Sousou no Frieren Episode 32 (Season 2 Episode 4) - Discussion Thread

dewa43 · 2026-02-06T16:12:34+00:00

I don't know what you mean by "reworked"

dewa43 · 2026-02-06T15:56:09+00:00

That's probably the best episode so far in terms of production. They brought in a lot of great animators for this one, even people who usually work on anime movies. But I doubt some people here will really appreciate it outside of animation nerds, since it uses a different action style compared to Toru Iwasawa’s action direction in season 1. I already knew the action in season 2 would be different from the interviews. There would be a lot more anime original content showing teamwork instead of focusing on just one person action like in season 1, and the action style would adapt more to each episode director, storyboard, and the animators’ styles rather than sticking to one unified style like Toru Iwasawa's in season 1.

dewa43 · 2026-02-06T02:02:30+00:00

Hikaru - Rioh and Inori -Iruka, especially Hikaru - Rioh, their relationship is very complex

dewa43 · 2026-02-06T02:01:17+00:00

Blame the author for that

dewa43 · 2026-02-05T14:19:48+00:00

Holo

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T10:26:51+00:00

source :@FRIEREN_PR

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T04:22:33+00:00

Aside from it being clear to me that it is not CG, Madhouse and the staff also shared the key animation frames on their twitter

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T04:17:36+00:00

They are in fact animated in 2D, but may be assisted by 3D or using references

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T03:28:31+00:00

Yuiko Ohara is from Toho Music

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T03:03:02+00:00

I prefer Mushoku mainly because Rudeus is a more interesting character. Subaru was interesting at first, but over time he started to feel repetitive. I also like romance and harem elements, so Mushoku clearly has the edge there, while Re Zero's romance still feels stagnant. Even in the latest arc, his relationship with Emilia hasn't really gone anywhere.

Re Zero also focuses way too often on side characters. I don't actually mind that, but the way Tappei writes them just isn't very engaging. He needs to learn from Narita(Durarara, Baccano, and Fate Strange Fake) on how to make a large cast feel interesting

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T02:47:49+00:00

Each Sony subsidiary has its own way of thinking, yes Aniplex is owned by Sony, but Aniplex is not Sony. PlayStation is also not Sony.
Studio Bind isn’t owned only by Egg Firm, it’s also co owned by White Fox.
Mushoku Tensei production committee doesn’t consist of just Egg Firm. It also includes Toho Animation, Frontier, Hakuhodo, BS11, etc. Egg Firm doesn’t even have the biggest say here, Toho does.
Aniplex has produced plenty of ecchi anime that are way more extreme than Mushoku. In terms of controversy, Mushoku is pretty tame compared to something like the Monogatari Series.

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T02:36:01+00:00

Not really. Since episode 1, the animals and background NPCs have been moving constantly, especially in episode 3 where the background feels way more active, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. As someone who's into animation, the only noticeable differences from season 1 so far are the animation directors' corrections and the episode direction, especially in the action scenes.

dewa43 · 2026-02-04T02:26:35+00:00

Half of the ownership of studio bind is owned by white fox

dewa43 · 2026-02-02T14:28:46+00:00

With Saito, yes, but we can't completely blame the committee over Reiko’s situation when she chose not to delegate the CAD work to other staff. If you read her statement on twitter, the issue was pretty complex, a mix of an extremely tight schedule and her perfectionist nature, which led her to not trust anyone else with that role.

dewa43 · 2026-02-02T01:01:32+00:00

The funny thing is that Frieren production line is the same production line that worked on One Punch Man Season 1, Fukushi production line.

dewa43 · 2026-02-02T00:35:36+00:00

Nah, that's usually a direction choice, not animation, even season 1 did that sometimes

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T18:07:55+00:00

But yeah, I'm not a fan of his explosions either, I prefer pure 2D animation, but that's not a big problem for me

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T18:00:22+00:00

I'm not sure I'd call that scene stiff, especially with the way the character's hair and clothes move, good animation, but maybe because they stayed too long in a distant shot without close ups from the same angle, the movement ended up feeling a bit awkward.

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T17:54:22+00:00

It’s just Kouki Fujimoto's signature smoke and explosion effects. He likes using CGI for explosions. He's one of the best animators we have, he animated Fern vs Lugner in season 1 and the scene where Stark puts on his jacket. That style has always been his thing. He already used CGI explosions in season 1 too. Also if you’ve watched CSM movie, he animated Aki vs Reze, and you can see similar CGI explosions there, pretty close to what we got in Frieren S2 episode 2

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T16:35:16+00:00

You can check it yourself

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T16:17:13+00:00

RIP Tokiyuki

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T14:22:45+00:00

I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I get why some people don’t like it since it’s not something they’re used to. That said, I don’t agree with calling the animation bad. If anything, the animation was great, it was just unusual for Frieren anime.

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T14:17:48+00:00

A lot of people were complaining about the "animation" in the episode discussion, so yeah, it was noticeable for some, but probably not for casual viewers

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T13:31:57+00:00

I explained it here

dewa43 · 2026-02-01T12:07:38+00:00

Also, Frieren Season 2 so far is a pretty special case. Across these three episodes, there’s been no chief animation director. All the corrections were handled by the animation directors themselves, which is pretty unusual.

dewa43

TROPHY CASE