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Omae wa mou shindeiru translation12/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Once more we see Stark’s true courage as he breaks into the palace with Fern, and winds up facing down Lügner and Linie alone as a distraction for Fern. Lügner gets quite talkative here, explaining how demons devote their entire lives to the pursuit of one specific type of magic, and how he therefore hates “geniuses” (like Flamme) who can reboot the system with timeless bursts of inspiration. But he needs the Graf alive, to tell him how to lower Flamme’s barrier around the town. The jig is up at that point, and Lügner finally reveals his magic – blood magic, which he uses to dispense with all of Granat’s guards. He was smart enough to read the situation in the dungeon – and Draht’s absence – correctly and piece together what probably happened. And that smile (a rarity) she flashed when she talked about hating to fight strong opponents was interesting – suggesting a number of different interpretations. She makes out like she’s just bailing, but she has much bigger plans in mind. When he and Fern run into the escaped Frieren on the street, Stark begs her to help them take on Lügner aand Linie, but Frieren declines. But as they say, courage isn’t not being afraid, it’s being afraid and doing what has to be done anyway. Meanwhile, Stark is literally quivering with fear at the thought of taking on Lügner (for a second there I wondered if he actually did wet himself). The only problem was that by his killing her guard, he made things awkward for her to stick around and chill in her cell (since demon bodies dissolve into mana when they die). In truth Frieren wasn’t really bothered by Draht at all – he wasn’t remotely in her weight class. All that talk about how most mages would “lose their head” after his wire attack was pretty amusing. Remember Draht went after Frieren of his own volition, and in fact Lügner wound up being rather displeased about that when it effectively undercut his entire plan. And that makes her kind of scary.ĭraht certainly found that out. She has no need to show off how strong she is because she knows how strong she is, and doesn’t care whether anybody else does or not. This is the titular Frieren we’ve seen emerge here, and even if I disagree with the liberal English translation of “Frieren the Slayer”, the point is the same – she’s a badass. This was a gear I didn’t know it had, and the change in tone is very welcome – there was a risk of some monotony if that style had continued unabated for 28 episodes. That said (and it’s a hell of a high bar) the versatility Frieren has shown in the last couple of episodes has impressed me. I just don’t think it’s a masterpiece on the level of Pluto or Vinland Saga. So all in all far more positives than negatives, and I totally get why it’s such a critical and commercial smash. The things it does so well – mood, world-building, big ideas – are hugely important, and the secondary characters are generally more interesting than the leads. ![]() My take on it at this point is that it’s damn good, but that the character writing is not strong enough for me to really call it great. So I think it’s fair to start making some general assessments. ![]() We’re a third of the way – almost – through Sousou no Frieren now (which sounds funny given it’s only been a month).
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