Lily.

I forget how much they went into detail back... Oh I was going to say season 1 but obviously it was at the start of this season. But she obviously has a difficult past, just like a lot of the characters. All of the factions are just doing the best with the hands they've been dealt and the story does a good job being a bit realistic imo in that people act cautiously when they don't have information or continuously try to infiltrate / spy on other factions.