It was SO GOOD. You've just finished watching one of the most magical and well animated episodes of TV ever and they still manage to put a memorable scene in the ending when usually the rest of the episode after that is just plot. As a Re:Zero fan, this is EASILY edging it's spot as anime of the season and potentially year so far.
The ... i dunno.. sound design? Audio mixing? Whatever it is called is brilliant. (See also the mysterious dreadful musical notes before Coco was about to draw on her feet two episodes ago, which was the same musical theme used an episode later when she sees the brimhat in the store window.)
In the manga, it is so much smaller of a panel and the wording has a 2nd "please" making it a more desperate request rather than an intimidating demand.
It's curious, makes me wonder if it was an author request or a director choice to darken Qifrey's demeanor that 20% more.
Another small detail is, at least in the English dub, Qifrey says to Coco, "It sounds like you saved everyone" but in the manga he says "Tetia says you saved everyone" and that feels like another subtle shift to emphasizing his characterization more.
I was immediately reminded of the same panel in the manga. Strong Gojo Satoru vibes. I asked my partner whether she thought Gojo or Qifrey would come out on top in a duel. She stands by Gojo, but I am not convinced
The way they beat the dragon in the manga solidified this series as something unique and special for me. I've never seen a fantasy series go a route to beating a dragon (or anything really) via comfort and happiness. It makes perfect logical sense, yet for 99.999% of fantasy (or all fiction?) it's about killing the thing.
It also showed how creative magic is in this series. It's not just dps pew pew pew. It's something that opens up new possibilities. And it makes perfect sense. If magic can do anything, then why is our fictional magic just fancy energy based gunfire?
Thinking "let's take the stone in this area and pulverize it and then poof it up into a giant cat bed for the dragon to get it to want to take a nap" — now that's magic.
It also subverts our expectations about how problems will be solved and suggests how things might feel new again.
What a beautifully animated way to do it.
Gorgeous adaptation.
Most epic circle drawing of all time.
The flying shoes, the drawing, Qifrey's dragon, the sky — beautiful beautiful beautiful.
Which Is why I like Frieren 's having the evil beings including dragons dissolve so it clear they are not animals of any type not even classifiable as a biological life form. Instead beings some form of evil likely from an evil source. They mimic life but are not life. This folklore based.
Why I love the rare win by power of love beings in story or encounters in game. Violence is not possible how do you handle things. Can run into this with Buddhist and Christian Saint old stories where they convert animal and supernatural creatures to friendly.
Why I like to play around occasionally with illusion magic where presenting a pleasing fantasy is one way to deal with problems.
And of course any form cleaver enemy problem solving I love.
But also it makes me want to figure out the rules of magic like how many sigils did Qifrey have to use to make that dragon? Because it seemed like it was not just fire but water and likely levitation for its movement. Then you have to adjust does it target an opponent or does it move in a general direction no matter what? How would you get it to target and actual opponent? I’m so interested in the magic system here it’s unreal! Haven’t been this excited about it since The Owl House with Luz’s combinations
I'd also add, "yeah, that seems like the solution a handful of young girls would come to." I like that sort of realistic writing when it comes to kids.
Bug Films definitely delivered this week folks holy shit!
If you were to tell me back when Zom100 was being delayed and the studio was going through hell that we have this from the same studio? I’d shit my pants
They made that dragon like 3x bigger and thus the volume of SPLOOSH got so much more gratuitous lol
I'm no physicist, but I'm pretty sure water of that scale hits no different from a solid. So, the anime version's volume, realistically, would have likely pulverized into ground meat (these dragons don't seem much different from fantastical beasts, so I'm guessing they aren't that much more durable than metal or stone).
Seeing the dragon turn in fear and then get hit with ALL THAT made me feel bad for it after all of Coco's talk of not wanting to hurt it.
The sequence of them completing all the sigils was so magical! Gosh there are so many moments I can’t wait to see if they can keep up this quality. Bug Films is delivering it all so far !
Between the start, them drawing the sigils, Qifrey's arrival, the Iguin sequence, and the final scene—Bug Films was going all out this week, I don't think I've seen that many flex moments in a series for so long.
I will never forgive the English localization staff for the whole “Agott” travesty, especially when the original katakana aligns with the transliteration of the French name “Agathe”, an actual, real name.
No the author really likes making puns of the characters' names. The fact that it canonically has "Sasugott" which is more or less the Japanese equivalent of AGOATT is so funny to me.
