Yah, people were wondering how they planned to sustain the story now that Falin’s been rescued? Well, there’s a big ol’ Chekhov clue right on the very first page of the manga.
Wow indeed, wasn’t expecting at all this fast pace, nice!
The chapter were Laos is sucked in the painting with デルガル was chapter 12, might go and reread that one now!
That was a quick read, maybe we should have continued with two chapters/week
Glad to see that we’re jumping straight into the next arc. Sad that Farin is already separated from the group once more. For a minute I thought this was going to turn into a Yuri manga around Farin and Marcille. Very disappointed.
The beginning of the chapter was tense but then not a lot of action after that. Not really believing Laios when he says that OK they can go back, but let’s see! (and maybe Marcelle will be totally against that too when she wakes up)
Yeah not really sure what to make of all that. I found it strange to have a summary of what we just read over the past few chapters. You could basically cut everything out except the last conversation and you wouldn’t lose anything.
I don’t know that it registered strongly the first time I read the series, but this chapter is always one of my surprise favorites when revisiting it (when rereading in Japanese, or in the anime). Chilchuck’s arc over the course of the chapter (From vocally wanting to trick the others into returning to save his own skin, to being honest with them that he doesn’t want them to die) is relatively subtle but pretty huge for his character, and portraying that over essentially just a prolonged conversation with a minor side character (it does feel right somehow that he wouldn’t be able to get there on his own) is I think a good example of the series being able to focus more deeply on the characters beyond just the gourmet dungeon hijinks (though it’s certainly more exciting when it hits on both of those fronts!).
Not really a spoiler, but a reading with having perspective of the rest of the series - I would interpret Laios on the last page as sincere, and it’s a pretty big moment in terms of the party fully solidifying as an actual team as opposed to individuals who happen to be working together - both in Chilchuck managing to bring his concerns honestly, and in Laios actually listening to them.
I think for me it was already well established that Chilchuck was tsuntsun all along and actually wanted to same himself but also the others. I mean arguably it was established as early as chapter one, when he doesn’t leave the party and goes along with the suicide mission to save Farin, last seen being eaten by a dragon. He also had the opportunity to leave several times along the way and didn’t. And he helped kill the dragon when he could have fled. He complains a lot and acts aloof but I never doubted that he actually cared about the others.
I did enjoy the conversation with the minor side-character, although it seemed a bit strange for that orc to turn into a shrink when she was all “dibs on murdering these people in cold blood” 5 minutes earlier. Or for Chilchuck to act so casual around her for that matter, when it’s pretty clear that she won’t hesitate to murder him for basically any reason.
What annoyed me the most, is that she seems to speak fluently Japanese, like, how?? She’s an orc stuck in a dungeon?? And here I am, with years and years of learning behind, still struggling..!
Well established to you but not to Chilchuck.
I think he just needed a blunt, disinterested third party perspective on it before he was going to be able to drop his ingrained defense mechanisms enough to recognize for himself the obvious - that it wasn’t just his canny professionalism that’s led him to stick with these people for so long.
I also thought it was sincere although since we know that there’s some political intrigue going on up there regarding the powers used by the dark elf, I really don’t know how it’s all going to play out. Maybe the gnome guy is going to bankroll the new expedition and the old teammates will join forces?
Everything is a bit all over the place right now. That’s the inconvenient of reading one chapter per week…
By the way I liked the reveal that the orc guy from a while ago knew about the elf and that messing with the dragon was a bad idea and effectively set up Raiosたち to deal with that problem without involving him directly.