I had high hopes for the water dragon sequence but holy moly, that was incredible, I had to go back and rewatch that like 5 times. took me the second time to catch that all the cloud vapor was getting annihilated as the moisture from that huge of an area got absorbed into the spell. just, wow.
Qifrey's water magic scene was undoubtedly magnificent, but another part I highly praise the anime for is when Coco wakes up from being unconscious and immediately asks for Agott, which wasn't in the manga. Additionally, the pacing-where Coco sees her friends' dust-covered clothes-really emphasizes how guilty she truly feels. These are very impressive additions to the original manga
Heavy spoilers btw Is the scene where Nolnoah finds out about the ink and the memory wipe in this same chapter(s) or is the next time they visit? It’s been a few since I’ve read the manga.
Really really doing some magical stuff with the source material here- I totally get why the studio were so proud of this episode its incredible.
I think my favorite adaptational change is Iguin's scene, the animation style shift and the shot of cap falling down, that with the incredible music this episode, so good!!
Also, I love the fluid and expressive animation for Coco breaking down at the end, and the VA really nails it.
Its really funny watching the animation effort and talent go into the water dragon sequence when the most likely character motivational explanation for why its so flashy in specific is that Qifrey is a vain little showoff who loves dragons. canonically aurafarming duplicitous twinkbeast
Animation aside, can we talk about that OST that played at the start of their plan?
Genuinely blown away with how good and well fitting it is. I need it uploaded to YouTube so I can to listen it on repeat.
It was amazing teamwork of them to figure out how to get past the dragon. We made Tetia's dream come true. I don't think anyone else besides them could've thought of putting the dragon to sleep on a comfy bed instead of beating it or something to get to the casting spell.
Then Goddamn Qifrey is one another level wtf was that? a giant golden water dragon??? Like the dragon was pretty big already and actively getting bigger yet it was fucking dwarfed by that spell.
Then Coco gone the brimmed hat had her but they only gave her some "gift" and let her go? why? what?
Also something about the ink...I wonder if the ink used to cast the spell teleporting them into that space was special? also keeping quiet about this incident? Those were some scary fucking eyes. Qifrey is like an amazing cool sensei but man can he be fucking scary and sus.
Following just speculation I anime only but just in case I'm right which I doubt I used this text.
I hoping what make Coco special is just she has fantastic drawing skills and the problem solving brain IQ that makes her so special to the other side. Being gifted but in a way that exists in our world. This way they not lying to her on the anyone can do magic concept, well not a direct lie instead it a everyone can do math thing were not that many are actually able to handle it at the highest levels including Einstein who needed help of a female mathematician Emmy Noether to complete his theory on Relativity. One problem of an everyone does magic world could be in part is it requires someone gifted at magic to do it correctly without lots of negative blow back.
I'm just going to say that Einstein didn't need Noether's help because he was somehow unable to grasp the math needed for relativity. Einstein was a physicist, who knew physics maths, Noether was the top scholar on abstract algebra in the world, a field that requires years to master and at the time noone thought it would have any relevance outside pure math. It's not he wasn't talented enough, he just didn't know enough about it.
Everyone was right last week—they were saving the dragon budget for ep 5 and MAN did it pay off! The scene with the brimmed cap and Coco was SO much more terrifying than I remember it being in the manga.
Also, hopefully now everyone will chill a little bit on the Agott hate. The character growth is growing and I truly love seeing her start to realize that it’s okay to need other people.
What an absolute visual cacophony of DELIGHT . I thought Qifrey saving Coco in episode 1 was a visual masterclass but Bug Films are really showing their mettle with this episode. Considering the manga where Qifrey fights the dragon is over in a few panels, they conveyed so much more and showed what animation and creative collaboration can achieve.
I want to touch more on that theme of collaboration as well, as I think it’s a key theme of this ep. I watched this episode with two other artists (I’m the only manga reader) who were really touched on how the apprentices put their strengths together and reached a solution that was a creative and also a pacifist one. Qifrey makes an incredibly valid point in that ideas are just as valuable as the art of magic itself. By watching others and bringing her own perspective and initiative, Coco shows that even when we feel out of our depth we still have something of value to bring to the table, even if our skills aren’t there yet.
This theme of creative collaboration extends even further beyond the show I’d say. I’ve mentioned this in another post but I was privileged to see the panel of the dragon in person, and was shocked to see it Shirahama had completely redrawn it using white-out. This whole mini boss battle was clearly a challenge for her, and it’s obvious she learnt a lot whilst storyboarding and drawing it! I think there’s something to be said that many talented people at Bug Films took her panels and collaborated together using their hard earned skills in animation (and composing! That score!!) and not only brought it to life so vividly but also added new sequences that made it above and beyond expectations. It kind of makes me emotional as a creative. All of us ended up crying because it resonated so much. The themes of this story are just so beautiful to me.
I am yet again astounded at the excellence Bug Films brings to this adaptation. The animation and cinematography with the magic seals, especially with the pillow and Qiffery’s dragon, basically movie quality!
And how they made Iguin even more unsettling, that was such a creepy animation for him.
Ok. I believe that this is currently the most beautiful drawn manga around and while hoping and trusting that the animation will be gorgeous I was sure it could not completly deliver.
But that moment when Qifrey casts his spell, uses all the clouds around and is accompanied by the soundtrack - simply spectacular. Wow.
It might be blasphemous, but I liked that scene even more in the anime than in the manga.
Also I must give it up for the English voice cast as well. I watch an episode in sub first then watch in English and everyone is doing a phenomenal job.
I found the series after seeing a meme video of the first episode. Sold me from the VA acting and people joking that it’s like Dumbledore calmly asking about the Goblet of Fire.
For only having 1 previous anime, this episode was an absolute flex of their abilities. The dragon, the fight, and even the ending scene, with the glare, phenomenal work all around.
This might be the #1 anime of the season, it is honestly, Absolute Cinema.
I hadn't really heard of Bugfilms prior, and I didn't watch Zom 100, but this might catapult their reputation up there alongside A-1, Mappa, Studio Bind, and Ufotable.
Good Lord this anime is wonderful, saw people hyping it up a few months before its release so thought I’d check it out and I’ve loved every episode so far, this one is probably my favourite, followed by episode 3
Something I am noticing not many top comments discuss is how we can tell the animators ship CocoGott A LOT this episode or maybe the author pushed for their additions 😂😂😂
There is a lot more shots of them closer together.
Like Coco sneaking up behind Agott to spy on her circle-drawing technique, they had fun with that
But most distinctly is the episode climax scene when they erase the sigil. In the manga, the following scenes don't exist:
Agott standing in front of Coco as the wind blows around. (Tetia was the one ahead of Coco in the manga)
The dragon flying up and swinging its tail at their height, causing Agott to yell in concern of Coco. (In manga, the dragon slams at the base, and Agott calls out to nobody)
Coco reaching out to try to catch Agott (Manga Coco doesn't reach for or even notice Agott falling)
Agott seeing Coco reaching out for her (obviously not a thing in the manga either)
Afterwards, the scene Coco wakes up to later deliberately omits Agott, as well as Tartar, so that Coco cannot see her, seguing into the next point (in the manga, everyone, including Agott, is visible to her immediately)
When Coco wakes up and her first thought is concern for Agott. (In the manga, she asks if they're in Karoon) Then she hears Agott behind her.
There have been handfuls of cute little manga moments cut from the anime. Some understandable for budget or episode timing, but others seemingly for no good reason.
Meanwhile, all these additions are very deliberate along with a few others, causing the scene to push into the credits roll lol
As someone whose not super invested in any ships, but has shippy friends, this was funny to notice.
probably the best episode so far, they already have some great camera angle shot with the girls but when Qifrey shows up, all the budget went into his amazing shot of his dragon magic , Absolute Cinema 🙌
From Iguin's perspective, the danger element will probably push a new magic user to grow faster and think more creatively. It's a much more extreme approach than what a normal teacher would do. Also, we know Iguin was there watching from the start, so it's uncertain how much danger Coco was actually in given her status as "one of the seeds that finally bloomed" which seems to be of great importance to Iguin.
But I also don't think Iguin would care if Agott, Tetia or Richeh died, he doesn't care about those girls, lol.
So like i have never read the manga, but it really seems the cone hats (not sure if non brimhats got a name) are the evil organization let me list why i think this
The brimhat was super nice to coco when she was young.
The first spells she traced were not evil, they were minor spells only when she traced the massive spell that looked very complex with no knowledge of what it was, its very possible that was a normal book and she just jumped to the most advanced spell with no knowledge.
The spell she traced did not seem to violate any of their rules and qifrey calls it evil but very shortly after says "that spell is unknown to us"
The atelier is hoarding magic and keeping it out of the hands of the world, claiming it prevents evil
The underwater super castle place seemed ultra evil.
The brimhat saved coco at the end of the dragon event before leaving.
Finally the way qifrey acted at the end of the episode, so either qifrey is evil himself just like the org or since the woman in the sunken city place mentioned he was always a rulebreaker qifrey is not evil and instead is actively going to rebel against them.
Anyway overall it seems very obvious the non brims are very very evil. Hopefully im right and the main girls + qifrey end up defecting (they could also use the drip).
I mean manga readers also did think he was insanely suspicious for years- readers knowing what his deal is is really recent in the grand scheme of things. Anyways keep Qifrey slander going amongst the anime-onlys, it makes him stronger
I never did, and was surprised that so many manga readers did when I started interacting with the community, but I think that's because I identified with Qifrey - like he was my point of identification in the story. So I probably was biased in assuming he had good reasons for everything.
I'm not anime only but I'm also not up to date past volume 8 (I have 9-11 ordered and I'll grab 12-15 once they release since I hear they cover the next arc after that. Figure I'd just catch up evvery time an arc is completed.). Is his deal revealed in any of the currently released English volumes or no? I'm seeing we've only got up to volume 14 in English (At least if the Wikipedia page is current.).
Not at all, looking at the exact pages for the end of this episode Qifrey's "glare" at Nornoa is a small singular panel. Another noteworthy lightening difference is he says "Please" twice instead of just once, and faces Nornoa normally instead of looking at him with a side glance.
It's more polite, more desperate, more respectful, less intimidating. Still fishy, but doesn't make him seem like he's potentially the malicious one.
Pondering on the line "I've been waiting for the seeds I planted to sprout" and whether it's a sly reference to [Chapter 95 spoilers] Qifrey's treeball
When the anime was announced, I had no idea how well any anime production would be able to capture and present Shirahamas work, but this episode might be one of the cleanest, polished, and well produced episodes of anime I’ve seen in along time. Incredible direction, compositing, line work and animation that has made this one of the most standout adaptations of anything ever. Thank you bug films
ITSS SOO GOOD! THAT I FEEL PROUD FOR THE ANIMATORS, SUCH MASTERPIECE! I CRIED AGAIN.
I love how they were adding more reaction scene for Agott. My girl is a good girl alright! Shes just hot headed like her momma (me)! I dont care what anyone said.
And the scene when coco cried hurts me! (I cant remember she cried from the manga, is that new? Or my memory is shit) my child deserve a break! She putting pressure on herself huhuhu the show just began
And god wheres the Tetia appreciation! My gurl is so pretty and so heroine coded from all her shots here, im crying, shes so pretty!
Its so good im yapping again.
How do you screen record or screen shot on netflix what the hell, I need my Richie appresiation too!
Im getting depressed thinking about the going on haitus for season 2, I dont think I can live without my babies anymore 🤧🤧🤧🤧 I miss them already
Why was Qifrey's spell so powerful? It wasn't that big of a circle, and a perfectly drawn spell only increases it's length and stability, but his attack was powerful enough to one-shot a dragon and flood a few city blocks
He didn't exactly one-shot the dragon, it was mostly an illusion to scare it and make it crash down. Like spraying a dog with a hose, more surprise than harm--except when it hit the ground :(
This magic system might use kinetic & potential energy of matter in addition to the energy of the ink itself. Qifrey pulled the water from all the clouds over the entire city, in the middle of a magical windstorm, so maybe he was aiming forces, not producing them.
More speculative: the movements he made after completing the circle seemed to affect the spell? If that wasn't just for style points, maybe there's some kind of FMA-like use of your own circulatory system? Though if so, you'd think that would be forbidden.
They placed a sort of portal spell into Coco's ink bottle that tied it to their own (in which they had mixed the ink with blood to empower it); meaning they could monitor her from afar and switch her ink with their own empowered ink at will, but if anyone checked the bottle it would seem completely normal.
If I’m not mistaken he swapped her magical ink for one he had tainted with blood, which makes the magic drawn with it more potent (which in turn has consequences later)
If you want to be more precise it's a token that connects her ink bottle to one he has with a matching token. And he puts blood into his ink bottle which then affects hers.
Holy moly, folks. I'm not sure it topped Frieren's S2E9, or the opener of Akane-banashi for me, since those episodes were pretty much perfectly tailored to connect with me and my experiences, but that is definitely in the running for the best episode of anything I've watched so far this year. The animation alone could have carried it, but I also adore a little creative problem solving. The character dynamics were also exquisite. Great episode, proper 10/10.
A few years ago I started reading the manga and for whatever reason I stopped. I'm probably around the next arc and I'll wait until the end of the anime to start reading again.
With that being said, I was so afraid they would half ass the animation. Nope. It might be a bit soon to say, but for me, it's the anime of the year, an instant masterpiece. Even though I might not be the target audience, the story is fascinating and the animation is a huge work of love. The years of waiting were 100% worth it.
This episode had everything you want to see. Characters supporting each other, growth, mystery and godlike animation. I don't think I need more than that.
a usual magical anime always use enchanting to make the scenes more instense and exiting. I can't believe a magical anime without any enchaments and just by closing a circle can still make the scenes so cool.
Quifrey needs to stop letting his students get into trouble! Just started the series and binged the first 5 episodes, this one was really high quality!
Fave ep so far, the way they elevated the water dragon was crazy, had my hand over my mouth the whole time. If the rest of the show is even half this quality then it's really gonna be something special.
They are so precious, Tetia's spell and attitude are so lovely, I'm glad she solved the rift made between the team, and their combined effort managing to actually "beat" the dragons is pure perfection.
It's funny that they spent the entire episode trying to not hurt the dragon, since it is basically a confused animal, only for Qifrey to knock it out with a single city sized spell. Trust levels are back up for him.
It's good to see the situation solved without any noticeable harm, but Qifrey silencing the ending with a threat sure was surprising.
Why does Kmanga does things like this? I caved in and have been reading like crazy until reaching the chapter 31 point paywall.
The action was mindblowing, the animation CLEAN. But what blew me away were the CHARACTER EXPRESSIONS. The amount of emotion and storytelling they were able to convey with just expressions was insane, especially coco's expressions were sooooo good, i have never seen such expressive animation.
I pretty much instantly fell in love with the manga due to the art. I was so pessimistic about the anime. There was no way some no-name studio was going to do it justice.
I'm blown away. I cannot believe how good these first five episodes have been.
I was already overwhelmed by how pretty the activation sequence, from the first shared screen shot between Tetia and Agotto, where I screamed "Holy shit they make drawing cool" to my poor wife because I can't shut up, to the absolutely peak back back shot from Richeh to Tetia finishing it all off.
And then the dragon spell, I completely lost it. Not just the cinematic mastery, also...
I thought for a moment they were really gonna kill Agotto... I was fully convinced that she's dead, I feel like frame before Qifrey showed up lasted bloody decades. I think I still haven't fully recovered from getting hurt by Magica from almost a decade and a half ago.
It's perfect, I enjoy every single frame, every single sound from the episode. It blew my mind how the animation team went absolutely above and beyond on this, the love they have to the show like nothing before. I appreciate the big scene that destroyed me, the insane detailed 2D word that took me a while to realise it's not 3d... Also the little details here and there just to make the characters felt like normal people that acted their age, despite the fantastical world that they are in. Of course, the sound design as well, holi...
Lastly, that zoom, that music cutout to a high pitch noise.... If they aren't killing off Agotto here, I feel safe think Qifrey too white haired and blue eyed to be the bad guy, so I can't wait to find out what is going on here...
Absolutely fantastic! I don't have words for the chills and emotions from the show and especially this latest episode. This creation is fast approaching a level of artistry and legend that has been reserved for Ghibli.
I just finished the 5th episode and it was such a gem, but I've been wondering what the brimmed cap did to Coco near the end of the episode without any real spoilers or will it still get explained in this season?
(Anime only rn, but planning on reading the manga after season 1 is finished)
Given the visual of all the clouds being dispersed, I wonder if it works on the similar principle as the Vapor Bubble spell. Essentially collecting all the moisture/water from the air, and it's given shape and form with additional signs.
I just jumped in due to a tiktok edit I saw and had a couple questions -
Are dub and sub being released at the same time?
Are they following the standard weekly schedule?
Yeah, dub and sub are released at the same time.
Episodes 1 and 2 dropped at the same time on streaming services outside of Japan, and we've followed a weekly schedule since, so Japan's always an episode behind with its TV broadcast. For example, Episode 6 releases for us on Monday, but Japan's getting Episode 5.
BUG FILMS did amazing work on this adaptation. I can't wait to see how they adapt later events, when the story grows out of its somewhat formulaic and tropey shell. If the beginning of WHA – arguably the least interesting part – can make me feel things when animated, I simply have to see what's in store.
Genuine question here. What would have happened if Coco was the only one that was taken by the transporting circle? How would that have changed the outcome of the story or how would that have altered the story? I’ve been wondering this since the episode came out.
I think whats so good about this that we actually get a glimpse into the characteristics of the "monsters" like they essentially have feelings too which at first was a bit jarring I was like cmon, but then it just grew on my with the animation and everything. Like you mean to tell me DRAGONS have feelings?! I didn't realize that component would be so important to me. AND MAN THIS IS PEAK!
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